Legislative History: Legal Citations

The APA style of citing legal materials in the References list and in-text is based on The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (21st ed.). (2020). Cambridge, MA: Harvard Law Review Association.

• However, when using APA style, there are some variations from The Bluebook.
   
• These rules only apply to legal documents and not to law journal articles or law books.  Journal articles and books follow the regular APA Style Manual, 7th Ed. rules.

A good guide to legal citations by Dr. Peter W. Martin can be found on the Cornell Law Library website, Introduction to Basic Legal Citation. The Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) recommends this site.

NoodleTools is a citation composer that the library subscribes to.  It will create APA style citations for both legal documents and other sources, such as law journals, books, and websites.

It will generate citations based on The Bluebook for the following legal resources:

• Court cases
• Federal or State Bill or Resolution
• Federal or State Report or Document
• Federal or State Committee Hearing
• Federal Rule or Regulation
• Presidential Paper or Executive Order
• Statue
• U.S. Patent

NoodleTools can be accesssed from the left menu of the library homepage. In order to use NoodleTools from off campus, you must login using the login screen in the middle of the library homepage. If you have not already done so, create a personal NoodleTools ID. Consult the NoodleTools page of the Citing Sources LibGuide for complete directions on using NoodleTools.