Legal Abbreviations and Citations Guide

The best place to look up a statute or regulation is usually in a code. Codes are organized by subject and are updated on a fairly regular basis. Each code has its own organizational structure, which determines how you cite a particular code provision.

Federal statutory and regulatory codes are divided into titles. Each code title is numbered and covers a broad area of law (e.g., title 11 of the federal statutory code covers bankruptcy law). Titles are further divided into code sections, which are also numbered. Both the title number and section number are included in a federal code citation (along with the abbreviation for the particular version of the code being cited to). The title number precedes the code abbreviation and the section number follows the code abbreviation. The § symbol is always placed before the actual section number.

Examples:

• 29 U.S.C. § 1001 is a citation to section 1001 of title 29 of the official version of the federal statutory code (called the United States Code)
• 42 C.F.R. § 59.1 refers to section 59.1 of title 42 of the official version of the federal regulatory code (called the Code of Federal Regulations)

California regulatory code sections are cited in the same way as federal code citations. California statutory code sections are cited a little differently because the California statutory code is a compilation of individual named codes. Therefore, California statutory code citations merely include an abbreviation for the specific code followed by the number of the section being cited.

Examples:

• Cal. Civ. Code § 4100 is a citation to section 4100 of the California Civil Code
• 14 C.C.R. § 1241 (or 14 Cal. Code. Regs. § 1241) refers to section 1241 of title 14 of the California Code of Regulations

Below are standard abbreviations for the major federal and California statutory and regulatory sources. For additional information on these sources, consult the USC Law Library guides Finding Federal Primary Law and Finding California Primary Law. Information on citing to statutory and regulatory materials can also be found in the citation manuals listed within this guide.