Citation of Federal Law in the United States

State Law Citation introduction

The citation formats differ between federal law and state law, and from state to state. See citing federal statutes here.

How to Cite Federal Statutes

How to Cite Federal Statutes in Bluebook

The Bluebook tables for citing State Courts and Laws, including ctation conventions for cases from the supreme court, appeals court, trial court; and statutory and administrative compilations for all U.S. states and territories, are the Table 1.3 & Table 1.4 (pp. 229-277).

To cite to a state code using the Bluebook, refer to the Table 1 entry for that state’s “statutory compilations.” This table provides the citation format for that particular set. The Bluebook guidelines for each state are slightly different.

The Bluebook requires to add the abbreviation “Ann.” when the set’s name includes the word “annotated” (like the USCA in federal law).

(State) Michigan Law Citation

The (state) Michigan uniform (system) of law citation provides a comprehensive scheme for citation of authority in documents filed with or issued by Michigan courts (used in decisions of the state’s own courts and submissions to them).

In the case of compiled Laws, the user should cite the official compilations of 1948, 1970, and 1979 of the Michigan Compiled Laws. (N.B.: Michigan Compiled Laws Annotated [MCLA] and Michigan Compiled Laws Service [MCLS] have the same numbering system.). Examples:1948 CL 566.140 1970 CL 35.291.

When citing, the user should use MCL for the current (1979) compilation, not MCLA or MCLS, e.g., MCL 776.20. Inclusion of the public act number is optional. If used, the form is: 1937 PA 286, MCL 487.703. Subsequent references in the same opinion may be shortened as follows:
§3, or Act 286, §3.

State Law Citation: APA

APA Style for citing legal citations is based on The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (18th ed., 2005; www.legalbluebook.com); more info can be found in the . An example would be:
Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 8, § 4089e (1998).

However, guidelines for references to legal materials can also be found on the Publication Manual of the APA Appendix 7.1: References to Legal Materials (pp. 216–224).The following sample reference to a statute in a state code and its explanation can be found on page 220 of the Publication Manual:

• Mental Care and Treatment Act, 4 Kan. Stat. Ann.§§ 59-2901-2941 (1983 & Supp. 1992).
• “Explanation: This Kansas act can be found in codified version between sections 2901 and 2941 in Chapter 59 of volume 4 of the 1983 edition of Kansas Statutes Annotated. Two amendments to the act and additional references are provided in the 1992 supplement for the Kansas Statutes Annotated.”

Tax Citation

A helpful citation manual is “TaxCite: A Federal Tax Citation and Reference Manual” (Washington, DC: American Bar Association Section on Taxation, 1995) Reference KF 245.T39. This citation manual has detailed citation forms for tax documents, a “Practitioner’s Guide” for Tax Court briefs, and useful lists including abbreviations for tax serials, countries with which the United States has treaties, and full citations for tax legislation referred to by a popular name. This citation manual may be used as a supplement to other citation books, like “The Bluebook: Uniform System of Citation”.

State Statutes Topics A-Z

An example of State Statutes topics arranged by letters:
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | W | X | Y | Z