Understanding legal citations and abbreviations - Knowledge Base
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Understanding legal citations and abbreviations - Knowledge Base
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Understanding legal citations and abbreviations - Knowledge Base
- 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 You’ll find them in all your reading lists and handouts from lecturers, as well as in textbooks and journal articles KD Ewing, ‘Transparency, Accountability and Equality: The Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000’ [2001] PL 542 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?
- 6. Raistrick’s Index to Legal Citations & Abbreviations • 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 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
- 7. Cardiff Index to Legal Citations 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. http://www.legalabbrevs.cardiff.ac.uk/ Commonly know as the Cardiff Index ‐ the Cardiff Index to Legal Citations & Abbreviations is the most commonly used online index
- 8. Cardiff Index to Legal Citations 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 ….
- 13. Recap ‐ finding printed law reports 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.
- 14. Recap – finding online cases 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!
- 15. Recap – finding online cases Library Knowledge Base For more detail on see: Finding & using cases
- 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