There are two ways to create a footnote for an encyclopaedia. If the entry you are quoting does NOT have a named author, you can exclude the author or editor and start with the title of the encyclopaedia. However, you do need to include the edition and the year of issue. You should also pinpoint to the volume or paragraph if possible
Format: Title (edition| year) Volume number, paragraph number.
Alternatively, if the section or entry has a named author, you should give that author's name and the entry title at the start of the citation.
Format: Entry Author, 'Entry Title', Encyclopaedia Title (edition, year) page number.
Format: Entry Author, 'Entry Title', Encyclopaedia Title (edition, year) <URL> accessed date.
See the examples below.
Formats:
Title (edition| year) Volume number, paragraph number.
Entry Author, 'Entry Title', Encyclopaedia Title (edition, year) page number.
Entry Author, 'Entry Title', Encyclopaedia Title (edition, year) <URL> accessed date.
Examples:
CJ Friedrich, 'Constitutions and Constitutionalism', International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences III (1968) 319.
Halsbury's Laws (5th edn, 2010) vol 57, para 53.
Leslie Green, 'Legal Positivism', The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall edn, 2009) <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2009/entries/legal-positivism> accessed 20 November 2009.
Where the citation starts with the title of the Encyclopaedia, you only need to remove the paragraph details. For citations with an entry author, the surname now comes first.
Formats:
Title (edition| year) Volume number.
Entry Author, 'Entry Title', Encyclopaedia Title (edition, year).
Entry Author, 'Entry Title', Encyclopaedia Title (edition, year) <URL> accessed date.
Examples:
Halsbury’s Laws (5th edn, 2010) vol 57
Friedrich CJ, 'Constitutions and Constitutionalism’, International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences III (1968)
Green L, ‘Legal Positivism’, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall edn, 2009) <http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2009/entries/legal-positivism> accessed 20 November 2009