Bluebook Guide: Resources

• Interactive Citation Workstation (Lexis)
• Citation Exercises (WestLaw)
• Citation Form for Briefs and Legal Memoranda (CALI)

• The Bluebook:  A Uniform System of Citation (Columbia L. Rev. Ass’n et al. eds., 21st ed. 2020). 
• Larry L. Teply, Legal Citation in a Nutshell (3d ed., 2021).
• Introduction to Basic Legal Citation from Cornell University Law School’s Legal Information Institute.
• Noteworthy Changes to the 2021 Printing of The Bluebook.
• Citing and Accessing U.S. Law - Occasional observations concerning the citation of and access to U.S. legal texts.
• Michael B. Hyman, Embracing Style, 112 ILL. B.J. 42 (2024).  A quick and useful overview of the Style Manual for the Supreme and Appellate Courts of Illinois by Justice Michael B. Hyman, Illinois Appellate Court, First District.  Available via WestLaw.
• The Seventh Circuit's Practitioner's Handbook for Appeals (2020 ed.) should be reviewed, as urged by Judge Frank Easterbrook in AsymaDesign, LLC v. CBL & Assoc. Mgmt., Inc., 103 F.4th 1257, 1259-60 (7th Cir. 2024).  Available via WestLaw and Lexis.

Judge Posner had some interesting things to say about The Bluebook.  For example, he said the following in an ABA Journal article.  "The first thing to do, is burn all copies of the Bluebook."  Debra Cassens Weiss, Posner says Bluebook is '560 pages of rubbish,' suggests changes to improve jury trials, ABA Journal (Mar. 29, 2016).  Link

• It is an homage to a line by Shakespeare:  “The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.”  William Shakespeare, Henry VI, act IV, Part II, sc. 2, l. 73.
• The 20th edition of The Bluebook was 560 pages with 183 pages covering Foreign Jurisdictions in Table 2.

See Richard A. Posner, Goodbye to the Bluebook, 53 U. Chi. L. Rev. 1343 (1986).  Link

See also Victor Feraru, Jargon, Legalese and The Bluebook: My Conversation With Judge Richard A. Posner, HuffPost (Dec. 30, 2016).  Link