Neutral Citations in United Kingdom

When citing an unreported decision, it is advisable to use an official neutral citation, if available.

The House of Lords, Privy Council and Court of Appeal adopted neutral citation in 2001. All Supreme Court judgments have a neutral citation. The courts and divisions of the High Court adopted neutral citation in 2002 (except for the Administrative Court which adopted neutral citation in 2001).

The lis below sets out the full list of court identifiers used in neutral citations.

Note that some earlier decisions have been given what look like neutral citations by the British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII). These are not official and should not be used.

List of Neutral citations

The following table indicates when the various neutral citations were officially adopted.

Note: some earlier decisions have been given what look like neutral citations by the British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII). These are not official and should not be used.

• Supreme Court (Court): UKSC (Court identifier). October 2009 (Adoption date).
• House of Lords (Court): UKHL (Court identifier). January 2001 (Adoption date).
• Privy Council (Court): UKPC (Court identifier). January 2001 (Adoption date).
• Court of Appeal (Civil) (Court): EWCA Civ (Court identifier). January 2001 (Adoption date).
• Court of Appeal (Criminal) (Court): EWCA Crim (Court identifier). January 2001 (Adoption date).
• High Court (Administrative Court) * (Court): EWHC (Court identifier). January 2001 (Adoption date).
• High Court (Admiralty Division) * (Court): EWHC (Court identifier). January 2002 (Adoption date).
• High Court (Chancery Division) * (Court): EWHC (Court identifier). January 2002 (Adoption date).
• High Court (Commercial Court) * (Court): EWHC (Court identifier). January 2002 (Adoption date).
• High Court (Family Division) * (Court): EWHC (Court identifier). January 2002 (Adoption date).
• High Court (Patents Court) * (Court): EWHC (Court identifier). January 2002 (Adoption date).
• High Court (Queen’s Bench Division) * (Court): EWHC (Court identifier). January 2002 (Adoption date).
• High Court (Technology and Construction Court) * (Court): EWHC (Court identifier). January 2002 (Adoption date).

* The divisions and specialist courts of the High Court all have the court identifier “EWHC”. They are distinguished by indicating the division or specialist court after the judgment number in round brackets.

The following identifiers are used:

• Administrative Court (Admin)
• Admiralty Division (Admlty)
• Chancery Division (Ch)
• Commercial Court (Comm)
• Family Division (Fam)
• Patents Court (Pat)
• Queen’s Bench Division (QB)
• Technology and Construction Court (TCC)

Neutral citations in Scotland

Note: read about citation of cases reported in law reports in Scotland here.

Details:

• Availability: The Court of Sessions and the High Court of Justiciary began giving their judgments neutral citations in 2005.
• Format: The format for Scottish neutral citations is the same as for some other countries (like New Zealand) neutral citations.

The relevant court identifiers used are:

• Outer House. CSOH
• Inner House: CSIH
• High Court of Justiciary, Appeal Court: HCJAC
• High Court of Justiciary, Trial Court: HCJ