Many law students get frustrated with the Bluebook, especially if they're on a journal and need to use the Bluebook frequently. Here's a problem (two problems) that came up last semester (yes, this post is quite delayed) when I was helping a student with a citation during the most recent spurt of cite-checking by the 2Ls here.
Problem #1: Popular title vs. AACR2
This happens with a lot of sources. Basically, neither the popular title of a work nor the title given in a citation will be the title listed in the library's catalog. This is because the Anglo-American Cataloging Rules (AACR2) require the official title of a book in a library record to be the title on the title page of the book.
So the Bluebook says the title of the work is Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Decisions and Judgments, while the library catalog says the title is Serie C -- Resoluciones y Sentencias.
Problem #2: Harvard Law Review
The Bluebook is largely the creation of the Harvard Law Review, and I think that the Harvard editors have made erroneous assumptions about citation formats based on how things are done at the Harvard Law Library.
Here's how the Bluebook (rule 21.5.4) says to cite the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, Decisions and Judgments: "The citation should include the case name; the volume number; the
series; the case number; the page number, if needed; and the date." The following example is provided:
Durand & Ugarte Case, 2001 Inter-Am. Ct. H.R. (ser. C) No. 68, at 118 (Aug. 16, 2000)
But when I checked the catalogs of other libraries, I saw that Harvard and Stanford had bound
their copies in different ways, while Yale hadn't bound its at all. So I don't think that this is an actual case reporter (like the National Reporters) with actual volumes. Instead, it looks to me as if the court sends out pamphlets (slip opinions) of the judgments that some libraries have bound together.
NYU's Journal of International Law and Politics' Guide to Foreign and International Legal Citations has the following example for this title:
I/A Court H.R., Velasquez-Rodriguez case, Judgment of July 29, 1986, Series C, No. 4, para. 167.
Note that this format has neither volume numbers nor page numbers.
So my guess is that the Harvard Law Review editors created a citation form for this title that reflects the physical appearance of this work at the Harvard Law Library. But that citation form does not accurately reflect how the court actually publishes its opinions.