What are these abbreviations?
You may come across citations in your readings that look like these examples:
- 547 U.S. 715
- 33 U.S.C. §1311
- 33 CFR §328.2
Legal citations use a specialized format that uses lots of abbreviations. You don't have to understand these citations! But don't ignore them as they can lead you to important sources.
For federal law sources, just paste the citation into the search bar at govinfo.gov to look it up. For state laws, start with a Google search of the citation. In general, whenever you don't understand a citation, try pasting it into Google or your favorite search engine.