Note materials listed below may be found in online sources. A URL reference is not required for most primary sources as they generally will be sourced from established commercial or free sources and pagination or paragraph referencing will have been provided.
Primary Sources
HK Reported Cases
A reported case would be cited as follows:
Jumbo King Ltd v Faithful Properties Ltd (1999) 2 HKCFAR 279
Party names followed by year and volume reference then abbreviation for set of law reports the case is reported in. Only the first page reference is provided unless the case is being referred to in a footnote. The page or page range being referred to should then be indicated as follows.
Jumbo King Ltd v Faithful Properties Ltd (1999) 2 HKCFAR 279, 282
Or
Jumbo King Ltd v Faithful Properties Ltd (1999) 2 HKCFAR 279 at 282
If the case has parallel citations, the authorised report should be referred to when known.
HK Unreported Decisions - Possible Formats
HKLII format:
The main standard medium-neutral citations used in HKLII are:
| HKCFA | Court of Final Appeal | |
| HKCA | Court of Appeal | |
| HKCFI | Court of First Instance | |
| HKDC | District Court | |
| HKFamC | Family Court |
Li Sau Ying v Kincheng Banking Corp & Another [2002] HKCFI 202
HK Court Citation:
Li Sau Ying v Kincheng Banking Corporation & Another HCA18515/1999
For full listing of Court Level and case types see https://legalref.judiciary.hk/lrs/common/help/hlptopic.htm
In footnotes for unreported citations use paragraph references enclosed in square brackets.
Li Sau Ying v Kincheng Banking Corporation & Another HCA18515/1999 [10]
Westlaw:
Li Sau Ying v Kincheng Banking Corporation & Another [2002] HKEC 1103
Lexis:
Tsui Chi Hung Tony v Hsin Chong Construction Co Ltd and Others [2006] HKCU 190
Abbreviations used in law reports
Listed here are relevant abbreviations that appear in Hong Kong and UK judgments.
| ACJ | Acting Chief Justice | |
| A-G | Attorney-General | |
| B | Baron of the Exchequer | |
| CIR | Commissioner of Inland Revenue | |
| CB | Chief Baron | |
| CJ | Chief Justice of the Court of Final Appeal | |
| CJHC | Chief Justice of the High Court | |
| CJCP | Chief Justice of the Common Pleas | |
| CJKB | Chief Justice of the King’s Bench | |
| CJQB | Chief Justice of the Queen’s Bench | |
| Judge* | Circuit Judge | |
| DJ | District Judge | |
| HL | House of Lords | |
| J (J) | Justice (s) of the High Court | |
| J (J) A | Justice (s) of Court of Appeal | |
| LC | Lord Chancellor | |
| LCJ | Lord Chief Justice | |
| LJ | Lord Justice | |
| Lord* | Lord of Appeal | |
| Master* | Master | |
| MR | Master of Rolls | |
| NPJ | Non-Permanent Judge (s) of the Court of Final Appeal: Since 1 July 1997 | |
| P | President of the Family Division | |
| PC | Judicial Committee of the Privy Council | |
| PJ | Permanent Judge (s) of the Court of Final Appeal:Since 1 July 1997 | |
| Registrar* | Registrar | |
| SC | Senior Counsel: Since 1 July 1997 | |
| S-J, SJ | Secretary of Justice: Since 1 July 1997 | |
| V-P, VP (P) | Vice-President of the Court of Appeal | |
| V-C | Vice-Chancellor |
UK Case Citations
As for HK standard format of party names, year, volume, abbreviation for set of law reports, and first page reference:
Dudley v Holland [1965] 1 QB 31
It should be noted that since 2001, Sweet & Maxwell (UK) uses case numbers, not page numbers, when providing citations to cases and may exclude the volume reference. For example:
A Local Authority v Z (2005) HRLR 2
(Case number 2 – page number where it actually is reported is 99 in Volume 6 for 2005)
Earlier UK decisions - Nominate reports:
Cite parallel citation to ER when one exists. For example, a case from Russell and Mylne:
Simson v Jones (1831) 2 Russ. & My. 365; 39 ER 433
Newspaper citations to cases:
Use Times newspaper citation only if no other exists:
Party names, The Times, date (Day Month Year)
UK Unreported Citations
For the UK, the following are some major medium-neutral citations that have been adopted since 2001. Provide party names, [year] court abbreviation and case number (date of delivery)
| UKHL | United Kingdom House of Lords | |
| UKPC | United Kingdom Privy Council | |
| UKSC | United Kingdom Supreme Court | |
| EWCA Civ | England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division) | |
| EWCA Crim | England and Wales Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) | |
| EWHC (Ch) | England and Wales High Court (Chancery Division) | |
| EWHC (Pat) | England and Wales High Court (Patents Court) | |
| EWHC (QB) | England and Wales High Court (Queens Bench) | |
| EWHC (Admin) | England and Wales High Court (Administrative Court) | |
| EWHC (Comm) | England and Wales High Court (Commercial Court) | |
| EWHC (Fam) | England and Wales High Court (Family Division) | |
| HCJT | Scotland High Court of Justiciary | |
| HCJAC | Scotland Court of Criminal Appeal |
For example:
LTF v LMF [2006] EWCA Civ 1179 (17 August 2006)
Principal Legislation
Citibank (Hong Kong) Limited (Merger) Ordinance Cap 1177
Or
Citibank (Hong Kong) Limited (Merger) Ordinance (Cap 1177)
If you are referring to Ordinances before it has received its chapter number, the year reference would be useful to put in so it can be located, but isn’t officially required.
Citibank (Hong Kong) Limited (Merger) Ordinance 2005
If you are referring to the Ordinance as originally passed, the chronological number and year should be included:
Citibank (Hong Kong) Limited (Merger) Ordinance (No 5 2005)
Amendment Legislation
Includes the year reference:
Vocational Training Council (Amendment) Ordinance 2005
Subsidiary Legislation
Generally cited with their year and Chapter number, although established ones may only have a title. For example, the High Court Rules made under the High Court Ordinance (Cap 4) appear just as ‘Rules of the High Court’. Amendment regulations appear as follows:
Electronic Transactions Ordinance (Amendment of Schedule) Order 2006
Basic Law
Cited by name and article number:
Basic Law Art 158
For Bibliographies cite in full as:
The Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China
Documents/ Agreements/Treaties Relevant to Hong Hong’s Development
These should be cited by name and date of implementation:
The Sino-British Joint Declaration (19 December 1984)
UK Legislation
It is similar to citing HK Legislation, but the year should be included when citing UK Legislation. Major Principal Legislation would appear as:
Clean Air Act 1993
Or
Clean Air Act 1993 (c 11)
Regulations may be cited just by number or just by title or include year as well. For example:
The Cross Border Insolvency Regulations 2006 No 1030
Or
The Cross Border Insolvency Regulations 2006
UN Treaty
Treaty name, date, treaty series citation, page ref (Date of entry into force):
UN Framework Convention on Climate Change 1771 UNTS 165 (9 May 1992)
International Cases and Arbitral Decisions
Case name, (parties names), phase of proceedings / advisory opinion [year] Report series or publication name, starting page
Case concerning the Barcelona Traction, Light and Power Company (Belgium v Spain) [1970] ICJ Rep 44
International Law Reports Series
Malone v Metropolitan Police Commissioner (No.2) 74 ILR 304
UN materials
Include following where applicable:
Author/title, resolution number official record, session number, subdivision UN Document number, year
Radhika Coomaraswamy, Report of the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, Its Causes and Consequences, UN Doc E/CN.4/1995/42 (22 November 1994)
European Materials
Official Journal of the European Communities / Official Journal of the European Union (2004 on)
Pre-1974: indicate citation to special edition of the Official Journal of the European Communities (OJ spec Ed)
Post-1974: Reference should include Official Journal of the European Communities/Union (OJ) all series citation (L – legislation C- information and notices)
Commission Regulation (EC) No 689/2009 of 29 July 2009 amending Council Regulation (EC) No 329/2007 concerning restrictive measures against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Official Journal of the European Union 31 July 2009. L199/3
European Court Reports:
Case no, name of the parties, year, ECR, page no (preceded by numerical I for cases before Court of Justice or II for cases before the Court of First Instance)
T-82/01 Josanne and others v Commission (2003) ECR II 2017
Citing Sections etc. from Legislation:
All references are to sections, subsections or paragraphs, parts, and divisions and these may be abbreviated in footnotes as follows1:
| Section | s |
| Sections | ss |
| Subsection | sub-s |
| Subsections | sub-ss |
| Paragraph | para |
| Paragraphs | paras |
| Subparagraph | subpara |
| Subparagraphs | subparas |
| Part | pt |
| Division | div |
Legislation may also contain schedules. The references are abbreviated as follows:
| Schedule | sch |
| Schedules | schs |
| Rule | r |
| Order | O |
1 Please note that when referring to legislation in the text of assignments etc., you should write the reference in full e.g. ‘section’, ‘part’ etc.
