Referencing - BU Harvard 24-25 Full Guide: Legislation and Cases

Citing in the main text of your work

Cite an Act by its short title and date. You should not include ‘The’ at the beginning of the Act's title, nor any punctuation between the title and the date:

• e.g. According to the Human Rights Act 1998...

Referencing in list at the end of your work

Legislation should be listed within the list of references at the end of your work (in alphabetical order).

e.g.

Human Rights Act 1998

Mental Capacity Act 2005

For other types of UK legislation e.g. Bills, Statutory Instruments (SI) or EU legislation see our Referencing - UK & EU Law guide.

This guidance applies whether you found the law report in print or online.

Citing in the main text of your work:

Case name  [year]

Barrett v Enfield LBC [2001]

As long as it does not cause confusion, on subsequent occasions only the first party need to be mentioned. Barrett [2011]

Referencing in list at the end of your work:

Cases should be listed within the list of references at the end of your work (in alphabetical order).

Case name  [year] Volume  report abbreviation first page  (court)

Barrett v Enfield LBC [2001] 2 AC 550 (HL)

• Case name needs to be formatted in italics.
• Only BU students who study law courses use the footnote system of referencing.
• For other types of cases e.g. Unreported, neutral citation, EU, etc. see our Referencing - UK & EU Law guide.