Update: Also check out my modest proposal to wean law review editors off the Bluebook.
Over the last 85 years, over 19 editions, the Uniform System of Citations, commonly known as the Bluebook, has increased from 28 pages to 511 pages.
- 1st Edition (1926): 28 pages
- 2nd Edition (1928): 42 pages
- 3rd Edition (1931): 42 pages
- 4th Edition (1934): 52 pages
- 5th Edition (1936): 52 pages
- 6th Edition (1939): 54 pages
- 7th Edition (1947): 67 pages
- 8th Edition (1949): 87 pages
- 9th Edition (1950): 100 pages
- 10th Edition (1959): 131 pages
- 11th Edition (1967): 126 pages
- 12th Edition (1976): 204 pages
- 13th Edition (1981): 254 pages
- 14th Edition: (1986): 272 pages
- 15th Edition (1991): 366 pages
- 16th Edition (1996): 389 pages
- 17th Edition (2000): 391 pages
- 18th Edition (2005): 415 pages
- 19th Edition (2010): 511 pages
What is the marginal utility of increasing the length of a citation manual by over 500 pages? Sure, I’m certain there are new sources that did not exist in the 1920s–namely electronic sources, certain international doctrines, hell a number of states did not exist in 1926–but 500 additional pages? Judge Posner is right: the Bluebook is an absolute travesty.
And if you notice, I did not write the citations to the Bluebooks in the proper format, yet, somehow, you knew what I was talking about. Shocker.