The Coventry University Guide to Referencing in Harvard Style: Legal Documents

If you incorporate information from legal documents into your text, you must provide both an in-text citation and matching entry in your end List of References. These two components are referenced differently for different types of legal documents . Click on the relevant tab above to see examples.

N.B. For courses run by Coventry Law School, you may be required to use another referencing system (e.g. OSCOLA ). Please ask your lecturer for further guidance.

An Act of Parliament

In-text citation

Examples

By law, individuals may be detained for their own protection (Mental Health Act 1983, s.3). Section 3 of the Mental Health Act 1983 allows individuals to be detained for their own protection.

Components

Short title of the Act.
Year.
Sections (e.g. section, sub-section, paragraph), if applicable.

Note: For integral in-text citations (e.g. second example), the year of publication does not have to be placed within brackets, which is an exception to the usual rules.

List of References entry

Examples

Mental Capacity Act (2005, c.9) London: The Stationery Office Mental Health Act (1983, c.1) London: The Stationery Office

Components

Short title of the Act.
Year and chapter number in brackets.
Place of publication.
Publisher.