A neutral citation is where cases are numbered consecutively throughout the year and the abbreviation (UKHL, EWCH) indicates which court the case was heard in. Neutral citations are independent of law report series. They are designed to make it easier cite and trace judgements, particularly those which are unreported.
If a case is subsequently reported in a law report, use a comma to separate the neutral citation from the law report citation.
Neutral citations were introduced to some Scottish Courts from 1st January 2005.
The following courts in Scotland use neutral citations :
Format: Name of case in italics │ [year] │ court abbreviation │ unique case number
Examples:
Below are examples of how to reference cases in a footnote and in the bibliography.
Example of a case which has been subsequently reported in a law report series:
Davidson v Scottish Ministers [2005] UKHL 74, 2006 SC (HL) [41].
Bibliography
The only differences are that case names are not italicised, pinpointing is not used and there is no full stop at the end of the reference.
Example of a case in the bibliography:
Davidson v Scottish Ministers [2005] UKHL 74, 2006 SC (HL) [41]
Cases published after 2001 will have a neutral citation which must be used.
Below are some examples of how to reference a case with neutral citations as a footnote and in the bibliography.
Footnote:
Format:
Name of case in italics │ [year] │ court │ case number, [year of publication] │ OR (year of judgement) │ volume │report abbreviation │ first page.
Example of a case which has been subsequently reported in a law report series:
NRAM Ltd v Evans [2017] EWCA Civ 1013, [2018] 1 WLR 639.
Bibliography:
The only difference is that case names are not italicised, pinpointing is not used and there is no full stop at the end of the reference.
Cases identifying parties by initials only should be listed under the initial.
NRAM Ltd v Evans [2017] EWCA Civ 1013, [2018] 1 WLR 639
Square brackets [ ] are used when the year is crucial to identify the law report volume (for example when there is more than one volume published per year.)
Round brackets ( ) are used when the year is not necessary to identify the law report volume (for example if there was only one volume published per year.)
In Scottish cases, the year is not put in square brackets if it is essential to locate the case in the series of reports but is put in round brackets if the volumes of the law report series are independently numbered.