A small number of older works, such as Blackstone’s Commentaries, are regarded as books of authority, and are therefore generally accepted as reliable statements of the law of their time. These works have evolved commonly known abbreviations and citation forms, which should be used in all footnote references to them. Similarly, there are a small number of ‘institutional works’ which are regarded as formal sources of Scots law. In footnote references, these works should also be referred to by their commonly known abbreviated forms.
A list of some of these abbreviations can be found at the bottom of this page.
To use a footnote, put a superscript number into your text and then the footnote at the bottom of the page.
Format:
Abbreviation, Page number
Examples:
3 Bl Comm 264
4 Co Litt 135a
Scottish Examples:
5 Bankton Institute II, 3, 98
6 Stair Institutions I, 2, 14
| Blackstone, Commentaries on the Law of England | Bl Comm |
| Bracton, On the Laws and Customs of England | Bracton |
| Brooke, La Graunde Abridgement | Brooke Abr |
| Coke, Commentary upon Littleton | Co Litt |
| Coke, Institutes of the Laws of England | Co Inst |
| Fitzherbert, La Graunde Abridgement | Fitz Abr |
| Fitzherbert, La Novel Natura Brevium | Fitz NB |
| Glanvill, Treatise on the Laws and Customs of England | Glanvill |
| Hawkins, A Treatise on the Pleas of the Crown | Hawk PC |
| Hale, The History of the Pleas of the Crown | Hale PC |