Citing Legal Information

Reported decisions

To cite Hong Kong reported decisions, make reference to the OSCOLA rules of citing UK cases.

case name | [year] | volume | report abbreviation | first page.

Example

Unreported judgments

If you are to cite unreported judgments as published in the HKSAR Judiciary's website Judgments and Legal Reference, make use of the citator function. Here are the steps.

1. Go to the Judgments and Legal Reference database, open the judgment that you need to cite.
2. Move to the bottom of the screen and click "Citator".
3. You will get an on-screen message, respond accordingly.
   • Internet Explorer: click "Allow access" and then "OK".
   • Chrome: click "OK".
   • Safari for Mac, highlight the citation, copy it by right-clicking.
4. Go to the document that you have been writing and place the cursor to the place where you want to cite the judgment, right click and paste the citation.

Watch the video below for a demonstration.

Neutral citation for Hong Kong unreported judgment

According to the HKSAR Judiciary Practice Direction 5.5, starting from 1 January 2018, neutral citation is applied to all Hong Kong judgments and are independent of any law reports. A neutral citation is made up of these elements.

case name | [year of the judgment] | court abbreviation | judgment number of that year

Examples