Modes of citation - how to cite.

It makes good sense to keep a proper record (i.e. correct title, author, year,
volume number, and page reference) of everything you read in preparing
every piece of written work, (a) so that you can find it again if need be,
and (b) so that you have adequate information for citing that source,
should you decide to use it.
If in doubt as to the standard form of a particular reference, consult a
publication such as Law Quarterly Review, Modern Law Review(6) or
Social and Legal Studies. Most series of law reports and periodicals
actually state their own method of citation. The important thing is to be
consistent.
Legislation
1. Acts of Parliament
With very few exceptions, Acts of the UK Parliament have short
titles provided by statutory authority:
Dangerous Dogs Act 1991, s.10
Short title, interpretation, commencement and extent
(1) This Act may be cited as the Dangerous Dogs Act 1991.
Although the statute says 'may be cited' you should treat this as
imperative. Short titles have been enacted retrospectively for many
older statutes.(7)
Short titles used to have a comma between the name of the Act and
the year it was passed. The Tangynika Independence Act 1962 was
the first to omit the comma, and modern practice is to leave it out,
even for Acts passed before the practice changed. It is permissible
to abbreviate the short title to initials, e.g. DDA 1991, provided
there is no ambiguity.
Acts of Parliament are published in their original form by the
Queen's Printer(8) who also publishes electronically full text Public
Acts 1988 onwards and full text Local Acts 1991 onwards. These
are original versions only; they are not amended to take account of
the process of legislative reform. Private publishers' editions of the
statutes (e.g. Halsbury's Statutes; Current Law Statutes; CCH
Editions; Blackstone's statutes) although not strictly authoritative,
 are highly reliable and often more convenient than Queen's Printer's
copies, because they provide the amended text of the statute.
It will usually be sufficient to refer to the primary sub-division of
statutes, namely sections, which in turn may be sub-divided into
sub-sections, paragraphs and sub-paragraphs. Other sub-divisions
employed include: parts; chapters;(9) and schedules. Schedules
contain paragraphs, which may be further subdivided into sub-,
subsub, and even subsubsub-paragraphs, and a schedule may be
subdivided into parts.
To refer to a particular provision in an Act of Parliament use the
following method:
Companies Act 1985, s.6, or
Children Act 1989, s.15 and sch 1 para 5
(n.b. NOT Companies' Act 1985 or Children's Act 1989, unless, of
course, the genitive form is used in the short title.)
2. Subordinate legislation
Subordinate (delegated) legislation is issued in a series called
Statutory Instruments (SIs) published on paper from 1894, and
electronically from January 1997. They should be cited by their
designated title which includes the year they were passed followed
by SI year/number in parentheses (e.g. SI 1997/201).
The Education (Mandatory Awards) Regulations 1997
(SI 1997/431)
The title may be abbreviated to initial letters if to do so would not
create ambiguity.
Statutory Instruments may be further classified as an 'Order', sub-divided into
articles; 'Regulations' sub-divided into regulations; and 'Rules' sub-divided into
rules, abbreviated as 'r'.

Order Regulations Rules

art arts reg regs r rr
The Civil Procedure Rules 1998 are divided into Parts with
numbered Rules corresponding to the Parts. So CPR, Rule 6.4 is in
Part 6 paragraph 4. Paragraphs may be sub-divided.
 3. Legislation of the European Community
The legislation of the European Community consists of the
founding treaties, and secondary legislation in the form of
Regulations, Directives, Decisions, Recommendations and
Opinions. On 1 May 1999 the Treaty of Amsterdam renumbered the
original arrangement of Articles of the Treaty of Rome and the
Treaty on European Union. To avoid ambiguity the following
method of citation is recommended.(10)
On or after 1 May 1999 Before 1 May 1999
Article or Art 141 EC Article or Art 119 of the EC Treaty
The Treaties may be abbreviated as follows:

On or after 1 Before 1 May

Treaty
May 1999 1999
Treaty on European Union EU Treaty
EU
European (Economic) EC (EEC)
EC
Community Treaty Treaty
CS
European Coal and Steel Treaty ECSC Treaty
EA
Euratom Treaty EAEC Treaty
Examples of secondary legislation are:

Regulation [Council] Regulation No 1111/77/EC, Arts. 8 and 9

Directive [Council] Directive 76/207/EC
Decision [Commission] Decision 89/58/EC
The full reference will be to the authoritative text in the Official
Journal of the European Communities (abbreviated to OJ) where the
secondary legislation was first published, together with the title,
date and page number:
Council Directive of 21 December 1976 on the
Coordination of Procedures for the Award of Public
Supply Contracts, Directive 77/62/EC OJ L13 15
January 1977 p 1.
The OJ is issued in series: L contains legislation, C contains draft
legislation.
Cases
1. English Cases
By Practice Direction (Judgments: Form and neutral citation)
handed down by Lord Woolf CJ on 11 January 2001,
all judgments in every division of the High Court and
the Court of Appeal will be prepared for delivery, or
issued as approved judgments, with single spacing,
paragraph numbering (in the margins) but no page
numbers.
From the same date a form of neutral citation will be given to
judgments in the Court of Appeal and Administrative Court by
means of a unique number issued by the official shorthand writers.
Thus
Smith v Jones [2001] EWCA Civ 10 at [59]
is that case in 2001 England and Wales Court of Appeal Civil
Division Case No 10 at paragraph 59.
[2001] EWCA Crim 5 at [10]
is 2001 England and Wales Court of Appeal Criminal Division Case
No 5 at paragraph 10.
[2001] EWHC Admin 4 at [1]
is 2001 England and Wales High Court (Administrative Court) Case
No 4 at paragraph 1.
The object is provide a system of citation which is universal and
neutral between publishing media. The Practice Direction only
applies to the Court of Appeal Civil and Criminal Divisions and the
High Court (Administrative Divison). The intention is to extend it to
other courts in due course.
On 18 January 2001 the House of Lords adopted its own slightly
different system:
Manifest Shipping Company Limited v. Uni-Polaris
Shipping Company Limited, [2001] UKHL/1
is the first case in the UK House of Lords in 2001. It contains
numbered paragraphs. However, the 13th case on 22 March began
omitting the / before the number of the case:
Johnson (A.P.) v. Unisys Ltd [2001] UKHL 13
Curiously, cases /1 to /12 had their neutral citation removed on the
HL website, and then retrospectively restored without the / before
the number of the case. It is recommended that when using neutral
citation for any case in the HL, you should omit the /.
Neutral citation is always acceptable. Cases reported before the
advent of neutral citation are cited by the name(s) of the parties
followed by the abbreviated title of the publication in which the
report of the case appears. This method should also be used to refer
to a particular series of reports, in addition to the case's neutral
citation.
In a word processed document the names of the parties are
italicised, and although the convention used to be that 'v.' was not
italicised, the house style permits italicisation the whole title,
including v but not the reference:
R. v Secretary of State for Employment, ex parte Equal
Opportunities Commission [1995] 1 AC 1.
Underlining is a printer's mark for italics and should be used to
indicate italics only if italic script is not available. The modern
practice is not to use punctuation within case references. In
particular the practice of placing a comma after the names of the
parties and before the reference is no longer followed. Having
referred to the case in full, it is permissible to abbreviate the case
name:
"In the EOC case [1995] 1 AC 1, Lord Keith of Kinkel
said, at p.25: ".
The standard abbreviated title of the report series is always used and
will appear in the report itself. Lists of abbreviations are also
available. Always use the correct abbreviation. A common error is
to abbreviate the All England Reports (All ER) to AER. Some
earlier reports use a volume number e.g. 20 QBD 690 is the 20th
volume of the Queen's Bench Reports at page 690. In such cases,
the year of the report of the case is not part of the reference and, if
given, should appear in parentheses before the reference as follows
(1888) 20 QBD 690. Later reports use the year as an integral part of
the reference, in which case its inclusion and the use of square
 brackets is compulsory: [1991] 1 QB 134 is the 1st volume of the
Queen's Bench Reports for 1991 at page 134.
In general, you should follow the practice of the English courts to
cite the report of any case which is reported in the semi-official Law
Reports in preference to a report of that case in any other series of
reports.(11) The electronic Law Reports are exact facsimiles of the
Law Reports, with exactly the same method of citation and can be
used interchangeably with the printed versions. Cases reported in
volumes 2 and 3 of the Weekly Law Reports (WLR) are destined
for publication in the Law Reports, and should be cited only until
they are displaced by the subsequent Law Reports version of the
same case. Obviously, this practice need not be followed if the
purpose of citing the earlier report is to draw attention to some
difference between the two versions.
The courts may not have ready access to specialist series of reports,
e.g. ICR, FLR, IRLR etc., but subject to the principle of preferring
the LR to other series, you should assume that Law School staff
have access to any series of reports to which you have access via the
University, including electronic sources.
It is helpful, but not compulsory, to indicate which court decided the
case by abbreviating the name of the court after the reference. E.g.
The Diechland [1990] 1 QB 361 CA
If you wish to refer to some specific point in a report, you should
add the page reference, and if to something said by a judge in the
report (L, dictum, plural dicta) then to the judge's name and page
reference:
Gillick v West Norfolk and Wisbech Area Health
Authority [1985] 1 All ER 533 at 539 per Parker LJ.
2. Court of Justice of the European Communities
Some series of reports e.g. reports of the Court of Justice and the
Court of First Instance of the European Communities, require, in
addition to the names of the parties, the use of the number of the
case in the court register. Cases decided since November 1989 are
further classified into T- and C- series, for Court of First Instance
and Court of Justice respectively. The number should not italicised.
 Where English cases and Court of Justice cases are cited in the
same piece the recommend form for the latter is:
Brasserie du Pêcheur SA v Germany I (cases C-46 and
48/93) [1996] All ER (EC) 301
Where the Court of Justice gives an opinion under Art 228 EC on
the compatibility of a proposed international agreement, the
recommended method of citation is:
Opinion 2-92 [1995] ECR. I-521
3. International Court of Justice

The ICJ is the principal judicial organ of the UN and sits at the
Hague. By convention cases brought to the court are referred to by
subject matter as well as by name. There is an official series of
reports of individual cases which is referred to as follows.
Nottebohm, Preliminary Objection, Judgment, ICJ
Reports 1953.
Alternatively, you may refer to the case in the bound series of
official reports:
Nottebohm Case (1955) ICJ Rep. 4
4. Foreign cases
Foreign series of reports may follow a different pattern. For
example, M'Elroy v M'Allister 1949 SC 110 is a report of a decision
of the Scottish Court of Session.
Books and Journals
The convention for citing books and articles in legal journals has been
influenced by the methods used for citing cases.
1. Recommended house style
In the case of a book:
Author/editor, Title, Edition number, (Place of publication:
Publisher's name, Year of publication) e.g.
 Smart C, Feminism and the Power of Law, (London: Routledge,
1989)
In the case of an article:
Author, 'Title', (Year of publication) Volume of Journal Name of
Journal Page reference e.g.
Goddard D, 'The myth of subjectivity', (1987) 7 LS 245
Many journals, like the older series of law reports, have a volume
number which is separate from the year of publication, so that the
year, if used, as in the example above, will be in parentheses. Some
English law journals (e.g. Cambridge Law Journal, Web Journal of
Current Legal Issues) have adopted the year of publication in square
brackets as the volume number. If the name of the journal is given
in full it should be italicised.
2. Author-date system
For books and articles, references in the text would be (Smart 1989)
and (Goddard 1987, p 249). in the Bibliography the date must
follow the name of the author/editor:
Goddard D, (1987) 'The myth of subjectivity', 7 LS 245
Smart C, (1989), Feminism and the Power of Law, (London:
Routledge)
Under the author-date system if there is more than one reference to
an author in a year, they are distinguished by a suffix letter. A page
number may also be included: (Smart 1989a: p 94) (Smart 1989b: p
31) etc.
The convention for articles in scientific, medical and technical
journals is different. The usual style is:
Author/editor, 'Title', Name of Journal, Year of Publication,
Volume Number, page reference.
Electronic Sources
Electronic sources are cited in the same way as paper sources, with the
addition of information about how and, if necessary, when accessed.(12)
1. Internet sources
In the case of an electronic journal:
Author, 'Title', Year of Publication Volume of Journal Name of
Journal <url>
Bradgate R, 'Consumer Guarantees: the EC's draft Directive' [1997]
1 Web JCLI <http://webjcli.ncl.ac.uk/1997/issue1/bradgate1.html>
Moodie P 'Law Courseware and Iolis: Assessing the present and
constructing the future', 1997 (1) The Journal of Information, Law
and Technology (JILT).
<http://elj.warwick.ac.uk/jilt/cal/97_1mood/>
In the case of a newspaper or magazine:
Jason Nissé, 'UK may face legal action on tendering agreements'
The Times 19 June 1997 < http://www.the-times.co.uk/>
Purely electronic publications may not have page numbers, or may
use a system of numbered paragraphs. Follow whatever style they
use.
It is customary to give the uniform resource locator (url) including
the protocol(13) for an internet source. Take very great care with
punctutation in urls. The convention of enclosing the url with <> is
recommended. It has the merit of avoiding ambiguous 'dots'.(14)
It is the nature of electronic publication that urls may be changed, or
contents may be altered or removed without notice. If the electronic
source follows this policy then include the date given for last
update, or failing that, the date you accessed it. Use an
unambiguous method. In the UK, 10/5/97 would be interpreted as
10 May 1997 where in North America it is 5 October 1997.
Usenet, news groups and e-mail are ephemeral sources, akin to
conversation, and rarely likely to require citation. If required, the
method described above may be adapted.
Internet protocols may be used to provide purely local access to
files across a local area network.(15) It would be inappropriate to cite
such sources, except in a document intended for publication only
within the organisation in question.
2. CD-ROM
Materials obtained from a published CD-ROM may be cited as
follows.
Cullen, 'European Law/Competition Policy/Merger Control' IOLIS
CD-ROM Ed Spring 1997
On principle, it should make no difference if the CD-ROM is
networked across a local area network (LAN). The information
given about the CD-ROM fixes its date of publication, so it is not
necessary to state the date it was accessed. An exception should be
re-publication on CD-ROM of an existing paper source, where both
use the same method of citation e.g. electronic Law Reports. In
such a case it should not be necessary to distinguish which source
was used, unless, of course, to point out an (unintentional)
difference between them.