(a) Background

The English nominate reports are a group of unofficial report series that were produced privately between 1220 and 1867. These reports are often named after the person or persons who were their publishers or reporters. Each series has its own volume numbers and pagination. Well-known cases are commonly reported in a number of different nominate reports and it is quite common for these reports to be substantially different.

Nearly all of the nominate reports have been collected together and reprinted. The first reprint series was published as the Revised Reports. Another series is the English Reports.

(b) Method of citation

Cite the nominate reports by giving the nominate report citation followed by the citation to either the English Reports or the Revised Reports. Cite to the English Reports in preference to the Revised Reports. Separate the two citations by a comma and give the year of the case only once after the case name.

Eg Re Beloved Wilkes’s Charity (1851) 3 Mac & G 440, 42 ER 330 (Ch).

A list of abbreviations to the various nominate reports can be found in the “Index Chart” that accompanies the English Reports. For abbreviations for nominate reports not included in the English Reports, a complete list of abbreviations may be found in the first volume of the Consolidated Table of Cases in Halsbury’s Laws of England.

(c) Court identifier

Where the court can be identified, indicate this in the usual way. A list of court identifiers is given in rule 8.4.3. If there is no standard abbreviation for the relevant court, the name may be written out in full.

Eg Vernon v Wright (1858) 7 HLC 34, 11 ER 15 (HL).

Although the name of the court may not appear at the start of the report, it can usually be identified by turning to the first page of the particular volume of the reprinted nominate report.

(d) Pinpoint reference

When giving a pinpoint reference to a nominate report, make reference to both the page number in the nominate report and the page in the reprint being cited.

Eg Saunders v Vautier (1841) 4 Beav 115 at 116, 49 ER 282 (Ch) at 282.

When making a subsequent reference to a nominate report in a footnote, cite the page number of the nominate report. A subsequent reference to Saunders v Vautier, using the “, above n x,” format, would take this form:

Eg Saunders v Vautier, above n 3, at 117.