BLUEBOOK 20th EDITION CITATION FORMAT

GENERAL RULES

• Times New Roman, Size 10 with 1.5 Line Spacing and justified.
• Add full stop after every footnote.
• Months should be written in abbreviated forms. Example: Jan., Feb., Mar. etc.

BOOKS

1. Multi-Volume Works
• Volume No Name of the Author(s), Title Page No. (Edition Name of the
Editor, Year of Publication).
o 21 Charles Alan Wright & Arthur R. Miller, Federal Practical & Procedure
221 (3rd ed. 2015).
2. Multi-Edition Books
• Name of the Author(s), Title Page No. (Edition, Publisher Year of Publishing)
(Year of First Published)
o Charles Dicken, Bleak House 49-55 (Norman Page ed., Penguin Books
1971) (1853).
3. Single-Edition Books
• Name of the Author, Title Page No (Year)

Short Form

4. Author’s last name, supra, page no.

o Bentham, supra, 105

Rules & Exceptions

• Follow the font format as has been illustrated above.
• The First name must always be written before the surname.
• For two authors, write both their name separated by “&”.
• Do not add “p” or “pp” before the page number. Just write the numerical.

PERIODICAL MATERIALS

1. Consecutively Paginated Journals

• Name of the Author(s), Title, Journal Vol. No. and Name of the Journal in
abbreviated forms and First Page Number, Page number cited (year).

o David Rudouvsky, Police Abuse, 27 Harv. C.R.-C.L.L Rev. 465, 500

(1992)
2. Non-consecutively paginated Journals
• Name of the Author(s), Title, Name of the Journal in abbreviated forms., Date
of issue, First Page Number, Page number cited
o Barbara Ward, Progress for a Small Planet, Harv. Bus. Rev., Sept.-Oct.
1979, at 89, 90.
3. Newspapers
• Author’s name, Name of Article, Name of the Journal in abbreviated forms,
Month Date, Year, at pg. no.
o Andrew Roseenthal, White House Tutors Kremlin in How a Presidency
Words, N.Y. Times, June 15, 1990, at 19.

INTERNET

1. Name of the Author(s), Title, Name of the Domain (Month Date, Year, Time),
URL.
• Eric Posner, More on Section 7 of the Torture Convention, The Volokh
Conspiracy (Jan. 29, 2009, 10:04 AM),
http://www.volokh.com/posts/1233241458.html.

Rules & Exceptions

• Format for time as illustrated.
• Don’t write available at or at before the URL.
• Write the entire URL as appears in the address bar of the browser, remove
hyperlink.

CASES

1. Indian Cases
• Case name, (year of reporter) Vol. No. Reporter Abbreviation, First page (year
of decision if different from year of reporter.
o Charan Lal Sahu v. Union Carbide, (1989) 1 SCC 674.
Or
o Jabalpur v. Shukla, A.I.R. 1976 S.C. 1207.

2. U.S Cases
• First Party v. Second Party, Reporter Vol. No., Reporter Abbrv., First Page of
Case, Specific Page Reference (Year).
o Meritor Sav. Bank v. Vinson, 477 U.S. 57, 60 (1986).
o Burwell v. Hobby Stores Inc., 134 S. Ct. 2754, 2782 (2014)

Rules & Exceptions

• Do not italicise the case name.
• If there are more than one parties, list only the first party.
• Italicise the procedural phrases, for e.g., In re, Ex parte etc.
 STATUTES

1. INDIA

• Constitution
o INDIA CONST. art. 1, cl. 2.
• Indian Laws
o Act name, Act No., Acts of Parliament, Year of Volume

2. USA

• U.S. CONST. amend. XIV, § 2

SHORT CITATION FORMS

1. Supra

• Supra (Latin: above) is used to refer to a prior footnote.

• If a different page number is to be indicated in a source referred to in a prior
footnote
o E.g. Supra note 5 at 34.

2. Ibid./ Id.

• Ibid. (meaning in the same place) is used to refer to an authority in the

footnote immediately preceding the current footnote and the same page/ place
is being referred to.
• Id. (meaning the same) is used if the authority is the same but the page or
place of reference is different.
o E.g. Id. at 30.

Rules & Exceptions

• “Supra” and “Ibid/Id.” are used to refer to authorities previously cited, but you
may NOT use them to refer to cases, statutes, constitutions, legislative
materials etc. They may be used for books, pamphlets, reports, periodicals,
non-print materials, regulations etc