International Environmental Law: Bluebooking Treaties

Treaties are cited according to Rule 21.4 of the Bluebook:  A uniform system of citation.  Two highly effective shortcuts to citing treaties are provided here along with basic templates you can use to put your treaties in good citation form.

There are literally thousands of international agreements concluded at the bilateral or multilateral level.  You may not find a clean rule from the Bluebook that governs proper citation form.  In this case, try to advance the principles of citation used for all sources: provide enough information so that a reader can easily track down a copy of the resource.  Along these lines, be consistent with the type of information required by the Bluebook in Rule 21.

Tip 1:  Law Librarian Mary Rumsey has Bluebooked over 80 treaties in her libguide Frequently-Cited Treaties & Other International Instruments.  Check her web guide for guidance.

Tip 2: Run a keyword search using the title of your international agreement in a full text law journal database.  Law journals have teams of students ensuring citations are in proper Bluebook form.  Review several entries in journals that specifically focus on international legal topics, compare them to the requirements of Rule 21 trying to retain some consistency with the published works.  Since the Bluebook is published Harvard, Stamford, Penn State, and Columbia, using the journals from those schools would, undoubtedly, be a good idea.