School of Law subject guide

1. Indicate in your text where you mention or use a source, eg book, case, action, using a footnote marker (1, 2, 3…)
2. Full information about the source (citation) at the bottom of the same page

If you were referencing this legislation: 'section 134 of the Criminal Justice Act 1988', the footnote would look like this: 'Criminal Justice Act 1988, s 134'

If you were referencing this case which would appear like this on the legal database:

'R. (on the application of Friends of the Earth Ltd) v Heathrow Airport Ltd'

Reported at:

• [2020] UKSC 52;
• [2021] 2 All E.R. 967
• [2021] P.T.S.R. 190
• [2020] 12 WLUK 212
• [2021] J.P.L. 905
• Times, January 18, 2021
• [2021] 4 C.L. 173

The footnote would be:

'R (on the application of Friends of the Earth Ltd) v Heathrow Airport Ltd [2020] UKSC 52, [2021] 2 All ER 967'

Citing books in more detail:

To use a footnote, put a superscript number into your text and then the footnote at the bottom of the page.

Format:

• Author, Title (edition, Publisher | year) page number.

Example:

• '12 Jonathan Herring, Medical Law and Ethics (4th edn, Oxford University Press 2012) 146'.

Your Bibliography should include:

• Table of Cases
• Table of Legislation
• Secondary sources (books, journal articles, websites)

This will be at the end of your assignment and will be arranged alphabetically (for books it is the surname of authors first).

If your piece of work is long, you can divide the bibliography into three sections: Cases, Legislation, and Bibliography.

• Cases - Do not italicise case names. You should list the cases alphabetically in order of the first significant word. If the parties involved are only identified by initials the case should be listed under the initial. List trademark cases and shipping cases under the full case name, but insert an additional entry in the table under the trademark or the name of the ship with a cross-reference to the full name.
• Legislation - This should include every statute listed in your piece of work (unless your lecturer has told you differently). Legislation should be listed in alphabetical order. Statutory Instruments should be listed separately after Statutes.
• Bibliography - Unlike in footnotes, the author's surname should be listed first, followed by the author's initials. Unlike in the footnotes, you do not list the author's first names, just initials. The secondary material should also be listed alphabetically. If citing more than one work by the same author, list the author’s works in chronological order (oldest first), and in alphabetical order of the first major word of the title within a single year.

Footnote

To use a footnote, put a superscript number into your text and then the footnote at the bottom of the page. The author's name goes first followed by the surname.

Format:

Author, Title (edition, Publisher | year) page number.

For example :

It has been suggested that the legal defence team fundamentally ignored the specific misogynistic nature of the violence against the victim^[1]

¹Kym Atkinson, Feminist Responses to Injustices of the State and Its Institutions: Politics, Intervention, Resistance (1st edn, Bristol University Press 2022) 146.

Citing books in the bibliography

The only difference in the bibliography is an author is listed surname first and you do not include page numbers.

Format:

Author surname and initial of first name, Title (edition, Publisher | year)

Example:

Wilson, A, In black and white : a young barrister's story of race and class in a broken justice system (1ST edn, Endeavour, 2021)

To cite a print journal use the following format:

Author, ’title’, [year], journal name or abbreviation, first page of article

Or:

Author, ’title’, (year), volume, journal name or abbreviation, first page number of article.

The difference between square brackets and round brackets

Use [ ] if the date of publication is needed to find the article eg. there is no volume number.

Use ( ) if the date of publication is NOT needed to find the article eg. there is a separate volume number.

The bibliography is the same format as the footnote except that the author is now listed surname first followed by their initials, page numbers are not included and there is no full stop at the end of the reference.

Examples of citations in a footnote:

Craig Purshouse and Ilias Trispiotis, “Is ‘Conversion Therapy’ Tortious?” (2022) 42 Legal Studies 23

Paul Craig, 'Theory, "Pure Theory" and Values in Public Law' [2005] PL 440.

Example of citations in a bibliography:

Purshouse C and Trispiotis I, “Is ‘Conversion Therapy’ Tortious?” (2022) 42 Legal Studies 23

Craig P, 'Theory, "Pure Theory" and Values in Public Law' [2005] PL 440

Pinpointing in a journal article

When pinpointing (referring to a specific page in an article) put the first page of the article followed by a comma, a space and the page of the pinpoint.

JAG Griffith, 'The Common Law and the Political Constitution' (2001) 117 LQR 42, 64.

Pinpointing is not used in the bibliography (you do not need to include page numbers).

Remember Square brackets [ ] are used when the year is crucial to identify the relevant volume of the journal (e.g. when there is no volume number).

Round brackets ( ) are used when the year is not necessary to identify the relevant volume of the journal (e.g. if there is a volume number in addition to the year).

In most cases journal titles have both a volume number and a year so round brackets will normally be used.

Citation order in footnotes:

Author or organisation, Title of webpage (in single quotation marks), Title of website (in italics and date (all in round brackets), URL accessed date.

For example:

Foluke Ifejola Adebisi, ‘Decolonisation And The Law School, Initial Thoughts’, (Foluke Africa, 22 July 2019) <https://folukeafrica.com/decolonisation-the-law-school-initial-thoughts/ > accessed 15th February 2023.

(Remember in the bibliography it will be surname first)

Author (if available, if not use title), Title (in single quotation marks), Radio or Television channel and date of broadcast (all in round brackets), if online, add URL accessed date.

If you are quoting a speaker in the programme, begin the reference with their name

For example:

Joshua Rozenburg, ‘Law in Action – Can the Law Fight Climate Change?’ (BBC Radio 4, 18 March 2021) < https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000t4v8> accessed 15th February 2023.

(Remember in the bibliography it will be surname first)

Cite case notes as though they were journal articles.

• When there is no title use the name of the case in italics instead, and add (note) at the end of the citation

Here is an example of a case note:

• 'Andrew Ashworth, 'R (Singh) v Chief constable of the West Midlands Police' [2006] Crim LR 441 (note)'.

The only differences are that the author is now listed by surname first followed by their initials, page numbers are not included and there is no full stop at the end of the reference. Omit the word note.

Example:

• 'Ashworth A, 'R (Singh) v Chief constable of the West Midlands Police' [2006] Crim LR 441'.

Cases published after 2001 will have a neutral citation which must be used.

Cases are numbered consecutively throughout the year and the abbreviation (UKHL, EWCH) indicates which court the case was heard in rather than a law report series.

If a case is subsequently reported in a law report, use a comma to separate the neutral citation from the law report citation.

Below are examples of how to reference a case with neutral citations as a footnote and in the bibliography.

Format: footnote

Name of case in italics, [year], court, case number, [year of publication], or (year of judgement), volume, report abbreviation, first page.

Example of a case that has been subsequently reported in a law report series:

• 'NRAM Ltd v Evans [2017] EWCA Civ 1013, [2018] 1 WLR 639'.

Bibliography:

The only difference is that case names are not italicised, pinpointing is not used and there is no full stop at the end of the reference.

• NRAM Ltd v Evans [2017] EWCA Civ 1013, [2018] 1 WLR 639

Square brackets [ ] are used when the year is crucial to identify the law report volume (for example when there is more than one volume published per year.)

Round brackets ( ) are used when the year is not necessary to identify the law report volume (for example if there was only one volume published per year.)

The most important law series (The Law Reports, Weekly Law Reports, Lloyds Law Reports, All England Law Reports) all have more than one volume per year so they will always need square brackets.

Cases published before 2001 do not have a neutral citation.

Below are examples of how to reference a case without neutral citations as a footnote and in the bibliography.

If you give the full case name in the main text of your text the case name can be omitted from the footnote but must be included in the bibliography.

Format: footnote

Name of case in italics | [year] OR (year) | volume | report abbreviation | first page | court | pinpointing (if needed).

Examples:

• 'Tustian v Johnston [1993] 3 All ER 534 (CA) Civ 536'.
• 'Evans v South Ribble Borough Council [1992] QB 757 (QB)'.

Bibliography:

The only differences are that case names are not italicised, pinpointing is not used and there is no full stop at the end of the reference.

Examples:

• 'Tustian v Johnston [1993] 3 All ER 534 (CA) Civ'.
• 'Evans v South Ribble Borough Council [1992] QB 757 (QB)'.

To create a footnote reference to a UK Statute, you should use the short title. You leave out 'the' from the start of the name and only capitalise major words.

• Format: Short Title | Year
• Example: Act of Supremacy 1558

Statutes follow the same format in the bibliography as in the footnote.

• Format: Short Title | Year
• Example: Shipping and Trading Interests (Protection) Act 1995

To refer to a specific part of the act see the next page in the guide. If you are referring to the same Act several times, you can use an abbreviation if you tell the reader what abbreviation you will be using when you first refer to the statute. So Human Rights Act 1998 (afterwards HRA 1998).

If all the required information to create a footnote is included when referring to a Statute in the text, a footnote is not required.

The only difference between the footnote reference and the bibliography is that the bibliography should refer to the entire statute not to individual sections, subsections or schedules.

EU legislation includes treaties and protocols.

• Format: Title of the legislation including amendments if necessary, [year], OJ series, issue/first page.
• Examples: Protocol to the Agreement on the Member States that do not fully apply the Schengen acquis-Joint Declarations [2007] OJ L129/35.

Consolidated Version of the Treaty on European Union [2008] OJ C115/13.

As of 1 Jan 2015 the numbering of EU legislation has changed and EU legislation now has a unique sequential number.

Regulations, Directives, Decisions, Recommendations and Opinions

• Format: Legislation type | number | title | [year] | OJ L issue/first page
• Example of directive: Council Directive 2002/60/EC of 27 June 2002 laying down specific provisions for the control of African swine fever and amending Directive 92/119/EEC as regards Teschen disease and African swine fever [2002] OJ L192/27

(Note the year comes before the running number in citations to Directives)

• Example of a regulation: Council Regulation (EC) 1984/2003 of 8 April 2003 introducing a system for the statistical monitoring of trade in bluefin tuna, swordfish and big eye tuna with the Community [2003] OJ L295/1.

(Note the year follows the running number in citations to regulations)

• Example of legislation from 2015 onwards: Decision 2019/326 on Measures for Entering the Data in the Entry/Exit System [2019] OJ L057/5.

There is no difference between the footnotes and the bibliography except that there is a full stop at the end of the citation in the footnote.

For more details, please view the OSCOLA Fourth Edition document available on the University of Oxford website.

You can also look at pp 228-247 ‘Cite Them Right essential referencing guide handbook’ located on the second floor, study skills section of the Paul Hamlyn library for more examples of referencing different types of resources.