Bluebook, a.k.a. the fictionally uniform legal citation text of sadness

The Washington Post published an article discussing Judge Richard Posner's criticism of the Bluebook, which - for those of you who have not attended law school and therefore likely do not know - is a collection of uniform rules for academic and professional legal citations.

“The first thing to do,” Posner writes, “is burn all copies of the Bluebook, in its latest edition 560 pages of rubbish, a terrible time waster for law clerks employed by judges who insist, as many do, that the citations in their opinions conform to the Bluebook.”

Law students everywhere agree that the Bluebook is a frustrating mess of stupid pointless rules that are difficult to learn and occupy an inordinate amount of class time in their legal writing courses. Yet, law schools continue to teach from it presumably because there is no clear alternative method of teaching students how to properly do cites.

I take a rather controversial position amongst law grads: the pro-Bluebook position.

It's easy for experienced attorneys and jurists like Judge Posner to say that legal citations are easy and don't need to be so complicated. And sure, a five page list of basic guidelines may serve to sufficiently educate attorneys who already know how to cite effectively under a more complicated regime. But most students go into law school with minimal familiarity with technical writing. I can attest from personal experience as an instructor and recently former student myself that a surprising number of first or second year students, absent learning from the Bluebook, will just copy and paste a URL and consider that "good 'nough."

That is not good enough, fyi.

It may seem a bit overly complex. I mean, 560 pages? But that number is misleading. Most legal citation rules pertinent to practicing attorneys can be found in the first couple dozen pages, known as the "blue pages." The bulk of the book consists of complex rules for particular circumstances most useful for academics, referred to as the "white pages." A couple dozen pages is not unreasonable, especially when the text explains in much clearer detail how to format various kinds of citations than Judge Posner's five page guide. The blue pages are designed for academics, and are not relevant to a criticism of the Bluebook's complexity from a practicing perspective.

The Bluebook also serves an important teaching function. It teaches prospective attorneys attention to detail, an important trait for legal professionals to possess. Evaluating large complex drafts for adherence to a strict and even more complex rule system sounds like exactly what an attorney does for a living, and that is precisely what Bluebooking teaches law students to do.

How many times have law students asked themselves "is that comma italicized?" Probably more than a few. But how many judges have discounted or undervalued arguments due to poorly drafted briefs and grammatical errors? Probably more than a few.

The system of citing to sources within the legal profession is far more complex than in other disciplines, but similarly, the legal profession plays a radically different role than other academic disciplines. Effective use of time spent validating cited sources is far more important for judges reviewing thousands of cases than for a sociologist or other academic trying to make sure folks can find the sources she might rely upon. Fundamental rights like property, freedom, or even life are regularly placed in the balance for legal professionals, something not often the case for, say, geology professors.

So back off the Bluebook. It may seem unnecessary and overly complicated, and learning it is undeniably painful. But as they say - no pain, no gain.