THE INDIGO BOOK - Public.Resource.Org

1 THE INDTHE INDIIGO BOOGO BOOKKAn Open and Compatible Implementation ofA Uniform System of CitationNOT AFFILIATED WITH OR AUTHORIZED BYTHE BLUEBOOK A UNIFORM SYSTEM OF CITATION ManifestStatusThis document is in beta release and was last modified on May 2, 2016. Errors andomissions may be sent and LicenseThis file was published by , Inc., ( Public Resource ) aCalifornia nonprofit corporation registered under 501(c)(3). Contactinformation for Public Resource is Resource does not charge for or restrict access to any materials we document is published under aCC-0 public domain dedication No RightsReserved and we waive all copyright and related rights in this ArtThe cover art is courtesy of the Library of CongressDigital File LC-DIG-ppmsca-38347.

2 The item is a WPA poster design on blue background created aspart of the Federal Art Project between 1936 and 1941. There are no knownrestrictions on publication of this of NonaffiliationNOT AUTHORIZED BY NOR IN ANY WAY AFFILIATED WITH:TheColumbia Law Review Association, Inc., The Harvard Law Review Association, theUniversity of Pennsylvania Law Review, The Yale Law Journal Company, Inc., orThe Bluebook A Uniform System of Citation .AttributionCite as: Sprigman et al.,The INDIGO book : A Manual of Legal Citation, PublicResource (2016).FormatsThis document is available INDIGO BookPage 2 Table of ContentsManifestStatusPublisher and LicenseCover ArtStatement of Types of Legal for Supporting for for Contradictory for Background of Authorities Within Each Signal / Strength of & of Authority and Explanatory of the Form Citation for , RULES, REGULATIONS, AND OTHER LEGISLATIVE &ADMINISTRATIVE of Procedure and Evidence, Restatements, and Uniform ActsThe INDIGO BookPage Rules and Taxation Form Citation of Legislative and Administrative and Authorities.

3 & LITIGATION Court or Litigation Documents from Your Court or Litigation Documents from Another Form Citation for Court Within the Text of Court Documents and & Citation for Books & Form Citation for Books & , MAGAZINES, & NEWSPAPER Citation for Journals, Magazines & Newspaper Form Citation for Journals, Magazines & Newspaper Principles for Internet Formula for Internet Form Citations for Internet Principles for Explanatory of Principles for of in Rules for Block Judicial and Legislative Administrative and Legislative MaterialsThe INDIGO BookPage States and Other Abbreviations for Publisher Abbreviations for Legislative Abbreviations for Treaty Abbreviations for Arbitral Abbreviations for Intergovernmental Nations and League of and International Intergovernmental Abbreviations for Court Abbreviations for Titles of Judges and Abbreviations for Case Names In Abbreviations for Geographical States.

4 Cities and States and Canadian Provinces and and Abbreviations for Document Abbreviations for Explanatory Abbreviations for Abbreviations for Publishing Abbreviations for Month Abbreviations for Common Words Used In of Citation of INDIGO BookPage 5 ForewordIn 2011, Frank Bennett, a law professor at Nagoya University in Japan, wrote to meabout open source software he was developing that he now maintains under thename ofJuris-M. Professor Bennett s work is an extended variant of an amazinglyuseful tool calledZoterothat is created by developers around the world who wantto support scholars in their efforts to organize, cite, and share research sources. Frank added features to Zotero that support legal Bennett was two years into work on his project when he contacted theHarvard Law Review Association concerning the use, in electronic form, ofcommon abbreviations for sources as specified inThe Bluebook.

5 He wasrepeatedly rebuffed with stern keep off the grass warnings. I examined thoseabbreviations, and they are clearly facts that could only be expressed in one only are these abbreviations devoid of creativity, they are required by manylegal jurisdictions in the United States before one can plead a case of law beforejudges. So, I posted those abbreviations on my web site, and promptly receivedmy own keep off the grass missive from an outside law firm hired by theHarvard Law is important to understand, when we are talking aboutThe Bluebook, A UniformSystem of Citation, that we are talking about two different things. There is aproduct, a spiral-bound booklet that sells for $ , which is accompanied by arudimentary web site available to purchasers of the that product, however, is something much more basic andfundamental, a uniform system of citation.

6 Unpaid volunteers from a dozen lawschools, under the stewardship of four nonprofit student-run law reviews, havelabored mightily to reach a consensus standard for the citation of legal open consensus standard was developed, with no compensation to theauthors, for the greater benefit of the legal system of the United States. By clearlyand precisely referring to primary legal materials, we are able to communicateour legal reasoning to others, including pleading a case in the courts, advocatingchanges in legal policy in our legislatures or law reviews, or simplycommunicating the law to our fellow citizens so that we may be better do not begrudge the Harvard Law Review Association one penny of therevenue from the sale of their spiral-bound book dressed in blue .

7 However, wemust not confuse the book with the system. There can be no proprietary claimover knowledge and facts, and there is no intellectual property right in the systemThe INDIGO BookPage 6and method of our legal machinery. The infrastructure of our legal system is apublic utility, and belongs to all of Harvard professor Lawrence Lessig has famously stated, code is law. Thesystem of citation is code, an algorithm consisting of rules and a set ofenumerations of text strings and their proper abbreviations. This is code thinking ofThe Bluebook, I have been reminded of Big blue , the IBMcorporation. IBM made a fortune selling Genuine IBM personal computers, butthis did not prevent others from making clones that were able to exercise theinstructions in the underlying chipset.

8 When technology changed the nature ofthe computer industry, IBM did not spend its days trying to defend an outdatedmode of operation and instead moved up the food chain. The company hasgrown and prospered because of the computing revolution and the Internetinstead of trying to preserve an outdated position of economic power that couldnot , I wish the Harvard Law Review Association and their three companionlaw reviews the best in continuing to sell their Genuine blue spiral-bound bookand any associated on-line services. However, that cannot mean prohibiting anopen source developer from using common abbreviations, and it certainly doesnot imply any ownership or control over how, in our democracy, wecommunicate the law with our fellow citizens.

9 I hope you will enjoyThe IndigoBook: A Manual of Legal Citationand that you will join me in extending mycongratulations to Professor Sprigman and his students on the excellent job theyhave performed in re-coding those INDIGO BookPage 7 IntroductionWelcome toThe INDIGO book a free, Creative Commons-dedicatedimplementation ofThe Bluebook s Uniform System of INDIGO Bookwascompiled by a team of students at the New York University School of Law,working under the direction of Professor Christopher Jon INDIGO Bookisn t the same asThe Bluebook, but it does implement the sameUniform System of Citation thatThe Bluebookdoes. The scope ofThe INDIGO book scoverage is roughly equivalent toThe Bluebook s Bluepages that is,The IndigoBookcovers legal citation for legal materials, as well as books, periodicals, andInternet and other electronic resources.

10 In addition,The INDIGO Bookoffers citationguidance that is deeper thanThe Bluebook s Bluepages for example,The IndigoBookhas citation guidance for bills, and for legislative history, that the Bluepageslack. For the materials that it covers, anyone usingThe INDIGO Bookwill producebriefs, memoranda, law review articles, and other legal documents with citationsthat are compatible with the Uniform System of thatThe INDIGO book s scope does not extend to (now virtually unused) loose-leaf reporters, nor to foreign legal materials or the publications of internationalorganizations like the United Nations. Most American lawyers cite these materialsonly rarely, and providing citation rules for the enormous number ofinternational jurisdictions is part of what makesThe Bluebookas unwieldy as it INDIGO Bookoffers a couple of important advantages to users, compared withThe Bluebook.