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  4. Quick guide to Cite Them Right referencing for Law modules

Quick guide to Cite Them Right referencing for Law modules

Table of contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Cite Them Right Harvard
  3. Cite Them Right OSCOLA
  4. Referencing accessible formats

This guide should be used only when you are studying an OU Law undergraduate module (W1xx, W2xx or W3xx). It should be read in conjunction with Sections 8–8.2.2 (requires login) of the Law undergraduate guide.

If you are studying a Law postgraduate module (W8xx), you should not use this guide. Please refer to the information under the 'Assessment: plagiarism and referencing' section under the 'Discover' tab on the Law Postgraduate Home website.

If you are studying any other module, use the Quick guide to Harvard referencing (Cite Them Right).

Introduction

This guide provides a quick introduction to Cite Them Right (CTR) Harvard and OSCOLA (Oxford University Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities) referencing styles. CTR is a practical guide to referencing, and is available through the OU Library. If you are viewing CTR in any mode other than full-screen, you might have to scroll down to find the information you require.

For general help and support with referencing, have a look at the Library’s page on referencing and plagiarism. If you need guidance referencing OU module material using CTR Harvard you can check out which sections of Cite Them Right are recommended when referencing physical and online module material.

Two categories of material

When you are studying an OU Law module, you will need to refer to two categories of material: general academic sources, and legal sources. On Law undergraduate modules, these two types of source require different referencing styles: CTR Harvard and CTR OSCOLA.

General academic sources

You will reference these using the CTR Harvard. These sources are sometimes referred to as ‘secondary sources of law’, and include module materials, books, databases, journal articles and websites.

When you are referring to module materials, you should:

  • follow the style shown in Tutors’ lecture notes in VLEs (Harvard) (this item is under the 'Learning Environments and online support' sub-heading under the 'Digital & Internet' heading in CTR Harvard),
  • include section numbers to enable your tutor to find the part of the materials that you used, and
  • use suffix letters to distinguish between the units, as explained in Sections 8–8.2.2 (requires login) of the Law undergraduate guide.

Legal sources

You will reference these sources, which are listed under the 'Legal' heading in CTR OSCOLA.

These sources include various reports and papers, and primary sources of law, including:

  • UK cases (these are listed as ‘Law reports (cases)’)
  • UK statutes (these are listed as ‘UK Statutes (Acts of Parliament)’ under the ‘Official records of Parliament’ sub-heading)
  • UK secondary legislation (this is listed as ‘Statutory Instruments (SIs)’ under the ‘Official records of Parliament’ sub-heading)
  • Welsh Parliament (Senedd Cymru) legislation (this is in the examples of ‘Legislation from UK devolved legislatures’ under the ‘Official records of Parliament’ sub-heading)
  • EU legislation (this is listed under the ‘International’ sub-heading)
  • EU cases (these are listed under the ‘European Case Law Identifier’ under the ‘International’ sub-heading)
  • International treaties and case law (these are in the examples of ‘International legal sources’ listed under the ‘International’ sub-heading)
  • The European Convention on Human Rights and cases from the European Court of Human Rights

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Cite Them Right Harvard

In-text citations and full references

Referencing consists of two elements:

  • in-text citations, which are inserted in the body of your text and are included in the word count. An in-text citation gives the author(s) and publication date of a source you are referring to. If the publication date is not given, the phrase 'no date' is used instead of a date. If using direct quotations, you also need the page number/s, if available, or paragraph number for web pages.
  • full references, which are given in alphabetical order in a reference list at the end of your work and are not included in the word count. Full references give full bibliographical information for all the sources you have referred to in the body of your text.

Difference between reference list and bibliography

  • A reference list only includes sources you have referred to in the body of your text.

  • A bibliography includes sources you have referred to in the body of your text AND sources that were part of your background reading that you did not use in your assignment.

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Examples of in-text citations

There are a number of ways of incorporating in-text citations into your work. Examples are provided below:

One author Two authors Three authors Four or more authors

It has been emphasised that good referencing is an important academic skill (Harris, 2015).

OR

It has been emphasised by Harris (2015) that good referencing is an important academic skill.

It has been emphasised that good referencing is an important academic skill (Shah and Papadopoulos, 2015).

OR

Shah and Papadopoulos (2015) emphasised that good referencing is an important academic skill.

It has been emphasised that good referencing is an important academic skill (Wong, Smith and Adebole, 2015).

OR

Wong, Smith and Adebole (2015) emphasised that good referencing is an important academic skill.

It has been emphasised that good referencing is an important academic skill (Wong et al., 2015).

OR

Wong et al. (2015) emphasised that good referencing is an important academic skill.

In-text citations to your online module units should also include the section number (e.g. The Open University (2023a, 5.1)).

Note: When referencing a chapter of an edited book, your in-text citation should give the author(s) of the chapter.

Corporate author When no author, use the title of the resource in italics

It has been emphasised that good referencing is an important academic skill (The Open University, 2015).

Information from The Open University (2015) emphasises that good referencing is an important academic skill.

It has been emphasised that good referencing is an important academic skill (Information Literacy in Higher Education, 2015).

Information from Information Literacy in Higher Education(2015) emphasises that good referencing is an important academic skill.
Secondary referencing

You use secondary referencing when you want to refer to a source that is mentioned or quoted in the work you are reading.

To do this, you add the phrase ‘quoted in’ or ‘cited in’ (depending on whether the author of the secondary source is directly quoting or summarising from the primary source) to your intext citation, along with the details of the source that you are reading.

In-text citation examples:

West et al. (2007, quoted in Birch, 2017, p. 17) state that…
Sovereignty doesn’t ‘come out of nowhere’ (Lev, 2014, cited in The Open University, 2022).

You would then include Birch and The Open University in your reference list as these are the sources that you have read.
Page numbers

You should include page numbers in your citation if you are quoting directly from or using ideas from a specific page or set of pages.

Add the abbreviation p. (or pp. if more than one page) before the page number(s).

Examples:

Harris (2015, p. 5) argues that…

The National Minimum wage applies to everyone over the age of 18, except for those that are “genuinely self-employed”, who are excluded (Clarke, 2001, pp. 98–99).
Citing multiple sources published in the same year by the same author

Add a lower-case letter to the date in the in-text citation and in the matching full reference to distinguish between the sources.

In text citations: Prior to 1971, many different acts had been introduced to cover damage to different types of property (The Open University, 2022a, 4.1), whereas theft was set out as a statutory offence in s1 of the Theft Act 1968 (The Open University, 2022b, 3.1).

Matching full references:

The Open University (2022a) 'Unit 10: Criminal damage'. W111: Criminal law and the courts. Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=1991906 (Accessed: 6 January 2023).

The Open University (2022b) 'Unit 11: Theft'. W111: Criminal law and the courts. Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=1991909 (Accessed: 6 January 2023).

Note: this only applies when you are using multiple different sources with the same author and year – if you are referring to the same source more than once then you do not need to add a letter to the date. The citation will be the same each time and you only need to include the source once in your reference list.

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Examples of full references

Online module materials

(Includes written online module activities, audio-visual material such as online tutorials, recordings or videos).

Surname, Initial. (Year study of module started) 'Title of item'. Module code: Module title. Available at: URL of VLE (Accessed: date).

OR, if there is no named author - this is the case for all undergraduate Law modules:

The Open University (Year study of module started) 'Title of item'. Module code: Module title. Available at: URL of VLE (Accessed: date).

Hypothetical example:

The Open University (2029) 'Unit 4: Rules and regulations'. W376: Law for life. Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=XXXXXXXX (Accessed: 7 March 2032).

You can also use this template to reference videos and audio that are hosted on your module website.

The Open University (2022) ‘Video: Blue v Ashley [2017]’. W212: Contract law. Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=2009935 section=3.1.2 (Accessed: 14 June 2023).

The Open University (2022) ‘Audio: FutureProofing, 2015’. W302: Equity, trusts and land. Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=1973369 section=5.1 (Accessed: 14 June 2023).

Note: if a complete journal article has been uploaded to a module website, or if you have seen an article referred to on the website and then accessed the original version, you should reference the original journal article, and not mention the module materials. If only an extract from an article that you want to reference is included in your module materials, you should use secondary referencing, with the module materials as the 'cited in' source, as described above.

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Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of message', Title of discussion board, in Module code: Module title. Available at: URL of VLE (Accessed: date).

Example:

Pywell, S. (2023) ‘Welcome to the Right Cites forum', Right Cites: avoiding plagiarism and citing correctly, in W112: Civil justice and tort law. Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/forumng/discuss.php?d=4311441 (Accessed: 14 June 2023).

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Note: When an ebook looks like a printed book, with publication details and pagination, reference as a printed book.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) Title. Edition if later than first. Place of publication: publisher. Series and volume number if relevant.

For ebooks that do not contain print publication details

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) Title of book. Available at: DOI or URL (Accessed: date).

Example with one author:

Bell, J. (2014) Doing your research project. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Example with two or three authors:

Goddard, J. and Barrett, S. (2015) The health needs of young people leaving care. Norwich: University of East Anglia, School of Social Work and Psychosocial Studies.

Example with four or more authors:

Young, H.D. et al. (2015) Sears and Zemansky's university physics. San Francisco, Calif.: Addison-Wesley.

OR

Young, H.D., Freedman, R.A., Sandin, T.R., and Ford, A.L. (2015) Sears and Zemansky's university physics. San Francisco, Calif.: Addison-Wesley.

Note: You can choose either method to reference four or more authors, and your approach should be consistent.

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Note: You should create full references for the printed versions of the module materials only if you receive them for reasons related to additional requirements that you have declared to the OU. If you have chosen to have printed versions of the module materials, but can access the online versions, your full references should refer to the online versions, as described above.

Surname, Initial. (Year study of module started) 'Title of item'. Module code: Module title. Place of publication: Publisher.

OR, if there is no named author - this is the case for all undergraduate Law modules:

The Open University (Year study of module started) 'Title of item'. Module code: Module title. Place of publication: Publisher.

Hypothetical example:

The Open University (2029) 'Unit 4: Rules and regulations'. W376: Law for life. Milton Keynes: The Open University.

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Note: An edited book has an editor, or editors, and chapters written by different authors.

Surname of chapter author, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of chapter or section', in Surname of book editor, Initial. (ed.) Title of book. Place of publication: publisher, Page reference.

Example:

Franklin, A.W. (2012) 'Management of the problem', in Smith, S.M. (ed.) The maltreatment of children. Lancaster: MTP, pp. 83–95.

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Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Journal, volume number (issue number), page reference.

Or if accessed online:

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Journal, volume number (issue number), page reference. Available at: DOI OR URL (if required) (Accessed: date).

Examples:

Foran, M. (2022) ' The cornerstone of our law: equality, consistency and judicial review', Cambridge Law Journal, 81(2), pp. 249–272.

Cahill-O’Callaghan, R. and Mulcahy, L. (2022) ‘Where are the numbers? Challenging the barriers to quantitative socio-legal scholarship in the United Kingdom’, Journal of Law and Society, 49(1), pp. S105–S118. Available at: https://doi- org.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/10.1111/jols.12376.

Candi, M., Melia, M. and Colurcio, M. (2019) ‘Two Birds with One Stone: The Quest for Addressing Both Business Goals and Social Needs with Innovation’, Journal of Business Ethics, 160(4), pp. 1019–1033. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/45278183 (Accessed: 14 June 2023).

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Surname, Initial. (Year) Title of photograph. Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Example:

Kitton, J. (2013) Golden sunset. Available at: https://www.jameskittophotography.co.uk/photo_8692150.html (Accessed: 21 November 2021).

stanitsa_dance (2021) Cossack dance ensemble. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/COI_slphWJ_/ (Accessed: 13 June 2023).

Note: If no title can be found then replace it with a short description.

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Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Newspaper (Edition, if any), Day and month, Section and page reference (if available).

Or if accessed online:

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Newspaper (Edition, if any), Day and month, Section and page reference (if available).Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Examples:

Ashton,, J. (2023) ‘Capital flows through London like the Thames. Don't divert it’, Evening Standard, 13 June, p. 23.

Ellis, L. (2023) ‘Job Enthusiasm Dims As Frustrations Grow’, Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition), 14 June. Available at: https://www.proquest.com/docview/2825379095/fulltext/67C087F32B96422BPQ/... (Accessed: 14 June 2023).

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Surname, Initial. (Year that the site was published/last updated) Title of web page. Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Organisation (Year that the page was last updated) Title of web page. Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Examples:

Robinson, J. (2007) Social variation across the UK. Available at: https://www.bl.uk/british-accents-and-dialects/articles/social-variation... (Accessed: 21 November 2021).

The British Psychological Society (2018) Code of Ethics and Conduct. Available at: https://www.bps.org.uk/news-and-policy/bps-code-ethics-and-conduct (Accessed: 22 March 2019).

Note: CTR offers guidance for referencing webpages that do not include authors' names or dates. However, be extra vigilant about the suitability of such webpages.

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Cite Them Right OSCOLA

In-text footnote numbers, and full citations in footnotes

An OSCOLA reference must include two elements:

  • in-text footnote numbers, presented as superscripts if possible, immediately after the punctuation at the end of every clause or sentence where cited material appears in your work. You should insert these references using your word-processor’s ‘insert footnote’ facility; in modern versions of Word, this appears under the ‘References’ tab. If you do not insert a space between the punctuation and the superscript, the superscript will not be included in your word count.
  • footnotes, each consisting of a number and a full citation, at the bottom of every page that includes one or more in-text footnote numbers; the material in these footnotes is not included in your word count. It does not matter whether these footnote numbers are presented as superscripts or normal-sized text, but you should be consistent within each piece of work. The examples below demonstrate the use of both styles.

For primary sources of law – eg UK cases and statutes, UK secondary legislation, Welsh legislation, EU cases and legislation, international treaties and case law, the European Convention on Human Rights and cases from the European Court of Human Rights – that you have found listed in your OU module materials, copy all the details, including the citation, from the footnote or (if there is no footnote) the text of the unit, and paste them into your footnotes. (These primary sources should not be included in the reference list at the end of your work.)

For other sources listed under the ‘Legal’ heading in CTR OSCOLA, and primary sources of law that you find in non-OU publications, use the CTR OSCOLA guidance to construct the footnote.

Examples of how to cite cases from the UK courts are found in ‘Law reports (cases)’ under the 'Legal' heading in CTR OSCOLA.

If you need to refer to a legal source that is not covered by CTR OSCOLA, you should make a genuine attempt to include all the information that would be necessary in order to enable your tutor to find it.

There is a note about citing treaties at the end of this Quick Guide.

You may choose to include the titles of some legal sources in the text of a piece of work, but you must also include their full citations in footnotes.

Most Law assignments will require both types of reference, so each piece of work is likely to include:

  • CTR Harvard in-text citations, and a reference list, for general academic sources

and

  • CTR OSCOLA in-text footnote numbers, and footnotes, for legal sources.

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Examples of using in-text footnote numbers and corresponding footnotes

The facts in the example below have, of course, been overtaken by events, but they have been used because it is very rare for so many different sources of law to be relevant to one situation.

If you include the name of a case in the text, you do not need to include its date in the text. The date for every case is part of its citation, so it must appear in the footnote.

If you include the title of a piece of legislation in the text, you must include its date in the text.

The ‘triggering’ process set out in the EU Treaty enables a member state to leave the EU within two years of giving formal notice of its intention to do so.1 The High Court ruled, in R (Miller) v The Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union,2 that the UK could not give notice of its intention to leave without the authority of an Act of Parliament. On 24 January 2017, this decision was upheld by the Supreme Court in R (on the application of Miller and another) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union.3

Parliament subsequently passed the European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Act 2017, which came into force on 16 March 2017, giving the Prime Minister the discretionary power to notify the EU of the UK’s intention to withdraw.

The UK’s exit date was originally set for 29 March 2019,4 but an extension was unanimously agreed by Parliament, and granted by the EU, and the date was amended to 31 October 2019.5

  1. Consolidated Version of the Treaty on the European Union [2008] OJ C115/13, art 50.
  2. R (Miller) v The Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union [2016] EWHC 2768 (Admin).
  3. R (on the application of Miller and another) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union [2017] UKSC 5.
  4. European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, s 20(1).
  5. European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (Exit Day) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2019, SI 2019/859, reg 2(2).

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Examples of how to construct citations for footnotes

Report citation with specific ‘pinpoint’ reference to a page

Footnote number. Name of parties involved in the case [Year] Volume number Abbreviation First page of report, page number (Judge's name). [Use square brackets for the year if it is needed to identify the volume of the law report].

1. Hazell v Hammersmith and Fulham London Borough Council [1992] 2 AC 1, 23 (Lord Templeman).

Report citation without specific ‘pinpoint’ reference

Footnote number. Name of parties involved in the case (Year) Volume number Abbreviation First page of report. (Use round brackets if each annual volume is numbered so the year is not necessary to identify the volume of the law report).

2. R v Edwards (John) (1991) 93 Cr App R 48.

Neutral citation with a specific ‘pinpoint’ reference to a paragraph

Names of parties involved in the case [Year] Court Number of case in that year [number of the paragraph].

3. Humphreys v Revenue and Customs [2012] UKSC 18 [8].

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Footnote number. Short title Year enacted, s section number(subsection number).

4. Human Rights Act 1998, s 6(1).

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Footnote number. Short title House (Parliamentary session) [Bill number].

5. Transport HC Bill (1999–2000) [8].

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European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)

The treaty that you will be most likely to need to cite is the European Convention on Human Rights. You can use this shortened wording in the main text of your work, and you should insert a footnote superscript after it.

In the footnote itself, you should use the full title, followed (if necessary), by the article number:

European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms art 50.

EU treaties

Instructions about how to cite the EU treaties are given under the ‘EU legislation, directives, decisions and regulations’ sub-heading under the 'International' tab in CTR OSCOLA.

Other international treaties

CTR OSCOLA requires more details about an international treaty than are likely to be given in your module units. If you cannot easily find all the details required by CTR, you can simply copy the full citation from your unit, and put it into a footnote.

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Referencing accessible formats

In accordance with the University’s Referencing accessible formats, individual arrangements will be made for students who advise the University that they have a disability that makes them unable to create references or to use CTR Harvard or CTR OSCOLA.

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