Citations; manner of citation; in general.

• Jurisdiction: United States

Section 71. Citations; manner of citation; in general.—Legal citations are abbreviations designed to identify the location, the source, and hence prima facie the weight, of the authorities relied upon by the brief-writer. Citations must be short enough to save the reader's time, and yet long enough to preclude the slightest possibility of confusion by reason of over-compression. Like any other kind of abbreviation constantly in use, legal citations reflect the conventions and usages of the profession that employs them. Consequently, while in many instances there is a wide range of variant citation forms that are equally correct and hence equally acceptable, in other instances there is a sharp, clear line between correct and incorrect usage, a line that sets off the well-educated lawyer who is steeped in the traditions of a learned profession from his less privileged brethren to whom the practice of law is simply a more or less remunerative trade.

Like all professional conventions, fashions in citation forms change with the times. It was formerly customary to insert a comma between the volume and the page of the report being cited, as for instance, "10 Modern, 138."⁴⁸ Similarly, when the Federal Reporter was first published, it was only partially abbreviated; the usual...