JustCite - Support - Valid reference formats

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Valid legislation reference formats for JustCite

JustCite incorporates linking technology developed by Justis Publishing that recognises a string of characters as a citation of a document, and then locates and displays the appropriate data about that document.

You can use references in the following formats in the Reference field on the Search In Legislation screen, or on the Quick Search screen.

Please note that although some of the recognised formats look like titles, you must not search using the Title field — if you do, then JustCite will find all documents that contain the words in the title, not just the document you are looking for.

It does not normally matter whether the citation includes full, partial or no punctuation; or is in upper, lower or mixed case. The exception is abbreviations of Chapter, where “c.” must be lower case and include a full stop.

If you see any of these references on a web page, then you can use the free J-Link legal research tool to convert them into links to information in JustCite.

The citation formats for statutes that JustCite can recognise include:

Acts of the UK Parliament – abbreviations

Abbreviations for Acts of Parliament that JustCite can recognise include:

Abbreviation	Statute
CAA	Capital Allowances Act 2001
CAA 2001	Capital Allowances Act 2001
CSA 1995	Child Support Act 1995
ERA 1996	Employment Rights Act 1996
FA 1970	Finance Act 1970
FA 1971	Finance Act 1971
FA 1973	Finance Act 1973
FA 1974	Finance Act 1974
FA 1976	Finance Act 1976
FA 1977	Finance Act 1977
FA 1988	Finance Act 1988
FA 1989	Finance Act 1989
FA 1995	Finance Act 1995
FA 1996	Finance Act 1996
FA 1999	Finance Act 1999
FA 2000	Finance Act 2000
FA 2001	Finance Act 2001
Human Rights Act	Human Rights Act 1998
ICTA	Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1988
ICTA 1970	Income and Corporation Taxes Act 1970
JSA 1995	Jobseekers Act 1995
OPA 1973	Overseas Pensions Act 1973
PACE 1984	Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984
SPCA(NI) 2002	State Pension Credit (Northern Ireland) Act 2002
SPCA 2002	State Pension Credit Act 2002
SSCB(NI)A 1992	Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act 1992
SSCBA 1992	Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992
TCA 2002	Tax Credits Act 2002
TCGA 1992	Taxation of Chargeable Gains Act 1992
TMA 1970	Taxes Management Act 1970
VERA 1994	Vehicle Excise and Registration Act 1994
WRPA 1999	Welfare Reform and Pensions Act 1999

Alphabetic characters can be upper or lower case.

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Acts of the UK Parliament – names

JustCite can recognise the names of many Acts of Parliament and treat them as citations, for example:

Appeal of Death Act, 1297
Bank of England Act, 1697
Militia (Tower Hamlets) Act, 1813
Nationality Immigration and Asylum Act, 2002
Fair Employment (Northern Ireland) Act, 1989
Police (Northern Ireland) Act, 2003
Criminal Procedure (Consequential Provisions) (Scotland) Act, 1995
Sunday Working (Scotland) Act, 2003
Church Services (Wales) Act, 1863
Health (Wales) Act, 2003

Alphabetic characters can be upper or lower case.

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UK Statutory Instruments – names

JustCite can recognise the names of many Statutory Instruments and treat them as citations, for example:

The Suppression of Terrorism Act 1978 (Designation of Countries) Order 2003
The Health and Social Care Act 2001 (Isles of Scilly) Order 2003
The Registration of Births and Deaths Regulations 1987
The Atomic Energy Authority (Special Constables) Order 2002
The Olympics Association Right (Infringement Proceedings) Regulations 1995

Alphabetic characters can be upper or lower case.

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Acts of the UK Parliament – citation formats

Recognised formats of references to Acts of Parliament include:

Formats for Acts	Formats for sections and schedules
Children Act, 1989 Children Act 1989 1989 Chapter 41 1989 c. 41 1989 c.41 2000 (N.I.) c. 1 2000 (n.i.) c. 1 Magna Carta	Section 12 sect.12 sec.12 s.12 s12 Schedule 8 sch.8 sch8

Any of the formats in the left-hand column of the table can be used to find the Arrangement of Sections, which has hypertext links to the preamble and to all of the sections and schedules that make up the complete Act.

Any of the formats for an Act can be followed by any of the formats in the right-hand column (separated by space and/or comma) to find an individual section or schedule, a range of sections, or several specified sections. For example:

Children Act, 1989, Section 12
Children Act, 1989 Schedule 8
Children Act 1989 s.12(3b)
Children Act 1989 s.12
1989 Chapter 41 Section 12
1989 c.41 sch.8

Any of the formats for an Act can be preceded by any of the formats in the right-hand column (separated by prepositions, articles, space and/or comma) to find an individual section or schedule. For example:

Section 12(3b) of the Children Act 1989
s. 4 of the Children Act 1989
Schedule 8 of the Children Act 1989
Schedule 8 to the Children Act 1989

Alphabetic characters can normally be upper or lower case, and can include full stops, but they are not normally necessary. The exception is abbreviations of Chapter, where “c.” must be lower case and include a full stop.

References to locations within a section or schedule (e.g. 12(3b)) will lead to information about the whole section or schedule.

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Acts of the Scottish Parliament – citation formats

Recognised formats of references to Acts of the Scottish Parliament include:

Land Reform (Scotland) Act, 2003
Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003
2003 asp 2
2003 ASP. 2

Alphabetic characters can be upper or lower case. Abbreviations can include full stops, but they are not necessary.

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UK Statutory Instruments – number formats

Recognised formats of numbers of Statutory Instruments include:

Statutory Instrument number 3123 of 1995
Statutory Instrument number 3123 of 3/12/95
Statutory Instruments number 3123 of 1995
Statutory Instruments number 3123 of 3/12/95
S.I. No. 3123 of 1995
S.I. No. 3123 of 3/12/95
S.I. n. 3123 of 1995
S.I. n. 3123 of 3/12/95
S.I. 3123 of 1995
SI Nº 3123 of 3 December 1995
Statutory Instrument 1995 No. 3123
Statutory Instrument 1995/3123
Statutory Instruments 1995 No. 3123
Statutory Instruments 1995/3123
S.I. 1995 No. 3123
S.I. 1995/3123
S.I. 1995 3123
S.I. 1995-3123
SI 1995 No. 3123
SI 1995/3123
SI 1995 3123
SI 1995-3123
si 1995 no 3123
si 1995/3123
si 1995 3123
si-1995-3123

Alphabetic characters can be upper or lower case. Abbreviations can include full stops, but they are not necessary. In the short formats, the three elements can be separated by space, hyphen or slash.

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