Citation: Footnotes, APA and Legal Citation
Chapter -Two
Syllabus topic 7, "Preparation of the Research Design"
Pages 509 to 512 of 543
In one line
Citation is how a reader gets from a statement in the dissertation to the source it rests on, and MU requires APA style with relevant footnotes provided throughout.
In the wording a student can write in an exam: citation is the systematic identification of the source of every proposition, quotation and datum in a piece of research, so that a reader may verify it; the University of Mumbai requires that relevant footnotes be provided throughout the LL.M. dissertation and interdisciplinary project and that the APA style of citation be followed, together with an adequately referenced bibliography and webliography arranged alphabetically.
What MU requires
From the Department of Law notice of 1 July 2026, among the guidelines.
Relevant footnotes must be provided throughout the work.
APA style of citation must be followed.
Adequate references must be included, with proper Bibliography and Webliography, books, articles, journals and research papers being properly cited and arranged alphabetically.
A student should notice the combination, because APA in its ordinary form uses in-text author-date references rather than footnotes, and MU requires footnotes as well. The safe reading is that the reference elements and their order follow APA, and that they are placed in footnotes. Where a Department gives a model, follow the model; where it does not, follow APA's elements consistently in footnotes and say in the dissertation which convention has been adopted.
Consistency is the thing that is actually assessed. A dissertation whose citations are in one recognisable style throughout is correct in the way that matters; one that mixes three styles is not, whichever three they are.
What must be cited
Every proposition of law: the provision, the rule, the regulation or the decision.
Every quotation, whether from a statute, a judgment or an author.
Every idea taken from somebody else, even where the words are the writer's own. This is the one students miss, and it is the commonest form of unintended plagiarism, chapter 1380.
Every datum taken from a source, including official statistics.
Every table or figure reproduced or adapted.
And every source consulted that shaped the argument, which is the difference between a reference list and a bibliography, chapter 1370.
What need not be cited. Common knowledge, and the researcher's own findings, which are attributed by being reported as the study's own.
The elements, in APA order
APA's elements for a work are: author, date, title, and source.
A book. Author, A. A. (year). Title of the work (edition). Publisher.
A chapter in an edited book. Author, A. A. (year). Title of the chapter. In B. B. Editor (Ed.), Title of the book (pp. first to last). Publisher.
A journal article. Author, A. A. (year). Title of the article. Name of the Journal, volume(issue), pages.
Citation: Footnotes, APA and Legal Citation
A report. Body. (year). Title of the report (report number). Publisher.
An online source. The same elements, with the site and the address, and MU's requirement of a separate webliography, chapter 1370.
A student should keep those five patterns and use nothing else.
Legal sources, and the practical problem
APA was not designed for legal material, and this is the difficulty a law student meets.
The workable solution, and a student should adopt and state it. Cite legal sources in the ordinary Indian legal form, which every legal reader recognises, and cite secondary sources in APA. Say in a note at the start which convention applies to which.
The Indian legal forms to use.
A statute. The Legal Services Authorities Act 1987, Act 39 of 1987.
A section. Section 12(c) of the Legal Services Authorities Act 1987.
Subordinate legislation. Regulation 23 of the National Legal Services Authority (Legal Services Clinics) Regulations 2011.
The Bar Council's rules. Rule 11 of the Bar Council of India Rules, Part IV, Rules of Legal Education 2008.
A constitutional provision. Article 39A of the Constitution of India.
A decision. Case name, report citation, and where useful the court and the date: Suk Das v. Union Territory of Arunachal Pradesh, (1986) 2 SCC 401, decided 10 March 1986.
A recent decision with a neutral citation. Gaurav Kumar v. Union of India, 2024 INSC 558.
A report. Law Commission of India, 184th Report on the Legal Education and Professional Training (December 2002).
A circular or notice. University of Mumbai, Department of Law, Notice, LL.M. (Sem-IV) Dissertation Submission, 1 July 2026.
Footnote practice
Number continuously, either through the chapter or through the work, and be consistent.
Put the footnote at the point the proposition is made, not at the end of the paragraph.
Give the full form at first mention and a short form afterwards.
Do not use a footnote to hide an argument. A footnote carries the source and, occasionally, a genuinely subsidiary point. A dissertation whose real reasoning is in the footnotes is badly organised.
And never cite a source not read, chapter 950. Where a source is quoted from another work, say so: as quoted in.
Two errors that matter
The citation that does not support the proposition. A source cited for something it does not say. Detectable, and it destroys a reader's confidence in everything else, chapter 790.
The citation that cannot be found. An incomplete reference, a wrong page, a missing year. The test is simple: could a reader with a library and an hour find it?
Both are avoided by the same discipline, chapter 940: record the citation at the moment of finding, in full, and keep a copy of the text used.
Citation: Footnotes, APA and Legal Citation
A worked example
One sentence from this book, with its citations.
The sentence. Regulation 23 of the 2011 Regulations permits law students to adopt a village and organise legal aid camps in association with the legal services clinics, and that provision is one of the few in the instrument that requires no premises and no continuity.
Footnote for the first half. Regulation 23 of the National Legal Services Authority (Legal Services Clinics) Regulations 2011, made under section 29 of the Legal Services Authorities Act 1987, Act 39 of 1987.
The second half is the writer's own proposition, so it carries no citation, and a reader can see that it is an inference from the regulation rather than something the regulation says.
Noticing that distinction is the whole skill. A dissertation in which the reader cannot tell which sentences are sourced and which are the writer's own has failed at citation whatever style it used.
Quick revision
MU requires: relevant footnotes throughout; APA style of citation; and adequate references with a bibliography and webliography arranged alphabetically. The safe reading is APA elements placed in footnotes, stated once in the dissertation. Consistency is what is assessed.
Cite: every proposition of law; every quotation; every idea taken from another, even in your own words; every datum; every table; and every source that shaped the argument.
Five APA patterns: book; chapter in an edited book; journal article; report; online source.
Use Indian legal forms for legal sources and say so: Act with its number; section; regulation; rule; article; case with its report citation and date; neutral citation for recent decisions; Law Commission report with number and date; and circulars with the issuing body and date.
Footnote practice: continuous numbering; at the point of the proposition; full form first and short form after; not a place to hide argument; and never cite what you have not read, saying as quoted in where necessary.
Two errors: a citation that does not support the proposition, and one that cannot be found.
Test yourself
1. What exactly does MU require by way of citation? That relevant footnotes be provided throughout the work; that the APA style of citation be followed; and that adequate references be included with a proper bibliography and webliography, with books, articles, journals and research papers properly cited and arranged alphabetically.
2. What is the practical difficulty with APA in a legal dissertation, and how is it resolved? APA was not designed for legal material and its author-date form does not fit statutes, regulations and judgments. The workable resolution is to cite legal sources in the ordinary Indian legal form, which every legal reader recognises, to cite secondary sources in APA, and to state once at the outset which convention applies to which.
Citation: Footnotes, APA and Legal Citation
3. Which kind of borrowing do students most often fail to cite? An idea taken from somebody else and expressed in the writer's own words. Because nothing is quoted, students assume no citation is needed, and this is the commonest form of unintended plagiarism.
4. Give the two citation errors that matter most and the discipline that prevents both. A citation that does not support the proposition for which it is given, which destroys a reader's confidence in the rest of the work; and a citation too incomplete to be found. Both are prevented by recording the citation in full at the moment the source is found and keeping a copy of the text actually used.
The rest of this subject
These notes are cut from the University's printed syllabus. Open the syllabus itself, or the past papers, for the same subject.