Discuss in detail the requirement of writing, including reference to decided case, statues and the
common law
Introduction
There are different writing styles available for citing legal materials. The APA 6 th edition legal
citations recommend the following writing styles.
Court cases: (Tony v. Connecticut, 1980)
Statutes (named) : (Infant Relief Act (1874)
Statutes (no name) (15 U.S.C. 2257)
Some of the names of laws may not be easily available hence some publications include
the legal in text citations only but exclude the other sources of references.
The format of the California Court Decisions is (Cal, Cal, App., Cal APP. 2d. etc)
Examples of such entries are:
People V. Token Grocery’s, 200 Cal. App. 2d 224 (cal. App. 2d 1988)
Writing, reference to decided cases, statues and the common law 2
The California Statutes
Format – Code, Name of the law, The State Abbreviation Code Abbreviation & section
numbers and year if available.
For example, Californian Healthcare Act, Cal. Assemb. B. 11 (2010-2011),
Chapter 600 (cal. State. 2012)
Decided cases : Hardwick v Johnson [1978] 1 WLR 683
Common law citations: 2010 MR 17
Law books References
Beatson, J., A. (2010) Burrows and J. Cartwright Anson’s law of contract, Oxford: Oxford
University Press, [ISBN 9780199282470].
Beale, H.G., W.D. (2007) Bishop and M.P. Furmston Contract – cases and materials,
London: Butterworths, [ISBN 0199287368].
Brownsword, R. (2010) Smith & Thomas: A casebook on contract, London: Sweet &
Maxwell, [ISBN 9781847034175].
Gibson v Manchester City Council (1979)
McKendrick, E. (2012) Contract law: text, cases and materials. (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, [ISBN 9780199699384].
McKendrick, E. (2011) Contract law, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
[ISBN 9780230285699].
Writing, reference to decided cases, statues and the common law 3
Poole, J. (2012) Casebook on contract law, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[ISBN 9780199699483].
