We have now covered most of the major areas of secondary sources in OSCOLA referencing which are books, journals and internet sources, as well as a basic introduction covering many principles of OSCOLA. This blog will now be going back to a primary source, UK legislation, which is probably one of the main ones you will be using.
What is the difference between primary and secondary sources?
A primary source is one which is a purely factual record of law. Legislation cannot be subjective as it is simply stating what law Parliament has created. Likewise, cases are an unbiased recording of what happened during that particular case. They will usually be transcripts of what judges, lawyers and so forth said and what conclusion was reached. The opposing sides of the case may be biased, but law and principles created or confirmed by cases will mostly come from the judges’ words, which should not be biased and is creating law similarly to Parliament above. Primary sources give a direct view of the law as they are what law originates from.
Secondary sources such as journals and books may introduce the author’s own views and opinions; furthermore, they are merely reporting on law rather than being a source of law themselves.
Citing Legislation
If all the information necessary for the reader to find an Act is included in the text, there is no need to make a separate footnote repeating this information, for example:
These separate offences have been brought together under the Offences Against the Person Act 1861.
There is no need for a footnote as all the necessary information is already here. However, the legislation should still be included in the bibliography without a full stop at the end.
On the other hand, if the text refers to the legislation without fully naming it or the relevant section, a footnote is needed.
These separate offences have been brought together under one Act1.
1 Offences Against the Person Act 1861.
Here, the Act is only mentioned, so more information is needed for the reader to be able to find it themselves.
How to Cite Names of Statutes
To cite an Act, in a footnote or the bibliography, you should use the short title of the Act and the year it was passed immediately afterwards with no comma, as above. Don’t use nicknames for the Act, such as Lord Campbell’s Act instead of the Fatal Accidents Act 1846. Aside from it not looking professional and being unclear to some readers not familiar with the nickname, there may, as in the case of Lord Campbell’s Act, be more than one Act with this nickname.
If you reference the same Act more than once in a single piece of writing, you can use an abbreviated name for it. You should put this in brackets after the first mention of the Act, so readers know what abbreviation you are using. This is usually the main, capitalised initials of the words in the title and should always include the year at the end. This style of abbreviation can be used in footnotes as well, so you may have footnotes reading:
1 Offences Against the Person Act 1861 (OAPA 1861).
5 OAPA 1861.
In text, once you have given your abbreviation, it may be appropriate to simply refer to it as “the 1861 Act”. Obviously, this would not work if you are referring to multiple Acts from the same year! This method cannot be used in the footnotes of your writing.
Referencing Specific Parts of Statutes
Statutes are divided into parts, sections, subsections, paragraphs and subparagraphs. Abbreviations are used to indicate these:
| part/parts | pt/pts |
| section/sections | s/ss |
| subsection/subsections | sub-s/sub-ss |
| paragraph/paragraphs | para/paras |
| subparagraph/subparagraphs | subpara/subparas |
Therefore, if you wanted to reference section 47 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861, you would write it as:
12 OAPA 1861, s 47.
Assuming you had already abbreviated to OAPA 1861.
There should be a comma after the statute name and a space after the abbreviation (in this case s), but no full stop. As this is a citation in a footnote, a full stop is needed at the end.
This can get more complicated if you want to identify a specific paragraph in a subsection. Here you do not need to write each abbreviation; it is enough to put the numbers of the subsection and paragraph in brackets. For example, paragraph (b) of subsection (5) of section 14 of the Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA 1998) is written as:
16 HRA 1998, s 14(5)(b).
Note that there are no spaces between the brackets or the section number.
References in footnotes should always be written like this, with abbreviations. In text, you can either write out section etc. in full or use abbreviations as in the footnotes above, although it is standard to abbreviate subsection and paragraph in text. However, if the reference comes at the beginning of a sentence, always use the full form of the abbreviation:
Section 47 of the OAPA 1861…
You should also use the full form if you are not repeating the name of an act:
The defendant will be tried under section 47…
Don’t forget that no matter what section and parts you have referred to in text, the Act should appear without any of this referenced in the bibliography:
Offences Against the Person Act 1861
You should always write the Act name out in full in the bibliography, even if you have abbreviated in text. Also, remember that bibliography entries don’t have full stops at the end.
Older Statutes
For statutes that are old and/or less well known, it may also be helpful to put the regnal year and chapter number. This allows your readers to find the reference more easily, which is one of the golden rules of OSCOLA referencing. For example, an older Act can be referenced in a footnote as:
3 Crown Debts Act 1801 (41 Geo 3 c 90).
Here, the Geo 3 refers to the reign of King George the Third and the 41 indicates that it was in the 41st year of his reign. The c stands for chapter, meaning that this Act was the 90th in that year to receive the royal assent. This citation by chapter number must be used for older acts that do not have short titles.
Finally
Most legislation is very straightforward to reference, even if you need to refer to a particular subsection. Some older statutes may be hard to find an accurate citation for, but chances are someone else will have got there first and you can check your version against theirs! As always there are more details in the full OSCOLA referencing guide.
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