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• A Quick Guide to OSCOLA Referencing | Rules & Examples

A Quick Guide to OSCOLA Referencing | Rules & Examples

Published on 28 February 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on 5 May 2022.

The Oxford University Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA) is a referencing style used by students and academics in law.

OSCOLA referencing places citations in footnotes, which are marked in the text with footnote numbers:

The judge referred to the precedent established by Caulfield v Baldwin . 1

Table of contents

Citing sources with oscola footnotes, oscola referencing examples, oscola tables and bibliography.

A citation footnote appears whenever you quote from, paraphrase or otherwise refer to the content of a source in your text.

A footnote is marked in the text with a footnote number, which appears at the end of the relevant sentence or clause. The number is displayed in superscript (i.e. 1) and appears after any punctuation like a comma or full stop:

These footnotes contain full information on the source cited. The format in which you present this information varies according to the type of source; examples are presented in the following section. A footnote always ends with a full stop:

Standard abbreviations

To save space in OSCOLA citations, abbreviations are used for the names of various publications and legal bodies.

For example, ‘UKSC’ is the United Kingdom Supreme Court, and ‘Cr App R’ refers to the Criminal Appeal Reports.

A full, searchable index of these abbreviations can be found here .

Pinpointing

In OSCOLA referencing, referring to a specific page number within a source is called pinpointing. To pinpoint, simply include a page number at the end of your reference, in addition to any page numbers already included.

For example, in the following citation, the first number refers to the page on which the report begins , while the second number pinpoints the passage you’re referring to :

Where available, paragraph numbers should be used instead of page numbers. Only do this if paragraph numbers are explicitly used in the text. Paragraph numbers appear in square brackets and can be used for pinpointing in the same way as page numbers:

Note that if you’re pinpointing a judge’s comments within a case report, you include the name of the judge, and some special terms and abbreviations are used in the citation and in the text.

If the judge is a peer, refer to them as ‘Lord’, e.g. Lord Williams. If they are a Lord/Lady Justice, use ‘LJ’, e.g. Williams LJ. If neither of these is the case, use ‘J’ for judge, e.g. Williams J:

Cross-referencing repeated citations of the same source

OSCOLA uses a system of cross-referencing to save space when you repeatedly cite the same source. This means that for subsequent references of a source, you don’t have to repeat the full citation.

When you refer to the same source you have just referred to (i.e. when the previous footnote was also about that source), you can simply use ‘ibid’ (Latin for ‘in the same place’):

In this example, the second footnote also refers to Davis v Dignam, but to page 522 instead of page 519.

When the previous reference to the source was in an earlier footnote (i.e. when other citations appear in between), use the author’s last name or the title (shortened if it’s a longer title), followed by the number of the previous citation (in brackets and preceded by ‘n’), then the page number you’re pinpointing (if different than the first citation):

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OSCOLA provides formats for a variety of source types. The most common ones are covered below.

Case reports

When citing a case, you’ll usually begin with a neutral citation – a way of referring to the case that does not relate to a particular report – and then give the details of the report afterwards. If no neutral citation exists, as with cases before 2002, you can just begin with the report.

Additionally, note that the year (for the report) is displayed differently depending on whether it is essential to the citation. For reports where each year is also identified with a volume number, the year appears in normal brackets. For those where multiple volumes appear in one year, the year appears in square brackets.

• Case report with neutral citation
• Case report with no neutral citation

Acts of Parliament

Use a short version of the title if the full title is longer than three words. If necessary, refer to specific parts of an Act of Parliament using section, subsection and paragraph numbers.

Statutory instruments

Statutory instruments (SIs) are numbered consecutively throughout the year; it’s this number that appears at the end of the citation – the example below is the 149th SI of 2020.

House of Commons bills are cited slightly differently from House of Lords bills. You write ‘HC Bill’ or ‘HL Bill’ depending upon which house it is, and bill numbers for Commons bills appear in square brackets.

• House of Commons bill
• House of Lords bill

Hansard is the official transcript of parliamentary debates in the UK. As with bills, write ‘HC’ for the House of Commons and ‘HL’ for the House of Lords. ‘Deb’ is short for ‘debate’, ‘vol’ for volume, and ‘col’ for column.

Use the full name of the author(s) as written in the source. List the edition (abbreviated to ‘edn’) when it is stated on the title page. Note that OSCOLA recommends abbreviating ‘Oxford University Press’ to ‘OUP’; this is not the case with other publishers.

Certain older books are listed by OSCOLA as ‘works of authority’ and given special abbreviated citations. For example, the following is a citation of volume 3, page 75 of Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England :

OSCOLA provides a list of these abbreviations in their full guide , section 4.2.3.

Journal articles

As with case reports, square brackets are used for years in a journal citation if the year also identifies the volume; normal brackets are used when there are multiple volumes in a year.

Note that standard abbreviations are also used for journal names; here ‘MLR’ refers to Modern Law Review.

In a longer work, such as a thesis or dissertation , OSCOLA requires you to include tables listing any cases and legislation you cited, as well as a bibliography listing any secondary sources . For shorter essays, this is usually not necessary, but do check your institution’s guidelines.

The tables and bibliography appear at the end of your text. The table of cases comes first, followed by the table of legislation, and then the bibliography.

Sources are listed in alphabetical order within each table and in the bibliography.

Table of cases

Cases are written in a similar format here and in the main text; the only difference is the names of the parties involved are not italicised in the table of cases:

Table of legislation

The table of legislation includes all legal sources used other than cases – for example, bills, Acts of Parliament and SIs. Items in the table of legislation are listed in identical form to how they are cited in the text.

Bibliography

A bibliography lists all your secondary sources – that is, everything other than cases and legislation. For example, here you would list Hansard , any books and journal articles cited, and other sources such as blogs, social media and newspapers.

Bibliography entries differ from citations in terms of their presentation of the author’s name. Author names in the bibliography are inverted, and initials are used in place of the first name:

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OSCOLA referencing guide

• Elements of OSCOLA referencing
• General principles
• Order of author’s name
• Source abbreviations
• Page numbers and other pinpoints
• Secondary references
• Footnotes referencing style

Bibliography

• Encyclopaedias
• Government publications
• Conference papers (published)
• Journal articles
• Newspaper articles
• UK Statutes (Acts)
• European cases
• European legislation
• Repeating citations – short forms and ibid
• Need help with referencing?

At the end of your work and after any appendices, you need to provide a structured list of all the sources you have used. This does not include any background reading and you should only list each source once, even if you have referred to it multiple times.  

The Bibliography includes: 

All primary sources you have used with headings, which could include Cases, Legislation, Treaties.

All secondary sources you have used with headings, which could include Books, Book chapters, Journal articles, Official publications, Websites.

Unlike footnotes, references in the Bibliography do not have a full stop at the end.

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• Next: Examples for different sources >>
• Last Updated: Feb 27, 2023 10:50 AM
• URL: https://libguides.northampton.ac.uk/oscolaguide

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• Writing Tips

How to Compose an OSCOLA Bibliography

3-minute read

• 16th October 2016

In the UK, the main  legal referencing system is OSCOLA. This system requires you to list all sources with full publication detail at the end of your document. Hence, we’re looking at how to format an OSCOLA bibliography.

Do I Need a Bibliography?

Short answer: Yes, but check your style guide for specifics.

Technically, the fourth edition of OSCOLA says that ‘shorter works, such as articles and essays, generally only require footnotes.’ However, most universities want you to demonstrate your ability to cite sources, so it’s usually best to include a full bibliography.

What Should an OSCOLA Bibliography Include?

The basic structure of an OSCOLA bibliography includes three things: a ‘Table of Cases’, a ‘Table of Legislation’ and a bibliography listing secondary sources .

As you might expect, the tables of cases and legislation are where you list case reports and legislative documents cited in your work. The bibliography is where you list all other sources.

How to Format a Table of Cases/Legislation

Cases and legislation are listed in separate tables. If you have many sources, you may want to distinguish between jurisdictions, too (e.g. having separate tables for ‘UK Cases’ and ‘EU Cases’). Entries should be listed with the same information as in citations , but with a slightly different format:

• The table of cases should come before the table of legislation.
• List statutory instruments separately at the end of the table of legislation.
• Case names are not italicised, unlike elsewhere in the document.
• List sources alphabetically by the first significant word (e.g. ‘ Re Farquar’s Estate ’ becomes ‘Farquar’s Estate, Re’).

Some versions of this system include all legal sources under a ‘Table of Authorities’. If you take this approach, divide the table into separate sections for cases, legislation and statutory instruments.

How to Format an OSCOLA Bibliography

An OSCOLA bibliography lists all secondary sources, including books, articles and online resources, alphabetically by author surname. List sources with no named author at the start of the bibliography, ordered alphabetically by title, with a double em dash (i.e. ‘——’) in place of the author’s name.

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In an OSCOLA bibliography, the format for sources differs slightly to the one used in footnotes:

• Give the author’s surname first, followed by an initial.
• No first names or pinpoint references are given.
• No full stop is required at the end of bibliography entries.

As such, if the footnote citation for a book looked like the following:

1. Bill O’Rights, Constitutional Protection (2 nd edn, Hodder & Fouslon 1998) 245.

The equivalent entry in the bibliography would be:

O’Rights, B, Constitutional Protection (2 nd edn, Hodder & Fouslon 1998)

It’s good to keep a ‘working bibliography’ as you write, adding an entry each time you cite something new. This will ensure you don’t miss any sources.

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• OSCOLA Referencing – A complete guide

You’ve done it. You’ve extracted the key research, peppered your content with incisive observations, and you’ve just typed the last words of your Law essay conclusion.

And then… it happens. You remember that in all those pages of research, you forgot to reference the sources you used. If only you’d done it in the first place!

Knowing how to cite sources for assignments is a hugely important skill. Even if you’re still at school, learning how to reference now means you won’t get caught out at university.

If you study Law at university, you’ll use the OSCOLA referencing system. This is the Oxford University Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities. We’ve created a comprehensive guide on exactly what OSCLA is, and how to use it.

What is OSCOLA referencing?

OSCOLA is a footnote referencing style. That means that you add small, superscript numbers (for example, 1,2,3 ) to the sources in your text, which connect to footnotes at the bottom of your page.

You may also have to include a list of tables of cases, legislation and other primary sources at the start of your essay, and a bibliography of second sources at the end. See page 10-11 of the 4th edition of OCSCOLA.

Let’s look at the OSCOLA system in detail, and how you can cite a wide range of legal sources. Our comprehensive guide refers to the 4th edition of OSCOLA produced by the University of Oxford.

Primary Sources

Case citations with neutral citations.

An example of a typical case citation with a neutral citation is:

Corr v IBC Vehicles Ltd [2008] UKHL 13, [2008] 1 AC 884

The example above shows that this is a case involving Corr and IBC Vehicles Ltd. It was the thirteenth judgement issued by the House of Lords (UKHL) in 2008. It also indicates that a report of the judgement can be found in volume 1 of the series of the Law Reports called the Appeal Cases , beginning at page 884.

Case citations without neutral citations

An example of a typical case citation without a neutral citation is:

Page vs Smith [1996] AC 155 (HL).

When the year is used to identify the law report volume, you should always put it in square brackets. If the relevant law report series was also issued in more than one volume in that particular year, give it a volume number.

When you don’t need to use the year to identify the law report volume, give the year of judgement (not publication) in round brackets.

Where there are multiple parties in cases, you should name only the first claimant and the first defendant. Where cases concern only individuals, leave out forenames and initials. You should abbreviate common words and phrases, for example:

• BC for Borough Council
• Co for Company
• DPP for Director of Public Prosecutions.

When you want to refer to something, use Re instead of, for example, In re or in the matter of. You should use Re the Domestic Abuse Act 2017 rather than In the matter of the Domestic Abuse act 2017.

(See our ‘abbreviations’ section below for further guidance).

Short forms of case names

You should give the name of the case in full when you first mention it in the text or footnotes. After that, you can shorten it.

For example, ‘in Glebe Motors plc v Dixon-Greene’ can be shortened to ‘in the Glebe Motors case’ or ‘in Glebe Motors’. If you do shorten names this way, you should always choose the name which comes first in the full name of the case – in this case Glebe Motors, rather than Dixon-Greene.

Law Reports

A law report is a published report on a judgement. A law report includes features such as a headnote summarising the facts of a case and judgement, and lists of cases considered.

In England and Wales, there are no official law reports of any kind, but the Law Report series by the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting are considered the most authoritative.

If a case is reported in the Law Reports you should cite it in preference to any other report. If you can’t find a judgement in the Law Reports , you should cite the Weekly Law Reports or the All England Law Reports.

If you can’t find a judgement in one of these general series you should refer to a specialist series of law reports such as the Family Law Reports.

When citing courts, indicate the court in brackets after the first page of the report, and before the pinpoint if there is one. A pinpoint is a reference to a particular paragraph of a judgement or page of a report.

Use HL for the House of Lords, CA for the Court of Appeal, QB, CH and F for the division of the High Court, and Com Ct for the Commercial Court within the Queen’s Bench Division.

If you’re citing a case before 1865, it doesn’t require the court. Neither do citations of cases with a neutral citation.

Judges’ names

When you make a reference to a judge in a case, use the judge’s surname followed by the conventional abbreviation identifying their judicial office. You do not need to use ‘the Honourable’.

A High Court judge should be called, for example, ‘Mr Justice Brown’, or, if a woman (and regardless of whether she is married) ‘Mrs Justice Smith). You should abbreviate both as ‘Smith J’.

A House of Lords judge (or ‘Law Lord’) is called ‘Lord Brown’ or ‘Lady Brown’, depending on gender.

The President of the Supreme Court should be abbreviated as, for example, ‘Lord Brown P’; the Deputy President as ‘Lord Brown DP’.

The Lord Chancellor (now no longer a judge) should be abbreviated as ‘Lord Brown LC’, the Lord Chief Justice as ‘Lord Brown CJ’, and the Master of the Rolls as 20 ‘Lord Brown MR’.

The Chancellor of the High Court should be abbreviated as ‘Sir John Brown C’, and Presidents of the Queen’s Bench Division and Family Division as ‘Sir Brown P’.

UK primary legislation

Names of Statutes

You should cite an Act by its short title and year in roman, using capitals for the major words. Don’t put a comma before the year. For example:

Act of Supremacy 1558

Shipping and Trading Interests (Protection) Act 1995.

Don’t use popular titles of Acts, for example, ‘Lord Campbell’s Act’. If you are referring to a particular Act a number of times in the same place, you can provide an abbreviated form of the title in the footnotes, as long as you let your reader know in advance. So, the Children Act 1989 becomes CA 1989 (not just CA).

Parts of statues

Statues are divided into parts, sections, subsections, paragraphs and subparagraphs. The relevant abbrevations are:

part / parts to pt/ pts

section / sections to s / ss

subsection / subsections to sub-s/ sub-ss

paragraph/paragraphs to para/paras

subparagraph / subparagraphs to subpara/subparas

schedule / schedules to sch/schs

Older Statutes

For older statutes, you can give the regnal year and chapter number. For example:

Crown Debts Act 1801 (41 Geo 3 c 90)

You can see from this example that the information in brackets shows that this Act was given royal assent in the forty-first year of the reign of George III.

Explanatory notes to statutes

When citing explanatory notes to statutes, precede the name of the statue with ‘Explanatory notes to the…’. For example,

Explanatory Notes to the Charities Act 2006, para 15.

An example of how to cite a Bill is:

Consolidated Fund HC Bill (2008-09).

You can see that the Bill is cited by its title, the House in which it originated (here, House of Commons), and with the parliamentary session in brackets (here, 2008-09).

UK Secondary Legislation

Statutory Instruments

Statutory instruments (orders, regulations or rules) are numbered consecutively throughout the year. The year combines with the serial number to make an SI number that follows the abbreviations ‘SI’, which we use to identify the legislation.

When you cite a statutory instrument, give the name, year and (after a comma) the SI number. For example:

Penalties for Disorderly Behaviour (Amendment of Minimum Age) Order 2004, SI 2004/3166

Parts of statutory instruments

The rules for referring to parts of statutory instruments are the same as those referring to parts of statues. Use the following abbreviations:

• regulation / regulations to reg/regs
• rule/rules to r/rr
• article/articles to art/arts

European Union legal sources

Official notices of the EU are in the Official Journal of the European Communities ( which is abbreviated to OJ). The OJ citation should be: year, OJ series, number / page. The letter ‘L’ refers to the legislation series.

EU legislation

When you cite EU treaties and protocols, give the title of the legislation, followed by the year of publication, the OK series and the issue and page numbers. For example:

Protocol to the Agreement on the Member States that do not fully apply to the Schengen acquis – Join Declarations [2007] OJ Li129/35.

You should cite Regulations, Directives, Decisions, Recommendations and Opinions by giving the legislation type, number and title, followed by publication details in the OJ. For example:

Council Directive 2002/60/EC of 27 June 2002 laying down specific provisions for the control of African swine fever and amending Directive 92/119/EEC as regards Teschen disease and African swine fever [2002] OJ L192/27

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR)

For judgements of the European Court of Human Rights, you should cite either the offical reports, the Reports of Judgements and Decisions (ECHR) or the European Human Rights Reports (EHRR). Be aware of the difference before and after 1996. Before 1996, the offocial reports were known and Series A and numbered consecutively. From 2001, case numbers were used instead of page numbers. For example,

Johnston v Ireland (1986) Series A no 122

Osman v UK ECHR 1998 – VIII 3124

Balogh v Hungary App no 47940/99 (ECtHR, 20 July 2004).

Omojudi v UK (2009) EHRR 10

Secondary Sources

You should cite all publications with an ISBN as if they were books, whether you read them online or in hard copy. Older books do not have ISBNs, but you should cite them as books even if you read them online.

Authored Books

You should cite the author’s name first, followed by a comma, and then the title of the book in italics. You should then follow the title with publication information in brackets. You don’t need to give the place of publication. For example:

Tom Bingham, The Rule of Law (Alan Lane 2010).

If the book has more than one volume, you should follow the volume number with the publication details. For example:

Christian von Bar, The Common European Law of Torts, vol 2 (CH Beck 2000), para 76.

Edited and Translated Books

If there is no author, cite the editor or translator as an author, adding in brackets after their name. For example ‘(ed)’ or ‘(tr)’. If there is more than one editor or translator, put ‘(eds)’ or (trs)

Hard copy journals

When you cite hard copy journal articles, give the author’s name first, followed by a comma. Then give the title of the article within single quotation marks, and the publication information as follows:

year of publication (in square brackets if it identifies the volume, in round brackets if there is a separate volume number).

• the volume number if there is one
• the name of the journal, in full or abbreviated form, with no full stops
• the first page of the article.

For example:

Paul Craig, “Theory, “Pure Theory” and Values in Public Law” [2005] PL 440.

Refence case notes with titles as if they were journal articles.

If there is no title, use the name of the case in italics instead, and put ‘note’ at the end of the citation.

Online journals

With online journals that have been published electronically, give publication details the same way you would for hard copy journal articles.

If online journals lack some of the publication elements for OSCOLA, follow the citation advice of the online journal. Remove full stops to comply with OSCOLA.

Working papers

You should cite working papers the same way as electronic journal articles. Seeing as the content of working papers are subject to change, make sure you put the date of access. For example:

Graham Greenleaf, ‘The Global Development of Free Access to Legal Information’ (2010) 1(1) EJLT accessed 27 July 2010

Other Secondary Sources

Please see the 4th edition of OSCOLA for comprehensive details on how to cite other secondary sources such as:

• Parliamentary reports
• Command papers
• Law commission reports and documents
• Conference papers
• Websites and blogs
• Newspaper articles

We hope you’ve found our complete guide to OSCOLA referencing useful. You can also use the OSCOLA Quick Reference Guide for ease when referencing.

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OSCOLA referencing guide (Online): The basics

• Paraphrasing
• Repeating Citations
• Secondary Referencing
• Bibliography
• Referencing Tools
• Two or Three Authors
• Four plus Authors
• Chapter in an Edited Book
• Editor or Translator
• Author & Editor or Translator
• Encyclopaedias
• Books of Authority
• Cases with Neutral Citation
• Cases without neutral citation
• Unreported Cases
• Cases before 1865
• Judges' Names
• Scot, NI & International
• Parts of Statutes
• Statutory Instruments
• Journal Articles
• Forthcoming Articles
• Working Papers
• Newspaper Articles
• Hansard & Select Committee reports
• Command Papers
• Law Commission Reports
• Official reports
• Official Publications
• Legislation
• ECJ & GC cases
• Decisions of the European Commission
• European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) cases
• Websites & Blogs
• Personal Communications
• Press Release
• Podcasts & Youtube videos
• Insight & LPC

The OSCOLA referencing style

Oxford University developed OSCOLA ( O xford U niversity S tandard f or C itation o f L egal A uthorities) in 2000 for use within Oxford University. OSCOLA is now the industry standard for referencing legal materials. It is used by many UK  and International law schools as well as by many legal journals and publishers. It is the style approved for use by the College of Law at Swansea University.  OSCOLA is designed to encourage consistency and to help the reader find the necessary information easily and quickly.

OSCOLA does not claim to be comprehensive, but gives rules and examples for the main UK legal primary sources and for many types of secondary sources. As far as possible, the guidelines in OSCOLA are based on common practice in UK legal citation but with a minimum of punctuation.

How does OSCOLA work?

The OSCOLA style is a footnote referencing system. This means it consists of three elements.

• Citation   - When you acknowledge a source in the text, you place a footnote marker 1 at the end of the relevant sentence. If you have several references in close together, the number can be placed at the end of the relevant phrase or word. 
• Footnote - This is the reference that appears at the bottom of the guide. These should be brief as they should identify the source, not provide additional information.
• Bibliography - A list of all the sources you have cited in your work. This should be provided at the end of the essay.

Whenever you paraphrase or quote a source or use the ideas of another person, you need to provide a reference in a footnote.  Your footnotes should be numbered continuously through your document, starting at 1 .

You don't always need a footnote for legislation if you have provided sufficient information about the legislation within the text.

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• Last Updated: Sep 8, 2023 11:56 AM
• URL: https://libguides.swansea.ac.uk/oscola

Referencing and citations - OSCOLA: The Basics

• Legislation
• Other sources
• Cross referencing
• Referencing software
• Help and support

Major points to note

• All OSCOLA citations to appear as footnotes on each page.
• No use of end notes or in-text citations.
• Footnote markers to appear at the end of the relevant sentence.
• Materials can be specified in tables of cases/statutes etc at the start of your work.
• Keep punctuation to a minimum, but close all footnotes with a full stop.
• Clarity and consistency to be the guiding rules.
• Search in the free online version for guidance if in doubt.
• IALS library card holders are welcome to make a reference appointment with a librarian to discuss their use of OSCOLA.

Bibliography

Items in bibliographies take the same form as all other citations in OSCOLA, with three exceptions: (1) the author’s surname should precede his or her initial(s), with no comma separating them, but a comma after the final initial; (2) only initials should be used, and not forenames; and (3) the titles of unattributed works should be preceded by a double em-dash. Works should be arranged in alphabetical order of author surname, with unattributed works being listed at the beginning of the bibliography in alphabetical order of first major word of the title.

A longer legal work, such as a book or a thesis, generally has a list of abbreviations and tables of all the cases, legislation and other primary legal sources cited in the work in the preliminary pages. The list of abbreviations should come before the tables, and the order of the tables should generally be: table of cases; table of legislation; other tables.

Lexis & Westlaw

You should never need to include Lexis or Westlaw in a citation. The cases, statutes and journal articles on these databases are treated as authentic versions, and should be cited exactly the same as the hard copy.

Similarly, if you source a publication online which is also available in hard copy, cite the hard copy version. There is no need to cite an electronic source for such a publication.

Incorporate quotations of up to three lines into the text, within 'single' quotation marks. Punctuation follows the closing quotation mark, and the footnote marker comes last. NB - If you need to submit your work through Turnitin, use "double" quotation marks.

Longer quotations should be presented in an indented paragraph, with no further indentation of the first line. Leave a line space before and after the indented quotation, and do NOT use quotation marks.

Further detailed information about how to present quotations (including quotes in quotes, quotes which are fragments) can be found on page 8 of the OSCOLA guide.

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• Next: Legislation >>
• Last Updated: Sep 28, 2023 6:39 PM
• URL: https://libguides.ials.sas.ac.uk/referencing

• Subject Guides

Referencing styles - a Practical Guide

Oscola referencing style.

Used by: the York Law School

Introduction to OSCOLA referencing style

The Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA) was developed at Oxford University, and is widely used by law schools and publishers to acknowledge source information.

In-text citations & footnotes

OSCOLA uses a footnote citation system.

In the text, a number in superscript 1  is added at the end of a sentence and after the punctuation. 

The reference is then given in the footnote at the bottom of the page.

Where you cite an author of a secondary source their name should appear as it does on the publication with first name/ initials before surname.

For more detailed information, see OSCOLA 1.1 and 1.2

Bibliography

The bibliography at the end of the document includes the full details of each source so the reader can find them themselves. The list is organised by type of source, and then alphabetically. See below for more details on organising the bibliography.

The information to include depends on the types of source - see the examples.

Useful resources

• OSCOLA Referencing style A downloadable version of this OSCOLA style guide, with some extra details
• OSCOLA Quick Reference Guide A handy 1 page summary of OSCOLA style
• OSCOLA 4th Edition The full OSCOLA Standard
• OSCOLA for international law Details for citing international law sources

Guidance for all source types

Citing a source multiple times in the same document.

For a case, cite in full the first time. For further references to the case, use a short form of the case name and a cross-citation in brackets to the original footnote. If the case name is included in the text, omit it in the footnote.

If the subsequent citation is directly after the full citation, simply use the term ‘ibid’. If pinpointing specific paragraphs, place these in square brackets.

When referring to a previous citation a number of footnotes back, use the short version of the case and add n as an abbreviation signposting the number of the footnote

For subsequent citation of legislation, abbreviations are acceptable. For subsequent citation of secondary sources, you only need the author’s surname.

For more detailed information see OSCOLA 1.2

Citing multiple sources in the same footnote

For  multiple references  within one footnote use semi-colons to distinguish between them and put them in chronological order with the oldest first. For example, this footnote refers to two cases:

If one or more references are more relevant than the others put these first and then ‘see also’. For example:

Also, order the sources with legislation before cases, and primary sources before secondary.

Using pinpoints and page numbers

A pinpoint is a precise reference to the part of a judgment or report through numbered paragraphs or page numbers. There are a number of ways you can pinpoint specific details within publications, depending on what the publication is. When citing more than one paragraph, place the numbers in square brackets. In this first example the pinpoints are at the end to paragraphs 42 and 45 of the case:

In this example for a secondary source the page number 131 is given at the end:

 For more detailed information, see OSCOLA 2.1.6 and OSCOLA 4.2.5

Cross-citation

Cross citation is when you are referring to discussion in another part of your writing, for example on an earlier page or in a previous chapter. It is good practice to use cross citation as little as possible.

Try to be specific and use a specific footnote number (For example  See n 52  for the footnote. OR:  See text to n 22 .)

For more detailed information see OSCOLA 1.2.2 

Direct quotes

You need to be very precise when using quotations.

Short quotations (less than three lines)

Use  single quotation marks  and include within the text. For example:

Longer quotations (longer than three lines)

Use an indented paragraph, no quotation marks and a line space above and below.

For more detailed information, see OSCOLA 1.5

Citing a source you've read about in a different source (secondary referencing)

This means referring to a source you have not read that you have found within another source that you are using.  Try to avoid secondary referencing as it is always preferable to use the original source and you should always try to locate this.

If you find you have to use secondary referencing, in the footnote cite the source you have read, followed by ‘citing’… For example:

In the bibliography insert only the source you have read. There is no specific guidance on this within OSCOLA. 

Naming judges

When referring to a judge within a case, use the judge’s surname followed by the correct abbreviation.  (Mr or Mrs Justice Smith should be called Smith J in your text).

The exception to this rule is when the judge holds a title. A Court of Appeal Judge who is Lord or Lady Smith should be referred to as  Smith LJ .

• A House of Lords judge should be referred to as  Lord or Lady Smith  and should not be abbreviated.
• A Supreme Court judge should be referred to as  Lord Smith SCJ.
• The Lord Chief Justice can be abbreviated to  Lord Woolf CJ.

For more detailed information see OSCOLA 2.1.7

Using Westlaw or Lexis Library

You do not need to include any information about Westlaw or Lexis Library in your citations, as this is just the portal through which you accessed the report, legislation or article. Simply reference the relevant source as you would a paper copy. 

Using Latin terms within footnotes

The only Latin term that is acceptable to use within the OSCOLA style is ‘ibid’, for the instances when you are referring to the same source in consecutive footnotes. Do not use other terms such as supra, op cit, loc cit.

For more information see OSCOLA 1.2.3 u 

Using abbreviations

OSCOLA abbreviates a wide range of legal sources and institutions.

Do not use punctuation when using an abbreviation. Eg, the Director of Public Prosecutions should appear as DPP not D.P.P.

For a comprehensive list of legal abbreviations, use the Cardiff index . You can search by abbreviation to find the title, or by title to find the abbreviation.

For more detailed information, see OSCOLA Appendix 4.2 

Questions about referencing?

Contact your Academic Liaison Librarian if you have any questions about referencing.

Commonly used sources

Examples of in-text citations and reference list entries for key source types.

Use these examples alongside the information given in the 'Guidance for all source types' box.

Act of Parliament

You should refer to the year the Act was passed rather than the year it came into force. 

Use the short title and refer to specific sections of the Act eg

 OR use s for Section in the middle of a sentence. For example:

Footnote: 

You do not need to footnote an Act if you make it identifiable in the text. 

Bibliography:   List Legislation and Cases separately in alphabetical order in the bibliography. 

See the  OSCOLA guides  and our Referencing with Confidence OSCOLA Guide for more details. 

Case citations including neutral citations: List cases in the bibliography in alphabetic order of case names. Use the following format to cite cases.

Case name in italics [year] court number, [year] OR (year) volume report abbreviation first page

If you have included the case name in the text, you do not have to include the case names in the footnote: In text:  refer to the text giving case names in italics eg: In  Phipps v Boardman 31  …..

Bibliography:

For most sources in OSCOLA, the bibliographic format is the same as the footnote. List legislation, cases and secondary sources in separate sections of your bibliography in alphabetical order. 

Treat case notes with titles as if they are journal articles. Where there is no title, use the name of the case in italics instead, and add (note) at the end of the citation:

See 3.3.2 OSCOLA 4th ed. for more details. 

Book 1 author

Capitalise the first letter of each major word of the title. Page numbers stand-alone without p or pp. use the following format for the footnote:

Information to include: Author,  Title in Italics  (edition, publisher date) page.

Book 2 or 3 authors

If the book has up to three authors, include ‘and’ in between each author. Use Initials or forename unpunctuated and with no spaces followed by surname. 

Information to include: Author, Title in Italics Capitalising Major Words  (Edition, Publisher Year) page. 

Bibliography: 

See 3.2 OSCOLA 4th edn for more details. 

Book (4 or more authors)

If a book has  more than three authors,  include ‘ and others’  after the name of the first author.

Edited book (& chapters)

Chapter in an edited book.

Information to include: author, ‘Title of chapter' in editor (ed), title in italics  (additional information, publisher year)

See 3.2.3 OSCOLA 4th edn for more details. 

Edited book

See 3.2.2 OSCOLA 4th edn for more details. 

Journal paper

Journal article (print copy).

Footnotes: author, | ‘title’ | [year] | journal name or abbreviation | first page of article,| specific page referred to

author, | ‘title’ | (year) | volume | journal name or abbreviation | first page of article

Put a comma after the first page of the article if you want to refer to a particular page or set of pages:

If the year serves as the volume identifier, put the year in square brackets [ ]. If there is a separate volume number, put the year in round brackets  ().

In the Young example, 72 is the volume number. Bibliography:

Omit reference to specific page numbers (other than the first page of the article) in your bibliographic entry.

Journal article (electronic copy)

If you source a publication online which is also available in hard copy, cite the hard copy version. There is no need to cite an electronic source for such a publication.

author, | ‘title’ | [year] OR (year) | volume/issue | journal name or abbreviation | <web address> | date accessed

If the information is only available online, give the URL before the accessed date information.

See 3.3.4 OSCOLA 4th edn for more details. 

Further sources

Examples of in-text citations and reference list entries for other source types.

Cite a Bill by its title, the House in which it originated, the Parliamentary session in brackets, and the running number assigned to it. Running numbers for House of Commons Bills are put in square brackets; those for House of Lords Bills are not. When a Bill is reprinted at any stage it is given a new running number.

Title | HC Bill | (session) | [number] OR title | HL Bill | (session) | number

Footnote and bibliography: 

In the bibliography, list bills in alphabetical order under the heading Secondary Sources.

Copied from 2.4.5 OSCOLA 4th edn. 

Where there is no relevant advice elsewhere in OSCOLA, follow the general principles for secondary sources when citing websites and blogs. If there is no author identified, and it is appropriate to cite an anonymous source, begin the citation with the title in the usual way. If there is no date of publication on the website, give only the date of access.

Author, 'Web page title' ( Website in Italics , Full Date) <URL> accessed Date

See OSCOLA 4th edn 3.4.8 for more details. 

Book (translated to English)

If you read a book that was translated from another language (eg, you read an English translation of a book orginally written in German), cite the translation:

If there is an author and translator, reference as follows:

See 3.2.2  OSCOLA 4th ed. for more details. 

Book (read in another language)

If you read a book in a language other than English (eg, you read a book written in German), cite the primary source in the original language:

Footnote:  

Bibliography:  

See 1.4 OSCOLA 4th edn for more details. 

Book review

Cite a book review in the same way as a journal article, but without the quote marks. For example,

Copied from  OSCOLA FAQs

Command paper

The abbreviation preceding a command paper number depends on the year of publication:

1833–69 (C (1stseries)) 1870–99 (C (2nd series)) 1900–18 (Cd) 1919–56 (Cmd) 1957–86 (Cmnd) 1986– (Cm)

Footnotes and bibliography:

In the bibliography, list Command Papers alphabetically by author in Secondary Sources. 

For more details see 3.4.3 OSCOLA 4th ed. 

Conference papers

See 3.4.6 OSCOLA 4th ed. for more details. 

Dictionary (hard copy)

Dictionary (online).

Also consider elements of the style advice for websites and blogs (section 3.4.8).

For the OED online, open the full entry for the word, and click on the Cite button (top right above the definition). Follow that example, tidying it up to make it consistent with OSCOLA styles (eg, change double quotes to single and full stops to commas, removing those that are unnecessary; change OED Online to italics; change Oxford University Press to OUP and put it before the date; and remove http:// from the web address and delete any text after the Entry number, then put angle brackets around the url):

For other online dictionaries, follow the general advice above. You need a date of publication or at least a date of access (ie when you looked at it), as they are generally updated regularly.

Copied from  OSCOLA FAQs. 

When citing personal communications, such as emails and letters, give the author and recipient of the communication, and the date. If you are yourself the author or recipient of the communication, say ‘from author’ or ‘to author’ as appropriate.

See 3.4.11 OSCOLA 4th edn for more details

Encyclopedia

Cite as a book but exclude author or editor and publisher. Include the edition and year. Pinpoints such as volumes and page numbers come after the publication information.

If citing an online encyclopedia, give the URL and date of access:

See OSCOLA 4th edn 3.2.6 for more details. 

Entry in a reference book

List in the bibliography in alphabetical order under Secondary Sources. 

European Court of Justice case

European union regulation, hansard & parliamentary reports.

There are three series of Hansard, one reporting debates on the floor of the House of Commons, one debates in the House of Lords, and one debates in the Public Bill committees of the House of Commons, which replaced standing committees in 2007. When referring to the first two series, cite the House abbreviation (HL or HC), followed by ‘Deb’, then the full date, the volume and the column. Use ‘col’ or ‘cols’ for column(s). In the House of Commons, written answers are indicated by the suffix ‘W’ after the column number; in the House of Lords, they are indicated by the prefix ‘WA’ before the column number.

HL Deb OR HC Deb | date, | volume, | column

See 3.4.2 OSCOLA 4th ed. for more details. 

When citing an interview you conducted yourself, give the name, position and institution (as relevant) of the interviewee, and the location and full date of the interview. If the interview was conducted by someone else, the interviewer’s name should appear at the beginning of the citation.

See 3.4.10 OSCOLA 4th ed. for more details. 

Footnote and bibliography:

Newspaper article

When citing newspaper articles, give the author, the title, the name of the newspaper in italics and then in brackets the city of publication and the date. Some newspapers have ‘The’ in the title and some do not. If known, give the number of the page on which the article was published, after the brackets. If the newspaper is divided into sections, and the page numbering begins afresh in each section, put the section name in roman before the page number, with a space but no comma between the two. If the reference is to an editorial, cite the author as ‘Editorial’. If the article is sourced from the web and there is no page number available, provide the web address and date of access.

List under Secondary Sources

Copied from OSCOLA 4th edn 3.4.9 

The general principles for ‘other secondary sources’ (OSCOLA 4th ed. 3.4.1) suggest the following form for citing podcasts, YouTube videos and similar sources:

Author, ‘Title’ (publication date) <url> accessed xx month 2014

If there is no clear author, give the organisation providing the source as the author. The examples below include a suggestion for citing the comments of a particular person.

If referring to comments by someone in particular, add that information as you would a pinpoint, before the url. Include the person's position if relevant. For example:

Another alternative, particularly if the podcast is quite long, would be to provide the minutes and seconds of the excerpt:

Copied from  OSCOLA FAQs 

Public communication

Author, 'Title' (additional information, publisher year)

Examples taken from  OSCOLA FAQs

List by author in Secondary Sources 

Radio programme

Footnote: Speaker (if a direct quote)/Presenter, 'Title of the programme' (Radio station, date of the programme)

Enter in alphabetical order in the Secondary Sources. If there is a direct quote/speaker, reverse the author's name as usual.

Use this format:

Author, 'Title' (Additonal information, edition if later than first, Publisher day Month year if available) page number if required.

Footnotes: 

Bibliography : 

List alphabetically in author order in secondary sources, giving the authors surname first.

Republished source

Author,  Title of book  (First published publication year, Edition if late than first, publisher, publication year) page if required.

Television programme

Footnote:  Use the following format: Main contributor [Role of main contributor],'Title of programme' [Television series episode] in Title of series (Additional information if required, Publisher, Year )

If you wish to refer to someone speaking during the programme, follow this format: Cite the name of the speaker (if a direct quote), the title of the programme, the radio station and the date of the programme. If there is no obvious author/speaker, begin the citation with the title of the programme. If available online, include the URL and date of access. For example:

List under Secondary Sources in alphabetical order

When citing an unpublished thesis, give the author, the title and then in brackets the type of thesis, university and year of completion.

Copied from 3.4.7 OSCOLA 4th edn.

United Nations Court of Human Rights

If the information is available in print, reference the print version. If only available on the web, reference as follows: 

Footnote and Bibliography:

In the bibliography, list in Secondary Sources.

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Referencing: OSCOLA (Law)

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This guide provides:

A video covering key principles of oscola ,, an introduction to oscola including links to official guides ,, a summary of the key features of oscola and examples of references for key types of source ,, links to additional guidance and tutorials , and, information about how to use oscola styles in endnote reference management software ., video: referencing using oscola (sign in required).

OSCOLA: the Oxford University Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities 4th Edition

OSCOLA: the Oxford University Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities is a well regarded and commonly used guide to legal citation.

It is not the only standard for citing legal materials and you should always check with your School or supervisor in order to confirm how you are expected to reference materials.

OSCOLA online

OSCOLA is available to download from the OSCOLA website:

• OSCOLA: The Oxford University Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities The Oxford University Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities is designed to facilitate accurate citation of authorities, legislation, and other legal materials. more... less... The website includes a full guide and and a 'quick reference' guide as well as information about OSCOLA styles for EndNote, LaTeX, Refworks and Zotero.

Resources include the full OSCOLA guide:

• OSCOLA 4th Edition [FULL GUIDE]

and a 'quick reference' guide:

• OSCOLA Quick Reference Guide A summary of key points of OSCOLA - including useful examples.

There is also information about using OSCOLA styles with EndNote and other reference management software.

OSCOLA in the Library

You can also access printed copies in the Andersonian Library:

Examples of citing sources using OSCOLA

These are some examples of how you might cite some common legal materials using OSCOLA.

There is a brief summary of OSCOLA as a f ootnote styl e which uses minimal punctuation , followed by a description of how you can cite subsequent citations to the same source and how you should include quotations .

Then examples are given of how you might cite:

• Legislation
• Chapters in edited books
• Journal articles , and
• Web pages and blogs

However, for more complete guidance please make sure you refer to the full OSCOLA guide or the 'quick reference guide':

• OSCOLA 4th Edition [FULL Guide]
• OSCOLA Quick Reference Guide

Footnote style (OSCOLA Section 1.1)

OSCOLA is a footnote style: all citations appear in footnotes. OSCOLA does not use endnotes or in-text citations.

When citing any source, either directly (as a quotation) or indirectly (by paraphrasing or referring to ideas in a source), cite the reference in a footnote, in the style indicated in OSCOLA .

Indicate footnotes with a superscript number which should appear after any relevant punctuation in the text.

Put the footnote marker at the end of a sentence, unless for the sake of clarity it is necessary to put it directly after the word or phrase to which it relates .

Close footnotes with a full stop.

Where more than one citation is given in a single footnote reference, separate them with semi-colons.

Recent cases have raised questions about the extent of executive power and its relationship to parliamentary sovereignty. 15 However, this does not mean that...

15 Cherry v Advocate General [2019] CSIH 49, 2020 SC 37; R (on the application of Miller) v Prime Minister [2019] UKSC 41, [2020] AC 373.

Minimal punctuation

OSCOLA does not purport to be comprehensive, but gives rules and examples for the main UK legal primary sources, and for many types of secondary sources .

As far as possible, the guidelines in OSCOLA are based on common practice in UK legal citation, but with a minimum of punctuation .

This means that the use of full stops/periods and commas in a citation is kept to a minimum - they are only used when absolutely necessary for clarity. So if you see legal citations in, for example, a database which include full stops you would need to remove these to conform with the OSCOLA style:

Subsequent citations - (OSCOLA section 1.2)

If you cite a source and then cite it again later in your work, you need not cite the source in full in each subsequent citation. You can 'briefly identify the source and provide a cross-citation to the footnote in which the full citation can be found'. This cross-citation would be in the form (n 3) - where 'n' indicates 'note' and  '3' is the number of the footnote - so the reader knows to look at footnote 3 to find the full citation.

If the subsequent citation is in the footnote immediately following the full citation, you can use ‘ibid’ instead .

3 Cherry v Advocate General [2019] CSIH 49, 2020 SC 37.

4 ibid [53]–[60] (Lord Carloway).

12 Cherry (n 3).

For more detail on how to indicate subsequent citations refer to section 1.2.1 of OSCOLA 4th edn.

Quotations (OSCOLA section 1.5)

Up to three lines.

You should incorporate quotations of up to three lines into the text within single quotation marks:

Lord Carloway described this period of prorogation as 'an extraordinary length of time'. 27

Quotations within short quotations have double quotation marks round them ( "..." ).

Longer than three lines

You should present longer quotations in an indented paragraph. You should not use quotation marks (except for any quotation within a quotation, where single quotation marks should be used).

In Cherry Lord Carloway highlighted the importance of the real reason for prorogation:

At the cabinet meeting, the tenor of the PM’s remarks, and the discussion around them, point to the various factors being used publicly to deflect from the real reason for the prorogation (see Porter v Magill , Lord Scott at [2002] 2 A.C., p.506, para.144). That reason, as is reflected in the frequent references to it in the papers, centred on Brexit and not the intervention of the party conferences or the new legislative programme.

The fact that there will be some days in September and October during which Parliament will be sitting, and thus potentially some time to discuss Brexit, does not detract from the general position that the prorogation is intended unlawfully to restrict that time. The court is not dictating the days on which Parliament should sit. That is a matter for Parliament to decide. It is merely holding that a particular attempt to restrict the available days is unlawful. 29

For detailed guidance on quotations refer to section 1.5 of OSCOLA 4th edn.

Electronic sources

The general guidance is: 'If you source a publication online which is also available in hard copy, cite the hard copy version . There is no need to cite an electronic source for such a publication '. (OSCOLA section 3.1.4)

This means that if you access a report of a case, a statute, or a journal article on a database service (such as Westlaw or Lexis Library) you need not indicate that you found it on that service nor need you provide the web address. The same is true for an eBook, if you can cite the book as if it were a printed book then you need not include the web address.

Cases (OSCOLA sections 2.1 - 2.3)

Scottish judgments (with neutral citation).

Anderson v Imrie [2018] CSIH 79, 2019 SC 243 

Scottish judgments (with no neutral citation available)

Drury v McGarvie 1993 SC 95 (IH)

English and Welsh judgments (with neutral citation)

Williams v Hackney LBC [2018] UKSC 37, [2019] AC 421

English and Welsh judgments (with no neutral citation available)

Lloyd v McMahon [1987] AC 625 (HL)

To cite a specific part of a judgment with numbered paragraphs (e.g. most judgments with neutral citations) include the paragraph number(s) in the footnote citations, e.g.:

Anderson v Imrie [2018] CSIH 79, 2019 SC 243 [3]

Williams v Hackney LBC [2018] UKSC 37, [2019] AC 421 [62]–[69]

To cite a specific part of a judgment with no numbered paragraphs, include the page number(s) in the footnote citations, e.g.:

Drury v McGarvie 1993 SC 95 (IH) 99

Lloyd v McMahon [1987] AC 625 (HL) 682, 685

For more detailed guidance refer to OSCOLA 4th edn sections 2.1 - 2.3. For more general guidance on understanding citations to cases see:

• Case Law: How to find and use case law: Citations to case law

Legislation (OSCOLA sections 2.4 - 2.5)

Acts of the scottish parliament.

Age of Criminal Responsibility (Scotland) Act 2019 (asp 7)

Scottish Statutory Instruments

The Horse Passports (Scotland) Regulations 2005, SSI 2005/223

Children (Scotland) Act 1995

Statutory Instruments (UK)

Feed-in Tariffs Order 2012, SI 2012/2782

The details of how to refer to specific parts of legislation are covered in sections 2.4.2 and 2.5.3 of OSCOLA 4th edn. The following abbreviations are used in footnotes:

If specifying a paragraph or subsection as part of a section, use only the abbreviation for the section .

Age of Criminal Responsibility (Scotland) Act 2019 (asp 7), s 28(4)(a)(i)

The Horse Passports (Scotland) Regulations 2005, SSI 2005/223, reg 13(2)

Children (Scotland) Act 1995, sch 4

Feed-in Tariffs Order 2012, SI 2012/2782, art 7(2)(a)

For more detailed guidance refer to OSCOLA 4th edn sections 2.4 - 2.5. For more general guidance on understanding citations to legislation see:

• Legislation: How to find and use legislation: Citations to legislation

Secondary sources (OSCOLA Chapter 3)

Book (authored).

Edwina Higgins and Laura Tatham, Successful Legal Writing (3rd edn, Sweet & Maxwell 2015)

*Only second and subsequent editions are usually indicated - it is not usual to include edition information if you are citing the first edition of a book.

Chapter in edited book

Mark Elliot, 'Parliamentary Sovereignty in a Changing Constitutional Landscape' in Jeffrey L Jowell and Colm O'Cinneide (eds), The Changing Constitution (9th edn, OUP 2019)

Journal article

Patrick Birkinshaw, 'Brexit's Challenge to the UK's Unwritten Constitution' (2020) 26 EPL 29

Patrick Birkinshaw, 'Brexit's Challenge to the UK's Unwritten Constitution' (2020) 26 European Public Law 29

Paul Craig, 'The Supreme Court, Prorogation and Constitutional Principle' [2020] PL 248

*year of publication, in square brackets if it identifies the volume, in round brackets if there is a separate volume number

**the volume number if there is one (include an issue number only if the page numbers begin again for each issue within a volume, in which case put the issue number in brackets immediately after the volume number)

***the name of the journal can be in full or abbreviated form - but be consistent

Web pages and blogs (OSCOLA section 3.4.8)

The general guidance in OSCOLA is: 'Where there is no relevant advice elsewhere in OSCOLA, follow the general principles for secondary sources (section 3.1) when citing websites and blogs'.

Citations of online only publications should end with the web address (or ‘url’) in angled brackets (< >), followed by the date you most recently accessed it. You should only include ‘http://’ only if the web address does not begin with ‘www’.

Paul Craig, 'Prorogation: Constitutional Principle and Law, Fact and Causation' ( UK Constitutional Law Blog , 2 September 2019) <https://ukconstitutionallaw.org/2019/09/02/paul-craig-prorogation-constitutional-principle-and-law-fact-and-causation/> accessed 13 May 2020

Georgian Presidency of the Council of Europe, 'Justice Systems Must Help Children Overcome Fear and Trauma, Not Make Them Worse' ( Council of Europe ,12 May 2020) <www.coe.int/en/web/portal/-/justice-systems-must-help-children-overcome-fear-and-trauma-not-make-them-worse> accessed 24 May 2020

Additional guides and tutorials on using OSCOLA

These resources from Cardiff University provide additional guidance on using OSCOLA:

• Citing the Law The Citing the Law online tutorial was devised by Information Services staff at Cardiff University.
• A - Z Referencing Examples (OSCOLA) Examples of citing and referencing sources using the Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities - created by a team at Cardiff University.
• OSCOLA FAQs Frequently asked questions about OSCOLA. Includes guidance on some sources not specifically covered in OSCOLA.

OSCOLA Style for EndNote

An OSCOLA 4th Edn style is available for both EndNote (Desktop) and EndNote Online.

Selecting OSCOLA as an Output Style

Endnote (desktop).

On PCs in University IT Labs in EndNote (Desktop) you can select OSCOLA_4th_edn from the Style Manager (you may need to follow the link to 'Get More on the Web...' if the style does not appear in your list).

If you have EndNote on your own computer, you can download the OSCOLA_2_4th_edn style from the OSCOLA website.

Please see further guidance on the OSCOLA website:

• OSCOLA styles for EndNote, Latek, Refworks and Zotero These styles for Endnote, LaTeK, Refworks and Zotero are designed to help legal scholars format cases, legislation, articles and books in compliance with OSCOLA.

Endnote Online

In EndNote Online you can select either OSCOLA _4th_edn or OSCOLA _2_4th_edn from the list of bibliographic styles.

Cite While You Write

When using EndNote's Cite While You Write function in Word, because OSCOLA is a footnote style, you need to use the 'Insert Footnote' function (under the 'References' tab) before using the 'Insert Citation' option (under the ' EndNote ' tab).

Entering References

You should follow guidance on how to enter information in each reference record in EndNote. If information is not in the field required for the OSCOLA style then references may not appear in the correct form in citations or bibliographies. Guidance on how to use the style including how to enter information for each reference is available on the OSCOLA support pages:

• OSCOLA_2_4th_edn_guide (basic instructions for using the style) Please read these notes before using OSCOLA_2_4th_edn.
• OSCOLA 4th edn Notes about this style (basic instructions for using the style) OSCOLA 4th edn (for shared computers,Endnote Web /Endnote on servers etc). If you use Endnote on servers, in shared computer rooms, and/or you want to be able to use your Endnote library on computers other than your own personal computer, use this style.
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Referencing Styles: OSCOLA

OSCOLA stands for the Oxford Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities. It is the Law referencing system created by Oxford University. If you are a post-graduate law student, you are required to use this referencing system. In this system, citations are put in footnotes at the bottom of the page.

To create a footnote in Microsoft Word, click your mouse on the place you want it to refer to. Click on ‘References’ at the top and then on ‘Insert Footnote’. A number will appear in the text, and also at the bottom of the page, where you write your citation. This means that your readers can easily look down at the footnote to see the details of the source you are referring to.

In this guide, each type of source has an outline of the elements of the citation. Each of the elements is separated by a vertical line ‘|’. Pay attention to

• whether words are in italics ( like this )
• whether brackets are round like this ( ), square like this [ ] or angled like this < >
• where there is punctuation, such as commas (,)

You can generate OSCOLA citations using RefWorks . To do this, log into RefWorks , then find the item(s) in Summon and click the 'Save this item' icon next to the search result. This will save the item(s) in your RefWorks folder. In RefWorks, select the item(s) and click 'Create Bibliography'. You can then select 'OSCOLA 4th edition' as the reference style and it will generate the citation.

In HeinOnline , there is a Cite button to the left of an article's text which gives you the OSCOLA citation. You can find OSCOLA reference generators online, but none of them are perfect, so please check what they give you.

If you cannot find what you need, read the latest edition of OSCOLA or email the Online Library at [email protected]

General principles

UK primary legislation (Acts and Bills)

Uk secondary legislation (statutory instruments).

EU legal sources

                Judgments of the ECJ and GC

                Decisions of the European Commission

                Judgments of the ECHR

Cases from other jurisdictions

Legislation from other jurisdictions, encyclopedias, online articles, websites and blogs, newspaper articles.

Personal communications (letters and emails)

General Principles

• Quotations that are three lines or shorter should be incorporated in the text. Use 'single quotation marks', but if you need to sumbit your work to Turnitin, use "double quotation marks".
• Quotations longer than three lines should be an indented paragraph. Do not include quotation marks.
• Put the footnote marker at the end of a sentence, unless for the sake of clarity it is necessary to put it directly after the word or phrase to which it relates
• The superscript number should be after the full stop or comma, if relevant
• Where more than one citation is given in a single footnote reference, separate them with semi-colons

Authors' names

• Give the author’s name exactly as it appears in the publication, but omit postnominals such as QC
• If there are more than three authors, give the name of the first author followed by ‘and others’
• If no individual author is identified, but an organisation or institution claims editorial responsibility for the work, then cite it as the author
• If no person, organisation or institution claims responsibility for the work, begin the citation with the title
• In footnotes, the author’s first name or initial(s) precede their surname
• In bibliographies, the surname comes first, then the initial(s), followed by a comma
• Italicise titles of books and similar publications, including all publications with ISBNs
• All other titles should be within single quotation marks and not in italics
• Capitalize the first letter in all major words in a title
• Minor words, such as ‘for’, ‘and’, ‘or’ and ‘the’, do not take a capital unless they begin the title or subtitle
• Pinpoints to parts, chapters, pages and paragraphs come at the end of the citation
• For cases, pinpoint paragraphs using square brackets, e.g. [23]. If pinpointing to more than one paragraph, separate the paragraph numbers in square brackets with a comma, e.g. [42], [45]. If citing spans of paragraphs, insert a dash between the first and last paragraph being cited, e.g. [1]-[37].
• For everything other than cases, use ‘pt’ for part, ‘ch’ for chapter, and ‘para’ for paragraph
• Page numbers stand alone, without ‘p’ or ‘pp’
• If citing a chapter or part and page number, insert a comma before the page number
• Where possible, give a specific range of pages but if you must refer to an initial page and several unspecified following pages, give the initial page number followed immediately by ‘ff ’ (eg ‘167ff ’)

Electronic sources (this does not apply to cases and legislation)

• If you source a publication online which is also available in hard copy, cite the hard copy version. There is no need to cite an electronic source for such a publication
• Citations of publications that are available only electronically should end with the web address (or ‘url’) in angled brackets (< >), followed by the date of most recent access, expressed in the form ‘accessed 1 January 2010’
• Include ‘http://’ only if the web address does not begin with ‘www’
• When a full date is required, the format should be ‘1 January 2016’
• There is no need for ‘st’ or ‘th’ after the day
• If something spans more than one year in the same century, the format is ‘1972-84’

Subsequent citations

• If a citation is the same as the one immediately before it, you can put 'ibid' (followed by any differing pinpoints) in the footnote
• If the citation is the same as another, you can use a shortened form, followed by a reference to the footnote and any differing pinpoints, e.g. Stevens (n 1) 110.

Case citations including neutral citations

case name | [year] | court | number, | [year] OR (year) | volume | report abbreviation | first page

Corr v IBC Vehicles Ltd [2008] UKHL 13, [2008] 1 AC 884

Case citations without neutral citations

case name | [year] OR (year) | volume | report abbreviation | first page | (court)

Barrett v Enfield LBC [2001] 2 AC 550 (HL)

• If only one volume was issued during that particular year, do not give a number
• Use square brackets for the year a volume was issued
• Use round brackets for the year a judgment was issued
• If you included the case name in the text, you do not need to include the case name in the footnote
• Where there are multiple parties, name only the first claimant and first defendant. Where the parties are individuals, omit forenames and initials.

What are neutral citations?

Many courts now issue judgments with a neutral citation which identify the judgment independently of any law report. Neutral citations give the year of judgment, the court and the judgment number. The court is not included in brackets at the end of a neutral citation because the neutral citation itself identifies the court.

Where a judgment with a neutral citation has not been reported, give only the neutral citation.

Re Guardian News and Media Ltd [2010] UKSC 1

Where such a judgment has been reported, give the neutral citation followed by a citation of the most authoritative report, separated by a comma.

Cite an Act by its short title and year, using capitals at the beginning of major words, and without a comma before the year. Do not use popular titles of Acts, such as ‘Lord Campbell’s Act’

Shipping and Trading Interests (Protection) Act 1995

If several jurisdictions are discussed in a work, it may be necessary to add the

jurisdiction of the legislation in brackets at the end of the citation

Water Resources Act 1991 (UK)

Statutes are divided into parts, sections, subsections, paragraphs and subparagraphs. The relevant abbreviations are:

section/sections

subsection/subsections

sub-s/sub-ss

paragraph/paragraphs

subparagraph/subparagraphs

subpara/subparas

schedule/schedules

Clause/clauses

Consumer Protection Act 1987, s 2

If specifying a paragraph or subsection as part of a section, use only the abbreviation

for the section. For example, paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of section 15 of the

Human Rights Act 1998 is expressed as follows:

Human Rights Act 1998, s 15(1)(b)

title | HC Bill | (session) | [number]

title | HL Bill | (session) | number

Consolidated Fund HC Bill (2008–09) [5]

Academies HL Bill (2010-11) 1, cl 8(2)

Statutory instruments (orders, regulations or rules) are numbered consecutively throughout the year. The year combines with the serial number to provide an SI number that follows the abbreviation ‘SI’ and which is used to identify the legislation. When citing a statutory instrument, give the name, year and (after a comma) the SI number:

Penalties for Disorderly Behaviour (Amendment of Minimum Age) Order 2004, SI 2004/3166

Statutory instruments used to be called statutory rules and orders, and these are cited by their title and SR & O number.

The Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) and their predecessors, the Rules of the Supreme Court (RSC) and the County Court Rules (CCR), may be cited without reference to their SI number or year. Cite all other court rules in full as statutory instruments.

RSC Ord 24, r 14A

CPR Practice Directions (PD) are referred to simply by number, according to the part or rule they supplement.

Parts of statutory instruments

regulation/regulations

r/rr (not necessary for CPR)

article/articles

European Union legal sources

Official notices of the EU are carried in the Official Journal of the European

Communities (abbreviated to OJ). The letter ‘L’ denotes the legislation series, the ‘C’ series contains EU information and notices, and the ‘S’ series invitations to tender.

Legislation

legislation title | [year] | OJ series | issue/first page

Consolidated Version of the Treaty on European Union [2008] OJ C115/13

Regulations and Directives

legislation type | number | title | [year] | OJ L issue/first page

Council Regulation (EC) 1984/2003 of 8 April 2003 introducing a system

for the statistical monitoring of trade in bluefin tuna, swordfish and big

eye tuna within the Community [2003] OJ L295/1

Council Directive 2002/60/EC of 27 June 2002 laying down specific

provisions for the control of African swine fever and amending Directive

92/119/EEC as regards Teschen disease and African swine fever [2002]

Note that the year precedes the running number in citations to Directives, but follows it in citations to Regulations.

Judgments of the European Court of Justice and General Court

• EU cases registered at the European Court of Justice are given the prefix ‘C-‘
• EU cases registered at the General Court (known as the Court of First Instance until 2009) are given the prefix ‘T-‘
• Judgments from the Civil Service Tribunal (established in 2005) are given the prefix ‘F-‘
• For an unreported case, cite the relevant notice in the OJ. If the case is not yet reported in the OJ, then cite the case number and case name, followed by the court and date of judgment in brackets.
• When citing an opinion of an Advocate General, add the words ‘Opinion of AG [name]’

case number | case name | [year] | report abbreviation | first page

Case 240/83 Procureur de la République v ADBHU [1985] ECR 531

Case T–277/08 Bayer Healthcare v OHMI—Uriach Aquilea OTC (CFI, 11 November 2009)

Case C–176/03 Commission v Council [2005] ECR I–7879, paras 47–48

Case C–411/05 Palacios de la Villa v Cortefiel Servicios SA [2007] ECR I–8531, Opinion of AG Mazák, paras 79–100

Decisions of the European Commission

case name | (case number) | Commission Decision number | [year] | OJ L issue/first page

Alcatel/Telettra (Case IV/M.042) Commission Decision 91/251/EEC [1991] OJ L122/48

Judgments of the European Court of Human Rights

Cite either the official reports, the Reports of Judgments and Decisions (cited as ECHR) or the European Human Rights Reports (EHRR), but be consistent in your practice. Before 1996, the official reports were known as Series A. References to unreported judgments should give the application number, and then the court and the date of the judgment in brackets.

Johnston v Ireland (1986) Series A no 122

Osman v UK ECHR 1998–VIII 3124

Balogh v Hungary App no 47940/99 (ECtHR, 20 July 2004)

Omojudi v UK (2009) 51 EHRR 10

Cite cases from other jurisdictions as they are cited in their own jurisdiction, but with minimal punctuation. If the name of the law report series cited does not itself indicate the court, and the identity of the court is not obvious from the context, you should also give this in either full or short form in brackets at the end of the citation.

Henningsen v Bloomfield Motors Inc 161 A 2d 69 (NJ 1960)

Roe v Wade 410 US 113, 163–64 (1973)

Waltons Stores (Interstate) Ltd v Maher(1988) 164 CLR 387

BGH NJW 1992, 1659

Cass civ (1) 21 January 2003, D 2003, 693

CA Colmar 25 January 1963, Gaz Pal 1963.I.277

Cite legislation from other jurisdictions as it is cited in its own jurisdiction, but without any full stops in abbreviations. Give the jurisdiction if necessary.

Accident Compensation Act 1972 (NZ)

1976 Standard Terms Act ( Gesetz über Allgemeine Geschäftsbedingungen ) (FRG)

loi n° 75-1349 du 31 décembre 1975 relative à l’emploi de la langue française

author, | title | (additional information, | edition, | publisher | year)

Timothy Endicott, Administrative Law (OUP 2009)

Gareth Jones, Goff and Jones: The Law of Restitution (1st supp, 7th edn, Sweet & Maxwell 2009)

If there is more than one author insert an 'and' before the last author's name. The edition should be included where the book is in its second edition or beyond. If citing information from a specific page, add the page number directly after the reference. Example:

Gary Slapper and David Kelly,  The English Legal System  (Routledge 2016) 17

If a book consists of more than one volume, the volume number follows the publication details:

Andrew Burrows, Remedies for Torts and Breach of Contract (3rd edn, OUP 2004) 317

If the publication details of the volumes vary, the volume number precedes them, and is separated from the title by a comma:

Christian von Bar, The Common European Law of Torts , vol 2 (CH Beck 2000) para 76

Editors and translators

If there is no author, cite the editor or translator as you would an author, adding in brackets after their name ‘(ed)’ or ‘(tr)’, or ‘(eds)’ or ‘(trs)’ if there is more than one.

If the work has an author, but an editor or translator is also acknowledged on the front cover, cite the author in the usual way and attribute the editor or translator at the beginning of the publication information, within the brackets:

HLA Hart, Punishment and Responsibility: Essays in the Philosophy of Law (John Gardner ed, 2nd edn, OUP 2008)

Contributions to edited books

author, | ‘title’ | in editor (ed), | book title | (additional information,| publisher | year)

John Cartwright, ‘The Fiction of the “Reasonable Man”’ in AG Castermans and others (eds), Ex Libris Hans Nieuwenhuis (Kluwer 2009)

Cite an encyclopedia much as you would a book, but excluding the author or editor

and publisher and including the edition and year of issue or reissue. If citing an online encyclopedia, give the web address and date of access.

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

author, | ‘title’ | (year) | volume | journal name or abbreviation | first page of article

If only one volume was published that year, use square brackets:

author, | ‘title’ | [year] | journal name or abbreviation | first page of article

Put a comma after the first page of the article if there is a pinpoint (the specific page you are referencing).

JAG Griffith, ‘The Common Law and the Political Constitution’ (2001) 117 LQR 42, 64

When citing journal articles which have been published only electronically, give publication details as for articles in hard copy journals.

• Note that online journals may lack some of the publication elements (for example, many do not include page numbers).
• If citation advice is provided by the online journal, follow it, removing full stops as necessary to comply with OSCOLA.
• Follow the citation with the web address (in angled brackets) and the date you most recently accessed the article.

author, | ‘title’ | [year] OR (year) | volume/issue | journal name or abbreviation | <web address> | date accessed

Graham Greenleaf, ‘The Global Development of Free Access to Legal Information’ (2010) 1(1) EJLT <http://ejlt.org/article/view/17> accessed 27 July 2010

Treat case notes with titles as if they were journal articles. Where there is no title, use the name of the case in italics instead, and add (note) at the end of the citation.

Andrew Ashworth, ‘ R (Singh) v Chief Constable of the West Midlands Police ’ [2006] Crim LR 441 (note)

HL Deb OR HC Deb | date, | volume, | column

In the House of Commons, written answers are indicated by the suffix ‘W’ after the column number; in the House of Lords, they are indicated by the prefix ‘WA’ before the column number.

HC Deb 3 February 1977, vol 389, cols 973–76

HL Deb 21 July 2005, vol 673, col WA261

Command papers

Command papers include White and Green Papers, relevant treaties, government responses to select committee reports, and reports of committees of inquiry. When citing a command paper, begin the citation with the name of the department or other body that produced the paper, and then give the title of the paper in italics, followed by the command paper number and the year in brackets.

Home Office, Report of the Royal Commission on Capital Punishment (Cmd 8932, 1953) para 53

The abbreviation preceding a command paper number depends on the year of publication:

1833–69 (C (1st series))

1870–99 (C (2nd series))

1900–18 (Cd)

1919–56 (Cmd)

1957–86 (Cmnd)

Sarah Cole, ‘Virtual Friend Fires Employee’ (Naked Law, 1 May 2009) <www.nakedlaw.com/2009/05/index.html> accessed 19 November 2009

• If there is no author identified, and it is appropriate to cite an anonymous source, begin the citation with the title in the usual way.
• If there is no date of publication on the website, give only the date of access

author, | ‘title’ | name of the newspaper | (city of publication, | date) | page if known

Jane Croft, ‘Supreme Court Warns on Quality’ Financial Times (London, 1 July 2010) 3

Ian Loader, ‘The Great Victim of this Get Tough Hyperactivity is Labour’ The Guardian (London, 19 June 2008) <www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun/19/justice.ukcrime> accessed 19 November 2009

interviewer(s) if not yourself, | Interview with name, position, institution of interviewee | (location, date of interview)

Interview with Irene Kull, Assistant Dean, Faculty of Law, Tartu University (Tartu, Estonia, 4 August 2003)

Timothy Endicott and John Gardner, Interview with Tony Honoré, Emeritus Regius Professor of Civil Law, University of Oxford (Oxford, 17 July 2007)

If the reference is to an editorial, cite the author as ‘Editorial’.

If you conducted an interview for the purposes of your dissertation, you do not need to cite it in your dissertation. If the transcripts of your interviews are in your appendix, you can refer to your appendix in brackets or a footnote, e.g.:

According to interviewee X (Appendix 1), the …

Or, you could cite it as a personal communication in a footnote.

Personal communications

When citing personal communications, such as emails and letters, give the author and recipient of the communication, and the date. If you are yourself the author or recipient of the communication, say ‘from author’ or ‘to author’ as appropriate.

Letter from Gordon Brown to Lady Ashton (20 November 2009)

Email from Amazon.co.uk to author (16 December 2008)

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Check your paper before your teacher does!

Avoid plagiarism — quickly check for missing citations and check for writing mistakes., is this source credible consider the criteria below..

Is the purpose to entertain, sell, persuade, or inform/teach ? Journal articles are often designed to inform or teach. Books and websites could have any of these or a combination of the purposes above. So it is important to determine why the source was created and if it is appropriate for your research. For websites in particular, looking at their "About Us" page or "Mission Statement" can help you evaluate purpose.

Accuracy is the reliability and truthfulness of the source. Here are a few indicators of an accurate source:

• Citations or a works cited list. For websites, this can be links to other credible sites.
• Evidence that backs up claims made by the author(s).
• Text that is free of spelling and grammatical errors.
• Information that matches that in other, credible sources.
• Language that is unbiased and free of emotion.

Based on the above the source could be accurate, inaccurate, a mixture of accurate and inaccurate, or hard to tell.

Authority: Author

The author is the individual or organization who wrote the information in the book, in the journal article, or on the website. If no author is listed, there may be another contributor instead. For example, an editor or a translator. A credible author has:

• Written several articles or books on the topic.
• Provided contact information. For example, an email address, mailing address, social media account, etc.
• The experience or qualifications to be an expert on the topic.

Authority: Publisher

The credibility of the publisher can contribute to the authority of a source. The publisher can be a person, company or organization. Authoritative publishers:

• Accept responsibility for content.
• Are often well-known.
• Often publish multiple works on the same or related topics.

Relevance describes how related or important a source is to your topic. While a source may be credible, it does not necessarily mean it is relevant to your assignment. To determine relevance, you should:

• Determine the website's intended audience. Look at the level of the information and the tone of the writing. For example, is it meant for academics or the general public?
• Make sure that the information is related to your research topic.
• Make sure that the information helps you answer your research question.

A publication date is an important part of evaluating the credibility of a source and its appropriateness for your topic. It is generally best to use content that was recently published or updated, but depending on your assignment, it may be appropriate to use older information. For example, a journal entry from Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War is too outdated to use in a discussion about modern politics and war, but would be appropriate for a paper about the Civil War. Consider the following when evaluating currency:

• Was it published or updated recently? If a website, is there even a publication date listed?
• Is the date of the source appropriate or inappropriate for my assignment?

After analyzing your source, do you believe it is credible, not credible, partially credible, or are you unsure? If you are still unsure, it may help to ask your instructor a librarian for assistance.

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Law: Referencing Using OSCOLA

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• Referencing Using OSCOLA

OSCOLA referencing

Oxford Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities is the accepted method for the referencing of legal materials, such as law cases, statutes and parliamentary papers, for example.  In-text citations appear as footnotes and there is a formal set of abbreviations for key sources, such as AC for Appeal Cases.

If you are studying Law at UWS you will be given guidance on the way in which you are required to use OSCOLA and you must adhere to this.

The following web site from the Faculty of Law at University of Oxford contains very useful information:

• OSCOLA 4th ed

What is referencing and why do I have to do it?

Referencing is the method we use to acknowledge the work of other authors.

It serves three principal aims:

• To support your arguments with evidence. Referencing demonstrates that your own arguments are grounded in a body of existing research and have been developed through an examination of the relevant literature.
• Referencing is an important means by which we credit other authors for any ideas, arguments, quotations, and other forms of intellectual property which are not your own. Not providing an acknowledgement for the work of others is considered plagiarism (note that plagiarism can be both intentional and unintentional). You must always provide a citation when you use another author's intellectual ideas, whether you are paraphrasing (putting it into your own words), summarising, or directly quoting from the source.
• Referencing shows the reader where they can access the original sources you have used (the evidence) to verify or fact check. It also helps the reader to carry out additional research of their own.

Please note!

Referencing is an essential, integral and accepted part of academic study and practice and must be used in the vast majority of academic assignments within all subject areas and at all levels of study.

Everyone, from Level 7 students to published academic researchers, will be required to reference throughout their academic career.

Referencing Using OSCOLA - Cite Them Right Online

The Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA) is a widely recognised and widely used citation style specifically designed for legal research and writing in the United Kingdom. Here are some reasons why OSCOLA is preferred over other referencing styles in the context of legal writing:

Specialisation for Legal Sources: OSCOLA is tailored for the unique requirements of legal research, making it highly suitable for law students, legal professionals, and legal academics. It provides detailed rules for citing legal authorities, such as cases, legislation, and secondary sources, ensuring accuracy and consistency in legal writing.

UK Legal System: OSCOLA is designed to align with the legal system of the United Kingdom, including its court hierarchy, case law reporting, and parliamentary practices. This makes it the ideal choice for legal documents related to UK law.

Academic Acceptance: OSCOLA is widely accepted by UK law schools and academic institutions, and it is often the required citation style for legal research papers, theses, and dissertations. Using OSCOLA can help students meet academic standards and expectations.

Clarity and Precision: OSCOLA's clear and specific rules for citing legal sources reduce the likelihood of errors and ambiguities in legal writing. This precision is crucial in legal documents where accuracy and clarity are paramount.

Comprehensive Guidelines: OSCOLA provides comprehensive guidelines for citing a wide range of legal materials, including cases, statutes, statutory instruments, law reports, and legal journals. It also covers secondary sources, treaties, and international materials.

Regular Updates: OSCOLA is periodically updated to reflect changes in legal citation practices and technology. This ensures that it remains current and relevant to the evolving legal landscape.

Respected Standard: In the field of law, adherence to a recognised and respected citation standard like OSCOLA helps establish the credibility and professionalism of legal documents.

While OSCOLA is the preferred style for legal writing in the UK, the choice of a citation style may also depend on institutional requirements and individual preferences. However, for those working within the UK legal system, OSCOLA offers a comprehensive and specialised framework for accurate and consistent legal citations.

In Cite Them Right Online, click on Choose Your Referencing Style- and then select OSCOLA. Here you will find example of how to reference items using the Oxford University standard for the citation of legal authorities (OSCOLA) style. 

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What is OSCOLA referencing?

OSCOLA is the abbreviated name for Oxford Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities. It’s the style many students use for referencing authorities, legislation and other legal materials. It is widely used in law schools and by journal and book publishers both in the UK and abroad.

The fourth edition of OSCOLA is available to purchase in book stores and online, with a downloadable reference guide available from the University of Oxford, Faculty of Law website.

How to OSCOLA reference

OSCOLA invites you to follow two “golden rules” when citing legal authorities. The first is consistency and the second is consideration for the reader. Legal writing is considered more persuasive when you refer to legal matters in a clear, consistent and familiar way. An integral part of this is having an easy way of identifying your sources.

OSCOLA does not use endnotes or in-text citations. Instead, all citations appear as footnotes. Longer works such as books and theses also include citations in tables of cases and legislation, as well as bibliographies.

Cite This For Me’s OSCOLA citation generator takes the hassle out of law referencing by providing you with the Oxford standard for the citation of legal authorities within seconds. Simply use the Cite This For Me mobile app or online tool and have the whole thing done for you quickly, accurately and consistently.

Popular OSCOLA style Citation Examples

How to cite a book in oscola style.

Use the following template to cite a book using the OSCOLA citation style.

Reference List

Place this part in your bibliography or reference list at the end of your assignment.

In-text citation

Place this part right after the quote or reference to the source in your assignment.

How to cite a Journal in OSCOLA style

Use the following template to cite a journal using the OSCOLA citation style.

How to cite Film or Movie in OSCOLA style

Use the following template to cite a film or movie using the OSCOLA citation style.

How to cite an Online image or video in OSCOLA style

Use the following template to cite an online image or video using the OSCOLA citation style.

How to cite a Website in OSCOLA style

Use the following template to cite a website using the OSCOLA citation style.

Additional OSCOLA style Citation Examples

How to cite a blog in oscola style.

Use the following template to cite a blog using the OSCOLA citation style.

How to cite a Court case in OSCOLA style

Use the following template to cite a court case using the OSCOLA citation style.

How to cite a Dictionary entry in OSCOLA style

Use the following template to cite a dictionary entry using the OSCOLA citation style.

How to cite an E-book or PDF in OSCOLA style

Use the following template to cite an e-book or pdf using the OSCOLA citation style.

How to cite an Edited book in OSCOLA style

Use the following template to cite an edited book using the OSCOLA citation style.

How to cite an Email in OSCOLA style

Use the following template to cite an email using the OSCOLA citation style.

How to cite an Encyclopedia article in OSCOLA style

Use the following template to cite an encyclopedia article using the OSCOLA citation style.

How to cite an Interview in OSCOLA style

Use the following template to cite an interview using the OSCOLA citation style.

How to cite a Magazine in OSCOLA style

Use the following template to cite a magazine using the OSCOLA citation style.

How to cite a Newspaper in OSCOLA style

Use the following template to cite a newspaper using the OSCOLA citation style.

How to cite a Podcast in OSCOLA style

Use the following template to cite a podcast using the OSCOLA citation style.

How to cite a Song in OSCOLA style

Use the following template to cite a song using the OSCOLA citation style.

How to cite The Bible in OSCOLA style

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How to Format an OSCOLA Bibliography

3-minute read

• 4th September 2019

In the UK, the main legal referencing system is OSCOLA. With this system, you need to list all sources you’ve cited at the end of your document. Hence, in this post, we look at how to format an OSCOLA bibliography.

Do I Need a Bibliography?

Short answer: Yes, but  check your style guide  for specifics.

Technically, the fourth edition of OSCOLA says that ‘shorter works, such as articles and essays, generally only require footnotes.’ However, most universities want you to demonstrate your ability to cite sources, so it’s usually best to include a full bibliography.

What Should an OSCOLA Bibliography Include?

The basic structure of an OSCOLA bibliography includes three things:

• A Table of Cases
• A Table of Legislation
• And a bibliography listing secondary sources

As you might expect, the tables of cases and legislation are where you list case reports and legislative documents cited in your work. The bibliography, meanwhile, is where you should list all other sources.

How to Format a Table of Cases/Legislation

Cases and legislation are listed in separate tables. If you have many sources, you may want to distinguish between jurisdictions, too (e.g. having separate tables for ‘UK Cases’ and ‘EU Cases’). Rules for listing sources include:

• The table of cases should come before the table of legislation.
• List statutory instruments separately at the end of the table of legislation.
• Case names are not italicised, unlike elsewhere in the document.
• List sources alphabetically by the first significant word (e.g. ‘ Re Farquar’s Estate ’ becomes ‘Farquar’s Estate, Re’).

Some versions of this system include all legal sources under a ‘Table of Authorities’. If you take this approach, divide the table into separate sections for cases, legislation and statutory instruments.

An OSCOLA bibliography lists all secondary sources, including books, articles and online resources, alphabetically by author surname. Entries in the bibliography are similar to footnotes, but  the format differs slightly:

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• Give the author’s surname first, followed by an initial.
• No first names or pinpoint references are given.
• No full stop is required at the end of bibliography entries.

As such, if the footnote citation for a book looked like the following:

1. Bill O’Rights,  Constitutional Protection  (2 nd  edn, Hodder & Fouslon 1998) 245.

The equivalent entry in the bibliography would be:

O’Rights, B,  Constitutional Protection  (2 nd  edn, Hodder & Fouslon 1998)

Sources with no named author, meanwhile, go at the start of the bibliography, with a double em dash (i.e. ‘——’) in place of the author’s name.

It’s good to keep a working bibliography as you write, adding an entry each time you cite something new. This will ensure you don’t miss any sources.

Australian Legal Referencing

While OSCOLA is used in the UK, it is not the standard referencing system in Australia. Thus, if you’re writing about Australian law, check out our posts on AGLC referencing . And if you need anyone to check the referencing in a document, try our proofreading today.

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