Last time we looked at how to reference Statutory Instruments using OSCOLA; this time we will be looking at how to reference court rules. These follow a similar system to other Statutory Instruments, but there are some crucial differences.
We will be looking at three particular types of court rule; firstly, the now replaced Rules of the Supreme Court (RSC); secondly, the also defunct County Court Rules (CCR); and finally, the current Civil Procedure Rules (CPR). They are all referenced similarly, and you may still need to cite some of the older ones, so we will consider all of them here in turn.
The first thing that we will be discussing is what these rules are and what they apply to. So, we start by asking:
What are the Rules of the Supreme Court?
The Rules of the Supreme Court (RSC) were created in 1883 when the Supreme Court of Judicature first sat. This is not the same as the current Supreme Court, but rather the name given to the Senior Courts of England and Wales. The Senior Courts consist of the Court of Appeal, High Court and Crown Court.
They were collectively named the Supreme Court of Judicature until 1981, when it was renamed the Supreme Court of England and Wales, then again to the Senior Courts of England and Wales, to avoid confusion after the creation of the new Supreme Court.
The RSC applied to all civil cases in the Senior Courts (so those from the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal and the High Court) and were designed to rule on the procedures used in these courts. They replaced an amalgamation of separate rules of court to make a single set of procedures that all civil Senior Courts followed.
These rules covered a wide range of topics, such as the proceedings for beginning a case in these courts, with points like how proceedings can be started – whether by writ, summons or another way. They were organised into Orders, each covering a specific topic.
The RSC were revised after an Evershed Committee report in 1951 advising this. This was done in halves, with the first half being introduced in 1964 and the second in 1965. These both came into force in 1966.
What are the County Court Rules?
The County Court Rules (CCR) were those that gave the procedures to be used in cases heard in county courts. They were also revised many times after their creation, the most recent major one being in 1981. Unlike the RSC, the CCR had a narrower scope, only applying to the county courts rather than a range of Senior Courts.
However, they covered similar topics, such as how proceedings could begin, where they could begin and giving details about particular types of claim. You can see from this that the CCR are designed to ensure everything in (and out) of court relating to the case runs smoothly and gives clear guidelines as to what actions parties and the court must take.
What are the Civil Procedure Rules?
The Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) have now replaced both the RSC and the CCR under the authority of the Civil Procedure Rules 1998. These apply to all cases started after 1999, so they are well established by now! As the name suggests, they apply only to the procedure in the civil courts, not the criminal courts. As they replaced both the RSC and CCR, they cover all of the civil courts that they did, being the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal, the High Court and the county courts.
The CPR were introduced with the aim of making the law clearer, meaning that a lot of the terms used were changed to better reflect modern English and make it easier for people with no legal knowledge to interpret. For example, “subpoena” has been changed to simply “witness summons”.
The CPR contains similar material to the RSC and the CCR, such as the procedure for starting a case and how to respond to a claim. However, unlike the others, the CPR starts by stating the overriding objective of the rules, which state what is meant by dealing with a case justly and how the court can apply this overriding objective.
How Do I Reference Rules of Court?
Now that we have seen what the different types of rules of court are, we will look at how they should be referenced in OSCOLA. Again, they are all referenced in a similar way, so we will look at them all together. You may recall from my last OSCOLA blog that a statutory instrument is usually referenced as:
Name | Year, | SI Number
For example:
Penalties for Disorderly Behaviour (Amendment of Minimum Age) Order 2004, SI 2004/3166.
However, rules of courts are an exception; they do not need to be cited with their year or statutory number, meaning that the format is simply:
Rule | Part
For example:
CPR 7.
The Rule will be either RSC, CCR or CPR. The Part is just whichever part of the rules you are referring to, so the example above refers to Part 7 of the Civil Procedure Rules.
This short system of referencing can only be used for the RSC, the CCR and the CPR. Any other rules of court should be referenced in full as statutory instruments.
Pinpoints
If you need to refer to a particular rule or subsection, you can do this in the same way as for statutes and for other statutory instruments, using the following table:
| part/parts | pt/pts |
| section/sections | s/ss |
| subsection/subsections | sub-s/sub-ss |
| paragraph/paragraphs | para/paras |
| subparagraph/subparagraphs | subpara/subparas |
| regulation/regulations | reg/regs |
| rule/rules | r/rr |
| article/articles | art/arts |
Place pinpoints after a comma at the end of the citation:
RSC Ord 24, r 14A.
Practice Directions
Practice directions can be simply cited by number, according to the part or rule they supplement:
6A PD 4.1.
So, this example supplements Part 6 and refers to paragraph 4.1.
Wrapping Up
Rules of courts are in fact easier to reference than other statutory instruments, so you should be able to reference court rules with confidence now. As always, let me know if you have any questions and I’ll do my best to answer them!
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