How do I cite a federal statute in APA format?
Answer
Reference form: Name of Act, Volume Code abbrev. § Section number (year) URL.
Reference page citation example: Abandoned Shipwreck Act of 1987, 43 U.S.C. §§2101-2106 (1987). https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/43/chapter-39
(Note: You may include the URL from which you retrieved the statute after the year. This is not strictly required for legal citations, but may aid readers in retrieval.)
In-text citation example: Abandoned Shipwreck Act (1987) or (Abandoned Shipwreck Act, 1987)
Chapter 11 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (7th edition) provides examples of citations to legal materials, including cases, statutes, legislative materials, and administrative and executive materials. For more information on writing legal citation, consult The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (20th edition).