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Chicago Citation Style Guide

A quick guide to Chicago-style citations

Citing Legal & Government Materials in Chicago Style

Almost all legal work uses notes for documentation and few use bibliographies. The examples in this section, based on the recommendations in The Bluebook, are accordingly given in note form only. Any work so cited need not be listed in a bibliography.

Works using the author-date style (chapter 15) and citing only a handful of legal and public documents may limit those citations to the text, using citation sentences and clauses that include the same information as footnotes, as suggested in The Bluebook; those with more than a very few legal-style citations, however, may need to supplement the author-date system with footnotes or endnotes.

Public Documents (Online)

Note:

Note #. Name of Government & Issuing Agency, Title of Publication, Author(s) First-name Last-name. Publication/Report Number, Place of Publication: Publisher, Year. Medium, URL (Accessed Date)

Example:

3. U.S. National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, 9/11 Commission Report: The Official Report of the 9/11 Commission and Related Publications, by Thomas H. Kean and Lee Hamilton, Mouse over help for SuDoc Class Number says The SuDoc class number from the U.S. Superintendent of Documents which classifies Government publications by publishing agency. Search field operator example is sudocclass:"AE 2.7:".Y 3.2:T 27/2/FINAL, Washington, D.C.: GPO, 2004, http://www.gpoaccess.gov/911/index.html (accessed May 6, 2006).

Short Note:

Note #. Name of Issuing Agency, Title of Publication.

Example:

7. National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, 9/11 Commission Report.

Bibliography Entry:

Name of Government & Issuing Agency. Title of Publication. Author(s) First-name Last-name. Publication/Report Number. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year. Medium, URL (Accessed Date)

Example:

U.S. National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States. 9/11 Commission Report: The Official Report of the 9/11 Commission and Related Publications. by Thomas H. Kean and Lee Hamilton. Mouse over help for SuDoc Class Number says The SuDoc class number from the U.S. Superintendent of Documents which classifies Government publications by publishing agency. Search field operator example is sudocclass:"AE 2.7:".Y 3.2:T 27/2/FINAL. Washington, D.C.: GPO, 2004, http://www.gpoaccess.gov/911/index.html (accessed May 6, 2006).

Public Documents (Print)

Note:

Note #. Name of Government & Issuing Agency, Title of Publication, Author(s) First-name Last-name. Publication/Report Number, Place of Publication: Publisher, Year.

Example:

3. U.S. National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States. 9/11 Commission Report: The Official Report of the 9/11 Commission and Related Publications, by Thomas H. Kean and Lee Hamilton, Mouse over help for SuDoc Class Number says The SuDoc class number from the U.S. Superintendent of Documents which classifies Government publications by publishing agency. Search field operator example is sudocclass:"AE 2.7:".Y 3.2:T 27/2/FINAL, Washington, D.C.: GPO, 2004.

Short Note:

Note #. Name of Issuing Agency, Title of Publication.

Example:

7. National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, 9/11 Commission Report.

Bibliography Entry:

Name of Government & Issuing Agency. Title of Publication. Author(s) First-name Last-name. Publication/Report Number. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year.

Example:

U.S. National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States. 9/11 Commission Report: The Official Report of the 9/11 Commission and Related Publications, by Thomas H. Kean and Lee Hamilton, Mouse over help for SuDoc Class Number says The SuDoc class number from the U.S. Superintendent of Documents which classifies Government publications by publishing agency. Search field operator example is sudocclass:"AE 2.7:".Y 3.2:T 27/2/FINAL, Washington, D.C.: GPO, 2004.