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Referencing is the process of adding citations of the sources you’ve used to collect information for drafting any document. These are usually the practices of scholars who conduct in-depth research to study any particular topic. Out of a few commonly used referencing styles, OSCOLA is in the top 3.
OSCOLA, the acronym of Oxford Stand for Citation of Legal Authorities, is created for law referencing by Oxford University. This is a referencing style, where the citations are placed in the footnotes and explained in bibliographies. Let’s now take a look at both of them in the below section.
Footnotes are the notes that are placed at the bottom of a page. These include comments, citations, notes, and so on regarding the content on that particular page.
The bibliography is the page attached at the end of the whole document that includes the sources that are used as a reference to draft that document.
These are the 2 main types of citations that are used in the OSCOLA referencing style. Let us now look into the principles one must follow for using this style.
Here are a few principles that you should follow while citing the sources using OSCOLA referencing style:
This is for instances when it is not about cases and legislation:
These are some principles that every student should follow while using OSCOLA referencing style to cite their sources.
Here are the OSCOLA referencing style formats for various sources with examples:
Case name | [year] | court | number, | [year] OR (year) | volume | report abbreviation | first page
Example: Corr v IBC Vehicles Ltd [2008] UKHL 13, [2008] 1 AC 884
Case name | [year] OR (year) | volume | report abbreviation | first page | (court)
Example: Barrett v Enfield LBC [2001] 2 AC 550 (HL)
Example: Re Guardian News and Media Ltd [2010] UKSC 1
Example: Shipping and Trading Interests (Protection) Act 1995
Example: Water Resources Act 1991 (UK)
Example: Consolidated Fund HC Bill (2008-09) [5]
OR
Example: Academies HL Bill (2010-11) 1, cl 8(2)
Legislation Title | [year] | OJ series | issue/first page
Example: Consolidated Version of the Treaty on European Union [2008] OJ C115/13
Legislation Type | Number | Title | [year] | OJ L issue/first page
Example: Council Regulation (EC) 1984/2003 of 8 April 2003 introducing a system for the statistical monitoring of trade in Bluefin tuna, swordfish, and bigeye tuna within the Community [2003] OJ L295/1
Case Number | Case Name | [year] | Report Abbreviation | First Page
Example: Case 240/83 Procureur de la Republique v ADBHU [1985] ECR 531
Case Name | (Case Number) | Commission Decision Number | [Year] | OJ L Issue/First Page
Example: Alcatel/Telettra (Case IV/M.042) Commission Decision 91/251/EEC [1991] OJ L122/48
Author | Title | (Additional Information, | Edition, | Publisher |Year)
Example: Timothy Endicott, Administrative Law (OUP 2009)
Author 1 and Author 2, | Title| (Edition, | Publisher, | Year)
Example: Roger Sexton and Barbara Bogusz, Land Law, (Oxford University Press, 2010)
Author 1, Author 2 and Author 3 | Title | (Edition, | Publisher, | Year)
Example: Stephen Mayson, Derek French and Christopher Ryan, Mayson, French & Ryan on Company Law (18th edition, Blackstone 2001)
Author 1 and others, | Title | (Edition, | Publisher, | Year)
Example: Harry Root and others, Management and Ethics (5th edition, Blackwells, 2002)
Author | Title | (Additional Information, | Edition, | Publisher | Year) Page Number
Example: Gary Slapper and David Kelly, The English Legal System (Routledge 2016) 17
Author | Title | (Additional Information, | Edition, | Publisher | Year) Page Number
Example: Andrew Burrows, Remedies for Torts and Breach of Contract (3rd edn, OUP 2004) 317
Author | Title, Edition| (Additional Information, | Publisher | Year) Page Number
Example: Christian von Bar, The Common European Law of Torts, vol 2(CH Beck 2000) para 76
Author | ‘Title’ | in Edition (ed), | Book Title | (Additional Information, | Publisher | Year)
Example: John Cartwright, ‘The Fiction of the “Reasonable Man”’ in AG Castermans and others (eds), Ex Libris Hans Nieuwenhuis (Kluwer 2009)
Example: Halsbury’s Laws (5th edn, 2010) vol 57, para 53
Example: Leslie Green, ‘Legal Positivism,’ The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall edn, 2009) http://... Accessed 20 November 2009
Author | ‘Title’| (Year) | Volume | Journal Name or Abbreviation | First page of the article
OR
Author | ‘Title’| [Year] | Journal Name or Abbreviation | First page of the article
Example: JAG Griffith, ‘The Common Law and the Political Constitution’ (2001) 117 LQR 42, 64
Author | ‘Title’| [Year] OR (Year)| Volume/issue | Journal Name or Abbreviation |
Example: Graham Greenleaf, ‘The Global Development of Free Access to Legal Information’ (2010) 1(1) EJLT http://ejlt... Accessed 27 July 2010
Example: 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
Example: HC Deb 3 February 1977, vol 389, cols 973-76
Example: Home Office, Report of the Royal Commission on Capital Punishment (Cmd 8932, 1953) para 53
Example: Sarah Cole, ‘Virtual Friend Fires Employee’ (Naked law, 1 May 2009) <www…> accessed 19 November 2009
Author, | ‘Title’ | Name of the newspaper | (city of publication, | date) | page if known
Example: Jane Croft, ‘Supreme Court Warns on Quality’ Financial Times (London, 1 July 2010) 3
Interview with name, position, the institution of interviewee | (location, date of interview)
Example: Interview with Irene Kull, Assistant Dean, Faculty of Law, Tartu University (Tartu, Estonia, 4 August 2003)
Example: Letter from Gordon Brown to Lady Ashton (20 November 2009)
These are the major formats using which a student can cite the sources he has referred to for drafting their documents. Scholars use this style to ensure they cite the sources in the most appropriate way.
