The Bluebook
title-case rules
For legal citation, case names, law reviews.
The Bluebook rules
The Bluebook is the legal-citation standard used by U.S. courts and law reviews.
- Capitalize the first word and the word after a colon.
- Capitalize all words except articles, conjunctions of fewer than five letters, and prepositions of fewer than five letters.
- Lowercase short articles, conjunctions, and prepositions of four letters or fewer in the middle of a title.
- Always capitalize five-letter-or-longer prepositions.
Worked examples
The same set of titles, converted under The Bluebook rules. Try them yourself by switching the style pill on the homepage.
| Input | Bluebook |
|---|---|
a treatise on the law of contracts |
A Treatise on the Law of Contracts |
the rule against perpetuities |
The Rule Against Perpetuities |
commercial paper and the uniform commercial code |
Commercial Paper and the Uniform Commercial Code |
tort liability in the modern era |
Tort Liability in the Modern Era |
Edge cases we handle
- Proper nouns — iPhone, JavaScript, NASA stay capitalized correctly mid-title.
- Hyphenated compounds — handled per Bluebook's specific rule.
- After a colon — the first word after a colon is capitalized.
- Acronyms and ALLCAPS runs — preserved as-is.
Try Bluebook title case now.
Open the converter →Want to compare with another style? See the style guides index.