How to Use Citations

Here are a few notes on the use of citations in legal text.

References to statutes

The names of statutes should be written without a comma between the name of the statute and the year it was enacted. For example, the ‘Children Act 1995’.

The word ‘the’ should not form part of the name of a statute. Therefore, one should write ‘the Single European Act 1986’ and not ‘The Single European Act 1986’.

When referring to a section of a statute write ‘section’ in full using a lowercase ‘s’ (unless starting a sentence). For example, ‘section 2 of the Sales of Goods Act 1979’.

When referring to a particular sub-section of a statute do not use the word ‘sub-section’. Use the word ‘section’ followed by the relevant number and letter, for example, ‘section 722(1) of the Companies Act 1985’.

References to cases

Case citations fulfil two functions. They name the case and also tell the reader where a report of the judgment can be found. The name of the case itself appears in italics, with the word ‘versus’ replaced by ‘v’. The notation which appears after the name of the case indicates where the case report can be found

For example, the citation Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562 (HL) tells us that the case was decided by the UK House of Lords (HL), involved a claimant called Donoghue and a defendant called Stevenson, and can be found in the 1932 volume of the series of the Law Reports called the ‘Appeals Cases’ at page 562.

Footnotes in academic texts

When citing works in footnotes, the following rules apply:

• The names of authors are generally given with the surname first followed by initials. For example: Rutherford, T. B. , Taylor, R. D. and Footner, B. A.

• The names of individual articles are generally given in quotation marks, with only the first letter of the first word capitalised. For example: ‘The future of fossil fuels’.

• The names of publications are italicised without quotation marks, followed by the year of publication and the name of the publisher. For example: The Environmental Law Review, Vol. 35 (Dogford University Press, 2006).

• The page number or numbers relevant to the point raised in the text are given at the end of the footnote.

Therefore, a footnote citing the information given above would appear as follows: Rutherford, T. B. , Taylor, R. D. and Footner, B. A., ‘The future of fossil fuels’, The Environmental Law Review, Vol. 35 (Dogford University Press, 2006) at p. 35.

Standard bibliographical abbreviations

Here is a list of some of the standard bibliographical abbreviations used when citing works in footnotes.

and others (et alii): et al.
edition: edn.
editions: edns.
editor: ed.
editors: eds.
in the same place (ibidem): ibid.
line: l.
lines: ll.
number: No.
page 35: p. 35
pages 35-43: pp. 35-43
paragraph: para.
paragraphs: paras.
revised/revision: rev.
translator/translated: trans.
volume: Vol.

For further guidance on citing legal sources, have a look at the Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities (‘OSCOLA’), which can be found at www.law.ox.ac.uk/published/oscola.

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