Skip to Main Content
university logo

POLS 4450 -JUDICIAL BEHAVIOR

Reading Legal Citation

What is a citation?

Citations to legal materials follow a standard format which makes it possible for anyone to find cited cases, statutes, regulations, and law review articles.

Most legal citations consist of three basic partsL

1. the name of the case, statute, or article

2. a statement of where the item can be found in a multi-volume set of legal materials written as:

volume number               name of publication (or set)               page number

 

A complete case citation looks like this:

United States Supreme Court

Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483, 490 (1954).

 

Cal State LA University Library
California State University, Los Angeles
5151 State University Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90032-8300
323-343-3988