OSCOLA Referencing Style
OSCOLA (Oxford University Standard for Citation and Legal Authorities) is a law referencing system developed by Oxford University in 2000. The style is extensively used in law schools and by journal and book publishers In the UK and other countries. The style was developed to promote consistency in legal materials and allow researchers and readers to obtain information and materials quickly.
How does it look like?
Footnotes
All citations in OSCOLA appear at the end of the document in footnotes and a bibliography. Footnote referencing means that you insert small superscript numbers in the body of your essay, preferably at the end of the sentence and after punctuations. A complete and detailed reference list is added at the bottom of the page in correspondence to the superscript numbers. For books, theses, and other longer works, you are required to include a list of abbreviations in tables of cases, legislation at the beginning of the documents and bibliography at the end.
Bibliography
The bibliography is simply a complete list of all sources used and cited throughout your work inserted at the end of the document. This includes sources that you used to gather information but not necessarily quoted or paraphrased directly in your work. In the bibliography, the information sources are stated in full and not specific pages. The bibliography should be presented in three parts: table of cases, table of legislation which lists every statue that has been cited in the paper, and the main bibliography, which lists all secondary sources such as books, journals, newspapers, and articles used. All the cases should be listed alphabetically as per the author’s surname or title, where the author is not given.
Formatting the references
All the references in the footnotes and bibliography must follow the ESCOLA citation style. All titles of the books and other similar publications should be italicized. All other titles should be within single quotation marks and not in italics. Also, be sure where to use round, blocked brackets and other angles like < >, and pay attention to where punctuation marks such as comma are also used.
ESCOLA Referencing Example
Footnotes when Citing primary sources
The format should appear as follows:
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
Citing secondary sources
The citation should take the form below.
author, | title | (additional information, | edition, | publisher | year)
example. Timothy Endicott, Administrative Law (3rd edn, OUP 2015)
Note. The square brackets are used if the year is essential in identifying the law report volume while the round brackets are used when the year is not necessary to identify.
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