The University of Glasgow Library

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1 The University of Glasgow Library

2 Legal citations & abbreviations One of the most daunting aspects facing a new law student is the tradition that lecturers and authors have of referring to journals and law reports only by an abbreviated form of their full title. This resource will help you understand what legal citations look like, why are they important, and how to decipher them! Legal citations & abbreviations

3 Legal citations what do they look like? Legal citations can be a little confusing it s almost like learning another language at first. However it s just an easy shorthand way of referring to legal materials like cases and journal articles when citing them KD Ewing, Transparency, Accountability and Equality: The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 [2001] PL 542 You ll find them in all your reading lists and handouts from lecturers, as well as in textbooks and journal articles Wilson v Independent Broadcasting Authority 1979 S.C. 351 Houston v BBC 1995 S.C. 433 Bowman v UK [1998] 26 EHRR 1 Watkins v Woolas [2010] EWHC 2702 (QB) R. (Woolas) v Parliamentary Election Court [2010] EWHC 3169 (Admin); [2012] Q.B. 1 Legal citations what do they look like?

4 Case Citations Ok so lets start with case citations. Houston v BBC 1995 S.C. 433 The structure of legal citations and abbreviations is consistent and straightforward so once you ve worked out what each component of the citation is telling you then you ll be half way there! Case citations

5 Legal abbreviations Learning what the abbreviation stands for is a bit more tricky but there are plenty of tools to help you, and there are many common series of law reports or important legal journals that you ll deal with on a daily basis, so you ll begin to recognise them very quickly. Lets look at the two most commonly used tools to decipher legal abbreviations one a print publication & the other an online resource available on the web. Tools to decipher abbreviations

6 Commonly know as Raistrick Index to Legal Citations & Abbreviations is the most commonly used printed index. Multiple copies are available in the Law Collection on Level 7 of the Main Library The most comprehensive listing of abbreviations and acronyms used in legal citations and references of any book over 37,000 listings Covers the legal literature of the UK, the Commonwealth, Europe and the USA Provides a simple A to Z listing making locating any abbreviation or acronym quick and easy Covers more than just abbreviations for aw reports and journals includes organisations, legal terminology and other words that are commonly abbreviated such as certain Acts of Parliament Raistrick s Index to Legal Citations & Abbreviations

7 Commonly know as the Cardiff Index the Cardiff Index to Legal Citations & Abbreviations is the most commonly used online index This website allows you to search for the meaning of abbreviations for English language legal publications, from the British Isles, the Commonwealth and the United States, including those covering international and comparative law. A wide selection of major foreign language law publications is also included. Publications from over 295 jurisdictions are featured in the Index The database mainly covers law reports and law Journals but some other legal publications are also included. The Index is under continuous Development with new abbreviations and titles being added on a regular basis You can search via series title or abbreviation, the title option in particular is useful. Cardiff Index to Legal Citations

8 The Cardiff Index includes citations from all over the world so sometimes you will find the same abbreviation being used by a number of Law Reports. So when searching for the abbreviation SC you can see there are a number of possible titles returned. However, you can see the jurisdiction column indicates where the report was published so you can easily work it out if you are looking for a Scots, UK or European report. We are looking for a Scots Law case in this example. Cardiff Index to Legal Citations

9 So Case report of Houston v BBC is in the 1995 volume of Session Cases and starts on page 433! So..

10 Lets complicate it a bit Sometimes a case report may be published in more than one volume every year so you may also have a volume number in the citation Example: [2008] 4 All E.R. 28 Lets complicate it a bit more In the early 2000s the concept of neutral citations was introduced these citations do not refer to a specific printed publication and are designed to make them easier to find online Examples: [2001] EWCA Civ 989 [2009] CSOH 42 Let s complicate it a bit

11 Neutral citations follow the same convention as the printed case reporting series, but the abbreviation is not a publication but a court in this example, CSOH is the abbreviation for the Court of Session (Outer House). So This citation refers to a case heard in 2009 in the Court of Session (Outer House) and was the 42 nd case heard in that year! Neutral citations

12 Sometimes there will be more than one version of a case this is true for our case Houston v BBC 1995 S.C. 433; 1995 S.L.T These are called parallel citations. They indicate that this case has been reported in more than one law and court reports. Case citators, both online and in printed sources, rank parallel citations in authoritative order of the particular law report series, with the official reports at the top, then unofficial commercial reports and newspaper reports and transcripts at the bottom Parallel citations

13 To find the print report of the Morton v Wiseman case (Morton v. Wiseman 1989 S.C.L.R. 365) in the Library follow these three easy steps Step One What does the abbreviation stand for? Firstly, you will need to find the full title of the law report abbreviated here as S.C.L.R. You can do this by checking Raistricks lndex to legal citations and abbreviations which is kept in the Law Reference section on Level 7 of the main Library; or you can use the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations online. In this example, S.C.L.R. stands for Scottish Civil Law Reports Step Two Does the Library have the Law Report? Once you have identified the name of the series from the abbreviation, you can see whether the Library holds it and where it is. Law reports are shelved in the Main Library on Level 7, but you can find the precise location by checking QuickSearch enter Scottish Civil Law Reports into the search box on the Library homepage. The result tells you that the Main Library copies are held on Level 7, in the Law Reports section, call number Law Reports SC250 Step Three Where exactly is it? Go to the shelves to find the relevant law report (e.g. Scottish Civil Law Reports) volume for the year (e.g. 1989) and go to the page (e.g.365) to read the important details of the case. Recap finding printed law reports

14 To find the online report of the Morton v Wiseman case (Morton v. Wiseman 1989 S.C.L.R. 365) login the LexisLibrary database and type 1989 S.C.L.R. 365 into the Case name or citation box on the Quick Find section & hit find that s all there is to it! Recap finding online cases

15 Library Knowledge Base For more detail on see: Finding & using cases Recap finding online cases

16 Journal citations KD Ewing, Transparency, Accountability and Equality: The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000 [2001] PL 542 Journal citations

17 Journal citations what does the abbreviation stand for? To find out what the abbreviation PL stands for go to the Cardiff Index and enter PL into the Search by Abbreviation search box

18 PL stands for a journal called Public Law So This article can be found in the 2001 volume of the journal called Public Law and the article begins on page 542! Journal citations

19 Watch 5 minute guide to understanding legal citations & abbreviations Watch the legal citations and abbreviations video

20 College Librarians for Law are Kay Munro & Lynn Irvine We are very happy to meet with you if you want to find out more about using databases and other Library resources Getting help with all this

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