The 20th edition of the Bluebook was recently released. The numbering of the rules in the Bluepages (non-academic citation) now parallels the numbering in the Whitepages (academic citation). Typeface rules were relaxed to permit use of large and small caps in court documents for stylistic purposes. Rule 14 includes more examples of citations for a wide variety of administrative materials. Rule 15 adds a citation format for e-books. Rule 18 was revised and is much clearer. It no longer distinguishes between direct and parallel citations to Internet sources, and no longer requires that the URL be preceded by “available at.”

Unfortunately, the rule for citing the date for statutes was not revised. The preference remains the date on the print edition of the code cited, and the rule for citing the electronic version on Westlaw, Lexis, or Bloomberg Law remains the same. Here’s hoping the editors of the next revision come up with a better date parenthetical than 18 U.S.C.A. § 1956 (Westlaw through Pub. L. No. 113-93 (excluding Pub. L. No. 113-79)).

The chart linked on the right includes a list of the major revisions to the 20th edition from its preface.