Bluebook: Do Statutes Take a Year?

When you cite a state code, end the citation with the year of the code in parentheses. The federal code is different. Bluebook Rule 12.3.2 states, "Citations to the federal code, whether official or unofficial, do not require a date."^[1] So 42 U.S.C. § 1983 is a complete citation.

For a state code, the year comes from the volume you cite: "When citing a bound volume of the current official or unofficial version of a state code or a federal code (where the date is desired), provide parenthetically the year that appears on the spine of the volume, the year that appears on the title page, or the latest copyright year—in that order of preference." And "[i]f the volume is a replacement of an earlier edition, use the year of the replacement volume, not the year of the original."^[2] For example: Neb. Rev. Stat. § 33-114 (1998).

A section in a supplement or pocket part takes the supplement's year: "When citing a provision that appears in a supplement or pocket part, give the year that appears on the title page of the supplement or pocket part." For example: Ind. Code Ann. § 29-1-5-3.1 (West Supp. 2003). When the section appears in both the main volume and the supplement, "give both years," as in Vt. Stat. Ann. tit. 12, § 892 (2002 & Supp. 2004).^[3]

Some codes also take the publisher's name before the year, as West does in the Indiana example. Table T1 lists, state by state, which code to cite and in what form. For Connecticut, it says, "Cite to Conn. Gen. Stat., if therein," and gives two forms: Conn. Gen. Stat. § x-x (<year>) for the General Statutes of Connecticut, and Conn. Gen. Stat. Ann. § x-x (West <year>) for West's Connecticut General Statutes Annotated.^[4] The official code takes no publisher. West's annotated code does.

Example: Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-341(a)(1) (2025). The current Connecticut code is the General Statutes of Connecticut, revised to January 1, 2025. The 2026 Supplement "is intended to be used in conjunction with the General Statutes of Connecticut, revised to January 1, 2025," and it does not include chapter 802b, where § 45a-341 sits.^[5] So the current text of § 45a-341 is in the 2025 revision, and the year is 2025.

In a Connecticut court filing, check the state's own rules first. Bluepages Table BT2.2 lists, for Connecticut, Conn. R. App. P. § 67-11 (citation of opinions) and The Manual of Style for the Connecticut Courts (3d ed. 2013), http://www.jud.ct.gov/Publications/Manual_of_style.pdf.^[6]

Court rules in force take no date either.