You usually refer to sources in your legal thesis according to the Guidelines for legal authors. You must refer to a source in a good way. This works differently for each type of source. To help you on your way, here are examples of the Guidelines for Legal Authors.
What are the basic rules for the guideline?
Briefly summarized, the basic rules for the Guidance for Legal Authors are as follows. You refer to your sources in two ways: in footnotes to the body of the text, and the bibliography at the end. You do this to prevent plagiarism and to indicate which information has been derived from other sources. In the footnote, you include an abbreviated reference, and the full reference is given in the bibliography.
Some sources do not need to be included in the bibliography. For example, when referring to a web page, a footnote alone is sometimes sufficient. Please check the guidelines specific to your study for clarification.
Automatically the correct source reference?
In addition to using the examples below from the Legal Authors' Guide to help you correctly cite your sources, you can use our free source generator. If you fill in certain information about your source, the correct citation will roll out from the generator.
Examples: Footnote Legal Author Guide
First, you include a footnote for sources in the running text. You then add a footnote number after the information you have derived from a source. This refers the reader to the footnote at the bottom of the page, which contains the abbreviated source reference.
For the wording of the footnote, use this Guidance for legal authors examples:
Scientific article
Format:
Author names, Journal title year/first-page number.
Example:
Ten Voorde, Journal for Criminal Justice 2017/407.
Book
Format:
Name year
Example:
Meulenbroek 2014
Publication in a book
Format:
Names authors publication year, p. first page number
Example:
Chao-Duivis 2019, p. 445.
Publication on a website
With abbreviated mentions of online publications, keep the URL as short as possible. Therefore, leave 'https://' and 'www.' away.
Format:
'Title online publication', shortened URL.
Example:
'Example guideline for legal authors', athenacheck.nl/leidraad-voor-juridische-auteurs- examples.
Laws and regulations
Regulations that are generally known by the average reader do not need to be included in a footnote. Regulations and laws to which this does not apply must, however, be cited in a footnote. Please observe and utilize the following format:
Regulation:
Stb. 2019, 15.
Parliamentary papers:
Parliamentary Papers II 2019/20, 35336, no. 3, p. 28.
Reference to case law
You do not always have to include references to case law in the bibliography, but always in a footnote. Always check in advance how this applies to your study program.
A reference to case law in the footnote looks like this:
Format:
Abbreviation of instance date, ECLI
Example:
Rb. Gelderland 13 January 2015, ECLI:NL:RBNHO:2016:3420
Examples Guidance for legal texts in bibliography
In addition to those footnotes, put a bibliography at the end of your thesis. This provides an alphabetical overview of all the sources you cited in your thesis. You first repeat the abbreviated reference for each source (without any page number or website link). You make this abbreviated reference in bold and you omit the period at the end. Under the short reference, you put the full reference.
You can use the examples below from the Legal Texts Guidance to correctly include sources in your bibliography.
Scientific article
Jak, JBplus 2015/2
N. Tak, 'Public task case law clarified. On legal entities under private law and the concept of administrative bodies', JBplus 2015/2.
Book
Meulenbroek 2014
JMC Meulenbroek, Complaint law and ombudsman. A practical manual, Deventer: Wolters Kluwer 2014.
Publication in a book
Chao-Duivis 2019
MAB Chao-Duivis, 'Application of work', in: HN Schelhaas & AJ Verheij, 'Special agreements', Deventer: Wolters Kluwer 2019, p. 445-483.
Website
NOvA 2020
NOvA, 'BA2020', Advocatenorde.nl, Advocatenorde.nl/dossier/ba2020.
(Note: Depending on the program, it is not always necessary to state the date on which you consulted the online source or what the last modification date was. So, be sure to check your program-specific guidelines to see how this is done in your case..)
Case law
If you also have to include case law in the bibliography (often under a separate heading), then stick to the style of the following example. An abbreviated reference is not necessary for this.
Rb. Gelderland 13 January 2015, ECLI:NL:RBNHO:2016:3420
Examples Guidance for legal texts in bibliography
In addition to those footnotes, put a bibliography at the end of your thesis. This provides an alphabetical overview of all the sources you cited in your thesis. You first repeat the abbreviated reference for each source (without any page number or website link). You make this abbreviated reference in bold and you omit the period at the end. Under the short reference, you put the full reference.
You can use the examples below from the Legal Texts Guidance to correctly include sources in your bibliography.
Scientific article
Jak, JBplus 2015/2
N. Tak, 'Public task case law clarified. On legal entities under private law and the concept of administrative bodies', JBplus 2015/2.
Book
Meulenbroek 2014
JMC Meulenbroek, Complaint law and ombudsman. A practical manual, Deventer: Wolters Kluwer 2014.
Publication in a book
Chao-Duivis 2019
MAB Chao-Duivis, 'Application of work', in: HN Schelhaas & AJ Verheij, 'Special agreements', Deventer: Wolters Kluwer 2019, p. 445-483.
Website
NOvA 2020
NOvA, 'BA2020', Advocatenorde.nl, Advocatenorde.nl/dossier/ba2020.
(Note: Depending on the program, it is not always necessary to state the date on which you consulted the online source or what the last modification date was. So, be sure to check your program-specific guidelines to see how this is done in your case..)
Case law
If you also have to include case law in the bibliography (often under a separate heading), then stick to the style of the following example. An abbreviated reference is not necessary for this.
Rb. Gelderland 13 January 2015, ECLI:NL:RBNHO:2016:3420
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