Citations; manner of citation; constitutions, statutes, and treaties.

• Jurisdiction: United States

Section 74. Citations; manner of citation; constitutions, statutes, and treaties.— (a) Constitutions. Include Article and Section in the citation, and add the clause if necessary: e.g., U. S. Const., Art. I, Sec. 8, Cl. 14. The Amendments may be identified either with the number spelled out or in Roman numerals: Fifth Amendment, XIV Amendment. Capitalization is in order; I do not quarrel with the standard of capitalizing less rather than more, but fail to understand why the law review lads insist on writing "sixth amendment" in lower case when they consistently capitalize some prepositions, as, e.g., Letter From Madison to Jefferson; Treaty With Iran on Commerce and Navigation. Apart from the circumstance that the latter usage violates a fairly universally recognized convention, the former runs contrary to the practice of the Supreme Court, which invariably uses capitals in speaking of the amendments—First Amendment, Tenth Amendment, etc.

When citing State constitutions in Federal briefs, give the date unless the particular State has had only a single one since its admission, or unless the court in which you are appearing can be in no possible doubt as to your reference.

(b) Federal statutes. Remember (see Section 37 (c), above) that the United States Code is not positive law except as to those titles that have been specifically so enacted. Consequently, when citing a Federal statute prior to 1957, in a situation where full reference thereto is necessary, give date, chapter number, Stat, citation, and U.S.C. citation: e.g., Sec. 2 of the Act of July 9, 1956, c. 525, 70 Stat. 510, 39 U.S.C. § 902 (g). This full form is required by the rules of some courts.⁹¹ Where the statute in question contains a built-in short title (as distinguished from a mere "popular name"), it is generally permissible, certainly after the original citation, to use only the official short title plus the U.S.C. citation: e.g., Sec. 204 of the War Orphans' Educational Assistance Act of 1956, 38 U.S.C. § 1054.

Beginning with the 85th Congress and vol. 71 Stat., chapter numbers were dropped. Admittedly this innovation has a number of advantages.⁹² I may be pardoned, however, if I consider it highhanded to change, without any statutory sanction whatever, a system that had been in effect for 168 years, since the beginning of the Republic—and in direct line of descent from the method of numbering English statutes, used for many centuries before.⁹³

At any rate, Federal statutes after 1956...