Introduction to Basic Legal Citation - access-to-law home

ecommended. The word "but" is omitted from the signal when it follows
another negative signal «e.g.».
(d) Signals that indicate background material.
• See generally
o Authority presents useful background. Parenthetical explanations of the source
materials' relevance are encouraged «e.g.».
(e) Combining a signal with "e.g."
• E.g.,
o In addition to the cited authority, there are numerous others that state, support,
or contradict the proposition (with the other signal indicating which) but
citation to them would not be helpful or necessary. The preceding signal is
separated from "e.g." by a comma «e.g.».
§ 6-400. Order
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Sometimes multiple citations or "strings" are necessary.
Principle 1: When a series of citations includes material grouped after more than one signal,
the signals should appear in the order in which they are listed in § 6-300.
Principle 2: Section 6-300 breaks signals (and their references) into four different "types": (a)
supportive; (b) comparative; (c) contradictory; and (d) background. Signals of the same type
must be strung together within a single citation sentence and separated by semicolons.
According to The Bluebook signals of different types should be grouped in different citation
sentences. In other words, a period should end the string of authorities indicating support, and
any authorities in contradiction, preceded by the appropriate signal, should follow in a
separate citation sentence. The ALWD Citation Manual allows all to be contained in a single
sentence with only a semicolon separating the four different categories and their signals.
Principle 3: When more than one citation is preceded by the same signal, the citations are
grouped by type in the following order:
• constitutions (U.S. first, followed by states in alphabetical order*)
• statutes (U.S. first, followed by states in alphabetical order*)
• cases (U.S. first, followed by states in alphabetical order* and grouped within each
jurisdiction by court in descending order, with decisions of a single court** arranged
chronologically, most recent first)
• regulations (U.S. first, followed by states in alphabetical order*)
• books (arranged alphabetically by last name of author)
• journal articles (arranged alphabetically by last name of author)
* If the writing concerns the law of a particular state, citations to the constitution, statutes,
cases, and regulations of that state should, however, precede the rest.
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