Skip to Main Content

TUS Logo

TUS: Cite them right: Harvard Guide

Acts & Legislation

Note: Legal and official publications referencing can be complex. There are several specific citation styles. Law students in TUS Midlands should consult the Law subject guide under 'Subject Support on the TUS Midlands Library web-page  OSCOLA Ireland is an Irish legal citation source. Below are guidelines for non-law students 

  • For patents the title may be more of a descriptive title rather than a formal title
  • Identifying elements such as patent/standard numbers should be included
  • If no individual author is available, a corporate author can be used in the in-text reference

Acts, Legislation

Material Type In-text Example Reference List example

See Cite Them Right; 12th Edn G10 p. 73-85

Act : General template

 

 (Act year)

  • Title of Act including Country (in brackets) and year  (all in italics)
  • Number (if any), s. (if a section has been referred to),
  • Available at: URL (Accessed: date)

Note:: If you are citing legislation from more than, one jurisdiction, include the country or authority after the title in the reference list. However the titles of legislation fro the UK's devolved assembles already include the jurisdiction so this is not necessary. In the UK and Singapore examples, the name of the country or jurisdiction is not part of the title, so it is not italicised.

See Cite Them Right; 12th Edn G10.10 p. 80

Ireland

Material Type In-text example Reference list example
Act : Ireland: example (Copyright and Related Rights Act 2000) Copyright and Related Rights Act, (Ireland) 2000 No.28/2000. Available at: https://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/2000/act/28/enacted/en/html (Accessed: 1 July 2021).

 

UK

Material type In-text example Reference list example

See Cite Them Right; 12th Edn G10.5 p. 76

UK status (Acts of parliament: citation: order:

UK status (Acts of parliament); example:

(Act year)

 

 

(Children Act 2004)
  • Title of Act including year and chapter number (for section of an act) (all in italics)
  • Country/jurisdiction (only if referring to more than one country's legislation)
  • Available at: URL (Accessed: date)

Children Act 2004, c.31. Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/31/pdfs/ukpga_20040031_en.pdf (Accessed: 17 September 2022).

See Cite Them Right; 12th Edn G10.13 p. 82

UK Law reports: citation order:

UK Law reports: example

('case 1 v. case 2', date)

 

 

The earlier case ('Humphreys v. Revenue and Customs' (2012)
  • Name of care (in single quotation marks)
  • Year (in round brackets)
  • Title of law report (in italics)
  • Volume number
  • Page numbers

'Humphreys v. Revenue and Customs' (2012) United Kingdom Supreme Court, case 18. BAILII. Available at: https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2010-0097.html (Accessed: 21 August 2023).

 

European Union

Material type In-text example Reference list example

See Cite Them Right; 12th Edn G11.2 p. 84

EU directives, decisions and regulations

 'legislation type number' (date)

Citation order:

  • Legislation type (in single quotation marks)
  • Number and title (in single quotation marks)
  • Year (in round brackets)
  • Official Journal (OJ) series (in italics)
  • Issue
  • Page numbers

or

  • Available at: DOI or URL (Accessed: date)

See Cite Them Right; 12th Edn G11.2 p. 84

EU directives, decisions and regulations; example: 

 'Council directive 2008/52/EC' (2008) 'Council directive 2008/52/EC on certain aspects of mediation in civil and commercial matters' (2008) Official Journal L136, p. 3.