Cecily Zamora
Legal citation is the practice of crediting and referencing authoritative documents and sources in law. In the UK, case citations are used by legal professionals to identify past court case decisions. These can be found in series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a neutral style that identifies a decision regardless of where it is reported. Case citations are formatted differently in different jurisdictions but generally contain the same key information. In the UK, Oxford uses OSCOLA (Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities) and there is a difference between cases before 2001/02 and those after.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Purpose | To credit and refer to authoritative documents and sources |
| Sources | Court decisions (cases), statutes, regulations, government documents, treaties, scholarly writing |
| Information Conveyed | Source's authority, strength of support for writer's proposition, age, other relevant information |
| Case Citation | Name of the case, year of judgment, court, case number |
| Neutral Citation | Consist of the year, the court abbreviation (e.g. EWCA Civ) and the case number |
| Law Reports | Regarded as the most authoritative reports in England and Wales |
| Citation Format | Case number, case name, year, report abbreviation, first page |
| OSCOLA | A standard for citation of legal authorities used in Oxford |
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What You'll Learn
Case citation
A case citation in the UK will usually include the full party names, the law report reference, the case name, the year of judgment, the abbreviation for the court, and the case number. For example, in the case of Corr v IBC Vehicles Ltd, the citation is as follows: Corr v IBC Vehicles Ltd [2008] UKHL 13, [2008] 1 AC 884. Here, 'Corr v IBC Vehicles Ltd' is the case name, ' [2008]' is the year of judgment, 'UKHL' is the abbreviation for the court, and '13' is the case number.
Neutral citations are also used in UK case citations, which identify judgments independently of any series of reports. They include only the parties, the year of judgment, the court, and the case number. For example, Rottman v MPC [2002] UKHL 20 identifies the 20th judgment in 2002 in the UK House of Lords. Neutral citations are useful for finding cases online more easily and are available for cases from 2001 onwards.
The use of brackets in case citations depends on whether the report is Scottish or English and whether the year is required to find the case in printed volumes. For English cases, if the year is in square brackets, it is required to locate the case. If the year is in round brackets, it is not strictly necessary to locate the case as the series has consecutively numbered volumes.
When citing older cases, it is important to note that only cases from 2001 onwards will have neutral citations. For cases before 2001, the citation would include the court and the date of the judgment in brackets after the name of the case.
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Legal citation analysis
Legal citation is the practice of crediting and referencing authoritative documents and sources. The most common sources of authority are court decisions (cases), statutes, regulations, government documents, treaties, and scholarly writing. A proper legal citation will inform the reader about the source's authority, how strongly the source supports the proposition, its age, and other relevant information.
In the UK, the Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA) is the modern authority on citation of legislation. OSCOLA is used by Oxford University and is the standard for citing UK legislation. There are differences in the way cases before and after 2001/2002 are cited. From 2002 onwards, each case was given a neutral citation to identify it, consisting of the year, the court abbreviation, and the case number. These neutral citations enable people to find cases online more easily.
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Neutral citations
A typical neutral citation is composed of the following three elements: the year, an abbreviation for the court, and the number of the case, followed by any reference to a particular paragraph in square brackets. For example, Smith v Jones [2001] EWCA Civ 10 at [30]. This refers to case number 10 of the Court of Appeal (Civil Division) – EW for England and Wales – of 2001 and a passage at paragraph 30.
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Law report citation
A legal citation is the practice of crediting and referring to authoritative documents and sources. The most common sources of authority cited are court decisions (cases), statutes, regulations, government documents, treaties, and scholarly writing.
In the UK, there are many standards used for citing cases. Oxford, for example, uses OSCOLA (Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities). There is a difference in the way cases before and after 2001/2002 are cited.
A typical case citation includes the case name, the neutral citation (where appropriate), and the law report citation. The name of the case should be in italics, with an unpunctuated italic 'v' to separate the names of adverse parties. A comma separates the neutral citation and the law report citation. There are no full stops in the abbreviations; for example, 'UKHL' instead of 'U.K.H.L.'.
The components of a typical case citation with a neutral citation are: case name | [year] | court | number, | [year] OR (year) | volume | report abbreviation | first page. Only cases from 2001 onwards will have neutral citations.
Neutral citations give the year of judgment in square brackets, the court abbreviation, and the judgment number. An example of a neutral citation is:
Corr v IBC Vehicles Ltd [2008] UKHL 13, [2008] 1 AC 884.
The components of a typical case citation without a neutral citation (i.e. before 2001) are: case name | [year] OR (year) | volume | report abbreviation | first page | (court). An example of a case citation without a neutral citation is:
Page v Smith [1996] AC 155 (HL).
The year of publication is essential and may or may not be followed by a volume number, depending on whether the volume of content that year required it. The standard mode of citation used in common law jurisdictions is based on four elements: the year of publication in square brackets [YYYY] or the year of judgment in round brackets (YYYY), the series abbreviation (e.g. W.L.R. or WLR), the starting page number (for printed reports) or the case number (for online reports), and the court abbreviation (for example, EWCA Civ).
If a judgment is not reported in the Law Reports, cite the Weekly Law Reports or the All England Law Reports. If a case is unreported but has a neutral citation, this should be given. If an unreported case does not have a neutral citation, give the court and the date of the judgment in brackets after the name of the case.
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OSCOLA citation
In the UK, a citation in law refers to the practice of crediting and referencing authoritative documents and sources. The most commonly cited sources include court decisions (cases), statutes, regulations, government documents, treaties, and scholarly writing.
The Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities, or OSCOLA, is the standard referencing style used by Oxford University and many other UK and international law schools, legal journals, and publishers. OSCOLA is a footnote referencing system that consists of three elements: citations, footnotes, and a bibliography.
When acknowledging a source using OSCOLA, a footnote marker is placed at the end of the relevant sentence or phrase. The footnote itself appears at the bottom of the page and briefly identifies the source without providing additional information. A continuous numbering system is used for footnotes throughout the document.
A bibliography, or a list of all the sources cited in the work, is provided at the end of the essay. OSCOLA encourages consistency and helps readers quickly find the necessary information. While OSCOLA provides rules and examples for UK legal primary sources and secondary sources, it does not claim to be comprehensive.
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Frequently asked questions
A legal citation is a reference to a legal source, such as a case, statute, or treatise, that either supports or contradicts a given position.
Legal citations are used to credit and refer to authoritative documents and sources.
The key components of a legal citation in the UK are the case name, year, court, and case number.
A neutral citation identifies a judgment independently of any series of reports, citing only the parties, year of judgment, court, and case number. A law report citation, on the other hand, refers to a specific report series where the case has been published.
For cases before 2001, there are no neutral citations available. You should give the case name, followed by the court and the date of the judgment in brackets.
