OSCOLA Referencing

OSCOLA REFERENCING

OSCOLA referencing is mainly used in the United Kingdom in the study of Law. It stands for Oxford Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities. OSCOLA referencing is also referred to as Oxford referencing.

Citations Required in OSCOLA Referencing

OSCOLA referencing requires that footnotes and bibliographies are used.

1. Footnotes: In OSCOLA referencing there is a superscript number in-text that correlates to the relevant authority usually at the bottom of the page. An indication of the authority of the preceding text.

Footnotes Examples

UK Essays gives a well detailed example of a footnote in OSCOLA referencing, highlight both in-text and footnote citation:

In-text

Criminalising a broad range of marginally acceptable business conduct trivialises the criminal sanction and breeds contempt for it, at least among rational actors, which most white-collar offenders are.²³

In the footnote:

23 Michael E Tigar, ‘It Does the Crime But Not the Time: Corporate Criminal Liability in Federal Law’ (1990) Am. J. Crim. L. 17,211

2. Bibliography: In OSCOLA referencing all sources used in the text are located at the text.

Guideline on OSCOLA referencing Bibliography

This section poses quite a challenge to scholars of Law as it is very specific and takes quite sometime to comprehend. We, at All Homework Solutions offer this brief guide to ensure by the end of this text you have grasped the OSCOLA referencing basics.

The bibliography is split into three categories:

1. Table of legislation

2. Table of cases

3. Bibliography from secondary sources.

Table of legislation

Table of legislation in OSCOLA referencing is in alphabetical order with the most notable word of the tittle starting. It includes: Treaties, legislation (may be arranged according to jurisdiction) and conventions.

Table of cases

In OSCOLA referencing, Table of cases is a collection of cases cited in the work and arranged alphabetically. The cases can be arranged according to jurisdiction.

Bibliography from secondary sources

Bibliography in OSCOLA referencing includes all secondary sources cited in the work and is arranged alphabetically. Bibliography cited is similar to the footnotes, except in formatting.

Example:

Footnotes: First name, surname- John, Alexander.

Bibliography: Surname, first name initial- Alexander, J.

GENERAL OSCOLA PRINCIPLES

OSCOLA referencing can get quite confusing, however, All Homework Solutions offer a guideline on how to go about it;

• In OSCOLA referencing at the end of every sentence, a footnote marker must be placed except when its specific to a phrase or word.

• OSCOLA referencing uses little to no punctuation marks. No full stops should be used between authors initials.

• OSCOLA referencing closes all footnotes with a full stop.

• Semi-colons are used in OSCOLA referencing to separate to sources that are referring to a single footnote.

• Instances where the case number is given, it is not to be repeated in the footnote.

• Instances where you are citing both legislation and case law for the same argument in OSCOLA referencing, put the legislation first and separate with a semi-colon from the case law.

• Quotations longer than three lines in OSCOLA referencing are indented and quotation marks are not used.

PRIMARY SOURCES

UK CASES

In OSCOLA referencing, the full name of the cases must be given together with its neutral citation. Case names are italicized except in the bibliography.

Example: Smith v Alexander [1982] 2 PR 701.

In OSCOLA referencing, once the full name of the case has been given, only the succeeding information is required in the footnote.

Example: 2 PR 701.

In OSCOLA referencing, when referring to a judgement on a specific paragraph an exact reference follows the citation.

Example: Smith v Alexander [1982] 2 PR 701[35]- [50]

UK LEGISLATION

Legislation is cited using the year and a brief title.

Example: Environmental Health Act 1995.

In instances where a specific part of the legislation is cited, use a comma to separate frim the legislation.

Example: Environmental Health Act 1995, schedule 5

UK STATUTORY INSTRUMENTS

Short title, year, sector or SI number.

Example: Act of Procurement Regulations 2012, s5

In other instances, explanatory notes are attached to statutes.

Example: Explanatory notes to the Environmental Act 2006, para 25.

BILLS

In OSCOLA referencing, bills are cited as follows:

Title | HC Bill | (Session) [Number]

Example: Emergency Fund HC Bill (2015-01) [7]

CASES BEFORE 1865

Alexander v Smith (1858) 3 H&N 565 ER 165

“ER” is only used when the judgement was reprinted in the English reports.

CASES WITHOUT A NEUTRAL CITATION

This is one of the areas that law scholars find challenging in OSCOLA referencing, however, All Homework Solutions offers a simplified version to ensure no important detail is missed.

Use square brackets while referring to a specific paragraph. Use a comma to separate multiple points.

Party names | [year] | volume | report abbreviation| first page | [court]

Example: Alexander v Smith Works [2009] EWCA CEng 700 [45], [53].

If citing a particular judge:

Alexander v Smith Works [2009] EWCA CEng 700 [45], [53] Eng LR 10 [50] (Hills LC).

CASES WITH A NEUTRAL CITATION

Party names | [year] |court | case number.

Example: Alexander v Smith Works [2010] UKLH 2

EU CASES

In OSCOLA referencing EU cases citations follow the following sequence:

Case number | party names | [year] | report abbreviation | first page

Example: Case P 410/50 Alexander v smith [2005] ECR IV 1905, para 4

EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS CASES

Party names | (year) | volume | law report abbreviation | first page

Example: Smith v UK (2011) 18 EHRR 50

EU TREATIES

Title | [year] | OJ series | Issue/ first page.

Example: Consolidated Fund Version of the treaty on EU [2008] OJ C2115/13

EU REGULATIONS

Legislation type | number | Title | [year] | OJ.

Example: Council Regulation (EC) 1997/ 2003 of 28^th April 2003 introducing a consolidated development fund for all states to monitor tax usage within the states [2003] OJ L354/2

SECONDARY SOURCES

• In OSCOLA referencing authors names are cited as they appear.

• In OSCOLA referencing, if they are more than three authors, cite the first one followed by ‘and others’.

• In OSCOLA referencing, italicize the titles of articles and books with ISBN, others should be put in quotation marks.

• Publications that are only available online in OSCOLA referencing are followed with a URL in angled brackets < >.

• All major words in the title should be capitalized.

BOOKS

In OSCOLA referencing, books are cited as follows:

Author, | title | (additional information, | edition, | publisher | year).

Example: Alexander Smith, Criminal Law (2^nd Edition, OUP 2013).

Books with two authors

Author 1 and Author 2, | title | (edition, | publisher, | year)

Alexander Smith and Barbara Johnson, Land Law, (Oxford University Press, 2010)

Books with three authors

Author 1, Author 2 and Author 3 | title | (edition, | publisher, | year)

Alexander Smith, Barbara Johnson and Christopher White, Smith, Johnson & White on Company Law (18th edition, Blackstone 2001)

Books with four or more authors

Author 1 and others, | title | (edition, | publisher, | year)

Alexander Smith and others, Law Management & Ethics (5th edition, Blackwells, 2002)

Chapters of Edited Books

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

Example: Justine Pila, ‘The Value of Authorship in the Digital Environment’ in William H Dutton and Paul W Jeffreys (eds), World Wide Research: Reshaping the Sciences and Humanities in the Century of Information (MIT Press 2010).

JOURNALS

Author, | ‘title’ | [year] OR (year)| journal name or abbreviation | first page of article.

Example: Alexander Smith, “Criminal Law”, “Theory of Criminal Law” [2009] PL 200

Online Journals

Author, | ‘title’ | [year] OR (year) | volume/issue | journal name or abbreviation | | date accessed.

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

WEBSITE AND BLOGS

In OSCOLA referencing of website and blogs if the author is not provided, begin with the title of the website. If the date of publication is unavailable, provide the date you accessed it.

Example: Author | ‘title’ | (Website, date) | <Website URL> | accessed <date>

Sarah Cole, ‘Virtual Friend Fires Employee’ (Naked Law, 1 May 2009) accessed 19 November 2009.

NEWSPAPER

Author, | ‘title’ | newspaper | (City of publication, date of publication) | page number

Example: Alexander Smith, ‘Supreme Court Warns on Corruption’ Financial Times (London, 1 July 2010) 3.

Online Newspaper Article

Author, | ‘title’ | newspaper | (City of publication, date of publication) | <Website URL>

HANSARD- HOUSE OF COMMONS DEBATE

HC Deb | date, | volume, | column

HC Deb 3 October 2005, vol 300, col 500

HANSARD- HOUSE OF LORDS

HL Deb | date, | volume, | column

HL Deb 30 April 2000, vol 50, col 222

PUBLIC BILLS COMMITTEE

Title of bill followed by Deb | date, | column

Public Accounts Bill Deb 22 June 2002, cols 99

LAW COMMISSION REPORTS

Dept., | title | (CP number, year). OR Dept., | title | (Law Com number, year).

Example: Law Commission, Reforming Corruption (Law Com No 213, 2008).

SUMMARY

OSCOLA can be truly challenging to scholars using it for the first time. Scholars are advised to seek professional help from websites such as All Homework Solutions on further guides, handbooks and samples on OSCOLA referencing.