OSCOLA Referencing: The UK Law Student's Complete Guide

OSCOLA is the citation system used by virtually every UK law faculty and by practitioners in the English and Welsh legal system. It is footnote-based, covers the unique source types of legal writing (cases, statutes, treaties), and has specific conventions that differ substantially from author-date systems like Harvard or APA.

Structure of an OSCOLA essay

An OSCOLA essay has:

1. Footnotes throughout the essay (citations appear at the bottom of each page)
2. Table of Cases at the end (all cases cited, alphabetically by case name)
3. Table of Legislation at the end (all statutes cited, alphabetically by title)
4. Bibliography at the end (all secondary sources — books, articles, reports — alphabetically by author)

In-text references and footnotes

OSCOLA does not use parenthetical citations. Instead, superscript numbers in the body text link to footnotes at the bottom of the page:

The neighbour principle was established in Donoghue v Stevenson¹ and subsequently refined in Anns v Merton.²

Footnotes at the bottom of the page:

¹ [1932] AC 562 (HL).
² [1978] AC 728 (HL).

Pinpoints (references to specific pages or paragraphs):

³ [1932] AC 562 (HL) 580.

Ibid — used when the immediately preceding footnote cited the same source:

⁴ [1932] AC 562 (HL) 580.
⁵ ibid 590.

If the same source was cited several footnotes earlier (not immediately preceding), use a short form: author's surname and short title.

Citing cases

UK cases

Pre-2001 (law reports only):

Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562 (HL).

Format: Party v Party [Year] Volume LR Abbreviation FirstPage (Court).

Post-2001 (neutral citation + law report):

R v Jogee [2016] UKSC 8, [2017] AC 387.

Format: Party v Party [Year] Court CaseNumber, [Year] Volume LR FirstPage.

Neutral citation only (if not yet reported):

R v Jones [2020] EWCA Crim 1234.

Common court abbreviations:

• UKSC — UK Supreme Court
• EWCA Civ — Court of Appeal (Civil Division)
• EWCA Crim — Court of Appeal (Criminal Division)
• EWHC — High Court (add QB, Ch, Fam for division)
• HL — House of Lords (pre-2009)

ECHR / EU cases

ECHR:

Osman v United Kingdom (2000) 29 EHRR 245.

CJEU:

Case C-415/93 Union Royale Belge des Sociétés de Football Association 
ASBL v Jean-Marc Bosman [1995] ECR I-4921.

Citing legislation

Acts of Parliament

Cited by full title in italics only — no brackets, no publisher:

Human Rights Act 1998
Equality Act 2010

Specific sections:

Human Rights Act 1998, s 6(1)

Schedules:

Companies Act 2006, sch 1, para 3

Statutory instruments

Civil Procedure Rules 1998, SI 1998/3132, r 3.4

EU legislation (directives, regulations)

Council Directive 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000 establishing a 
general framework for equal treatment in employment and occupation 
[2000] OJ L303/16.

Citing secondary sources (books and articles)

Book

Footnote:

⁶ Alan Baddeley, Human Memory (2nd edn, Lawrence Erlbaum 1997) 45.

Bibliography:

Baddeley A, Human Memory (2nd edn, Lawrence Erlbaum 1997)

Notes:

• First name first in footnotes; last name first in bibliography
• No "p." before page numbers
• Publisher in brackets with year, no comma before year

Journal article

Footnote:

⁷ Sarah Brown, 'Working Memory in Legal Contexts' (2021) 41 OJLS 102, 115.

Bibliography:

Brown S, 'Working Memory in Legal Contexts' (2021) 41 OJLS 102

Format: Author, 'Article Title' (Year) Volume Journal Abbreviation FirstPage, PinPoint.

Common law journal abbreviations:

• LQR — Law Quarterly Review
• MLR — Modern Law Review
• OJLS — Oxford Journal of Legal Studies
• CLJ — Cambridge Law Journal
• ICLQ — International & Comparative Law Quarterly
• ELRev — European Law Review

Website

Footnote:

⁸ Law Commission, 'Reforming the Law of Murder' (Law Commission, 
  2006) <https://lawcom.gov.uk/project/murder-manslaughter-and-
  infanticide/> accessed 15 March 2024.

Notes:

• URL in angle brackets <...>
• Access date after URL: accessed DD Month YYYY

The Table of Cases and Table of Legislation

Table of Cases — Alphabetical list of all cases cited, without footnote numbers:

Anns v Merton London Borough Council [1978] AC 728 (HL)
Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562 (HL)

Table of Legislation — Alphabetical list of all statutes and statutory instruments:

Statutes
  Equality Act 2010
  Human Rights Act 1998

Statutory Instruments
  Civil Procedure Rules 1998, SI 1998/3132

Common OSCOLA mistakes

Using "(Author, Year)" in-text — OSCOLA does not use in-text parenthetical citations. All citations are footnotes.

Forgetting the pinpoint — In OSCOLA, you must specify the page or paragraph being cited, not just the first page of the source. [1932] AC 562 tells the reader where the case starts; [1932] AC 562, 580 tells them which page you are citing.

Italicising statutes — Statutes are italicised; cases are also italicised. Both look the same. The difference is in the surrounding text: cases use "v" (also in italics); statutes do not.

Using "p." before page numbers — OSCOLA does not use "p." or "pp." before page numbers in footnotes.

Missing Table of Cases — Most UK law school assessments expect a separate Table of Cases, not just a bibliography. Omitting it loses marks.

For a full citation tool, use the Citation Reference Formatter. For other citation styles used alongside OSCOLA, see the Harvard Guide and Chicago Guide.