OSCOLA Referencing guide

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Contents

Section A
Effective wider reading 3

Referencing Styles: What is OSCOLA 4

General Tips for using OSCOLA 5

Section B
Citing UK Cases 6

Citing European Cases 9

Citing Statutes 10

Citing Bills 12

Citing Secondary Legislation – Rules of Court 12

Citing Secondary Legislation – Statutory Instruments 13

Citing European Legislation 13

Section C
Citing Secondary Sources – General Principles 14

Citing Books and Looseleafs 15-16

Citing Articles 16

Citing Hansard and Parliamentary Papers 18

Citing Command Papers 18

Citing European Commission Documents 19

Citing Websites and Blogs 19

Citing Newspapers 20

Citing Quotations 21

Bibliographies 22

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A. Introduction
As part of your study with the University of Essex Online, you are asked to include wider reading in
your discussion posts and written assignments. It is important to understand the conventions
required when including the ideas of others in your own work. This referencing guide will assist you in
developing and maintaining your understanding of referencing, and it will provide instructions
explaining how you should provide and format footnote citations and a list of bibliography/ list of
references at the end of your paper.

Please note that the same referencing rules apply to discussion posts. Although discussions are a
somewhat less formal academic exercise, if you employ outside resources you still must follow the
same conventions of referencing outlined in this guide. Rather than cut and paste large blocks of text
from the internet, you might provide a short description of the material sourced there and the URL. In
this way your post is kept to a manageable size and your fellow students are able to access the
useful information that you have found.

Using wider reading effectively

You may incorporate wider reading in your work through:

 Direct quotation: where you provide the exact words of your source in quotation marks,
and/or;
 Paraphrasing: where you rephrase your source’s ideas or work in your own words.

However you decide to include source material, it should be chosen selectively and should not be a
replacement for your own work or thought on the question. In both instances, you must give the
author credit by providing a footnote citation and a corresponding entry in the Bibliography at the end
of your paper.

Don’t let your source material speak for you. It should not just be included in your work without
discussion or commentary because you need to demonstrate why it is relevant to your argument and
engage with its ideas. Source material is best used as support for your argument and as a point for
discussion and reference. It is important to remember that no more than 15% of your paper should
be from source material. For assignments that call for a word count of 1000, this would be under 150
words (600 word assignment, 90 words).

Develop good habits

While the internet is a convenient way to find source material, students sometimes get into trouble
with plagiarism because of poor research and filing practices. Consider the following advice when
researching:

 Never cut and paste text from the internet into your assignment. This includes quotations
used in others’ work;
 Take notes carefully, detailing the source and page number so that you can refer back to it
easily, or reference it correctly in your work without needing to revisit the original material.
Source cards and a good filing system are recommended;
 While planning your work, differentiate between source material and your own ideas in your
notes.

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 Use quotation marks around sourced text (see Citing Quotations on page 21)

Referencing styles
There are many different styles of referencing, such as APA, Chicago, MHRA, MLA, Turabian and
Harvard. The following guide will help you to understand how to accurately reference your work
through the use of footnote citations according to the conventions of OSCOLA. This follows the
University of Essex referencing guidelines for LLB students.

What is OSCOLA?

The Oxford Standard for Citation Of Legal Authorities.

OSCOLA is the standard format of referencing legal material, presenting rules and examples of UK
legal primary sources (cases, statutes etc.), as well as other forms of secondary sources (books,
journals, websites etc.).

How is OSCOLA used?

OSCOLA is a ‘footnote style’ – all references appear in footnotes and not as direct in-text references.

When citing a source (verbatim or paraphrasing), the reference should be cited in a footnote.
1
Footnotes are indicated with a superscript number which should appear after the relevant
punctuation in the text (if applicable).

OSCOLA uses the abbreviation ‘ibid’, which is short for ibidem, meaning ‘in the same place’ to repeat
a citation in the immediately preceding footnote. Standing alone, ‘ibid’ means strictly ‘in the very
same place’ while ‘ibid 345’ means ‘in the same work, but this time at page 345’. It is equally
acceptable to repeat the immediately preceding citation without using ‘ibid’: ‘Ashworth (n 27) 635–37’
thus does the trick even in n 28. If there is more than one citation in the preceding footnote, use ‘ibid’
only if you are referring again to all the citations in that footnote. Note that the abbreviation ‘cf’ is
short for confer, meaning ‘compare’; it does not mean the same thing as ‘see’. Never italicize or
capitalise ‘ibid’ or ‘cf’. Avoid the use of ‘Latin gadgets’ such as supra, infra, ante, id, op cit, loc cit, and
contra, which are not widely understood. For example,

28 Joseph Raz, The Authority of Law: Essays on Law and Morality (2nd edn, OUP 2009).

29 ibid 6.

32 cf Raz (n 28) 233–36.

1
Example of a superscript number.

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General Tips for using OSCOLA

 OSCOLA uses very little punctuation. There are no full stops after abbreviations (e.g. use UKHL
instead of U.K.H.L) or after the v (for versus) between the party names. Footnotes should be
closed with a full stop.

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

 In footnotes, the author’s first name or initial precedes their surname; in Reference Lists/
Bibliographies, the surname comes first, then the initial, followed by a comma.

 Titles of books and similar publications are italicised. All other titles (e.g. chapters) should be in
single quotations marks. The first letter of all major words in a title should be in capitals.

 If you source a publication online which is also available in hard copy, cite the hard copy version.

 Publications which are only available online should end with the web address in angled brackets
< > followed by the date of the most recent access.

 Colons are used to separate a title from a subtitle, for example Competition Law: Precedent
and Procedures

 Case names should be in italics and in lower case, including the ‘v’.

 In case reporting, the date should be in round or square brackets according to the style of the law
report series.

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B. Citing primary sources

Cases – Citing England and Wales Cases

Case Citations with Neutral Citation
The neutral citation is a unique number given by the official shorthand writers to each judgment
issued out of all divisions of the High Court. They are a relatively recent development (since 2001),
introduced to acknowledge the extensive use of electronic law reports, so many case law citations
consists only of the case name and law report.

The neutral citation format consists of:

Case name / [year] / court / number / [year] OR (year) / volume / report abbreviation / first
page.

For example:

A comma separates the neutral citation and the law report citation (always abbreviated), with no full
stops in the abbreviations (e.g. UKHL not U.K.H.L). Use italics for the name of the case, with an
unpunctuated italic ‘v’ to separate the names of the opposing parties.

The year may be enclosed in square or round brackets. [ ] indicates the year the case was reported,
so you would use the date to locate the case; ( ) indicates the date of judgement (a case could have
been judged in one year but reported the following year) so you would use the volume number to
locate the case.

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Case Citations with No Neutral Citation
When the case is not reported in the Law Reports, cite the Weekly Law Reports (WLR) or All
England Law Reports (All ER) or failing that, a specialist report.

No neutral citation, you give the Law Reports citation followed by the court in brackets:

Case name / [year] OR (year) / volume / report abbreviation / first page/ (court)

For example:

Remember there is a recognised order of authority in case reporting and abbreviated

form should always be given. The Law Reports series is seen as the most authoritative as the text is
approved by the judge involved, before publication:

Law Reports e.g. Appeal Court (AC); Chancery Division (Ch); Queen’s Bench (QB)

Weekly Law Reports (WLR)

All England Law Reports (ALL ER)

Specialist law reports e.g. Lloyds Law Reports; Industrial Cases Reports; Criminal Appeal
Reports

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How Cases Should Look in Your Assignment
If the name of the case is given in the text, it is not necessary to repeat it in the footnote. However, it
is also acceptable to include the full case reference in all footnotes.

An example of how it may look in the body of text, with the superscript number after the punctuation:

It is represented in the case law, perhaps most notably in the expression of the no conflict
2
rule advocated by Lord Upjohn in Phipps v Boardman, and in the earlier Court of Appeal
3
decision in Boulting v Association of Cinematograph, Television & Allied Technicians. In
Boulting [or in the Boulting case], Upjohn LJ said that the rule ‘must be applied realistically
to a state of affairs which discloses a real conflict of duty and interest and not to some
4
Theoretical or rhetorical conflict’. In Phipps, Lord Upjohn developed his view of the rule
5
further by adding that there must be a ‘real sensible possibility of conflict’.

The footnotes would then look like this:

2
[1967] 2 AC 46 (HL).
3
[1963] 2 QB 606 (CA).
4 4
Boulting (n32) 638. OR ibid 638.
5
Phipps (n31) 124.

The numbers at the end of 4 and 5 are ‘pinpoints’ which show the page number where the quotation
can be found.

2
[1967] 2 AC 46 (HL).
3
[1963] 2 QB 606 (CA).
4
Boulting (n32) 638. OR ibid 638.
5
Phipps (n31) 124.

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Citing European Cases

Judgments of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJ or CJEU) and the General Court

The CJEU was formerly known as the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and the General Court was
the Court of First Instance (CFI). The preferred court source for EU cases is the European Court
Reports (ECR). ECR 1 reports the CJEU cases and ECR 11 reports those of the General Court.

If there is no ECR report, cite the Common Market Law Reports. If the case is reported in a UK law
report series, cite these using the same order of preference indicated above.

Cases since 1989 have been numbered according to whether they have come from the CJEU (the
number starts with a C-) or the General Court (starts with a T-). Cases prior to 1989 have no prefix.

Citations should be presented in this order:

case number / party names in italics / [year] / report abbreviation / first page

For example:

Case C - 212/03 Commission of the European Communities v France [2005] ECR1-4213

Case T - 180/98 Cotrim v CEDEFOP [1999] ECR 11-1077

European Court of Human Rights

You can use the official reports, cited as ECHR or the EHRR, the European Human Rights Reports.

Citations should be presented in this order:

Party names in italics / (application number) / (year) / law report series

For example:

Whitfield v United Kingdom (App no 46387/99) (2005) 42 EHRR 44

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Citing Legislation - Statutes

A Statute (Act) should be cited in its short tile form using capitals for the major words, and without a
comma before the year. For example:

Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1985

If you are referring to an Act a number of times in quick succession, you can usually provide an
abbreviated form of title in the footnotes, without a cross-citation, as long as the reader bas been
warned in advance. The abbreviation is usually the initials of the main words in the title along
with the year. For example:

The Human Rights Act 1998 would become ‘HRA 1998’ and not just ‘HRA’

Parts of Statutes

Statutes are divided up into parts, sections, subsections, paragraphs and subparagraphs. It may also
have schedules. When referencing, the relevant abbreviations are:

Full Form Abbreviation

part/ parts pt/ pts
section/ sections s/ ss
subsection/ subsections sub-s/ sub-ss
paragraph/ paragraphs para/ paras
subparagraph/ subparagraphs subpara/ subparas
schedule/ schedules sch/ schs

Use the full form at the beginning of a sentence or when referring to a statute without repeating the
name of the Act. In other parts of the text, either form can be used, though when referring to
subsections or paragraphs; it is conventional to use the short form. Use the short form in
footnotes:

Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1985, s 2

You do not need to add a citation to a footnote when citing legislation providing that all the
information about the source is provided in the text.

For example:

This case highlights the far-reaching judicial role ushered in by the Human Rights Act
1998.

Where the text does not include the name of the Act or the relevant section, this information should
be provided in a footnote.

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Text:
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British courts must only consider Strasbourg jurisprudence: they are not bound by it.

Footnote:
6
Human Rights Act 1998, s 2.

If specifying a paragraph or subsection as part of a section, use only the abbreviation for the section.
This example shows paragraph (b) of subsection (1) of section 15 of the Human Rights Act 1998:

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

You should have a comma after the year, and a space but no full stop between the abbreviation and
the initial number, letter or opening bracket.

Examples in the text should look like this:

…section 5(1) (a) of the Race Relations Act 1976…OR… the Race Relations Act 1976, s 5(1) (a)

…by virtue of section 11(1A) of the Limitation Act 1980…

Subsection (1) does not apply to…

…as sub-s (3) shows…

Examples in the footnotes should look like this:

7
Criminal Attempts Act 1981, ss 1(1) and 4(3).
8
Sexual Offences Act 2003, s 1(1) (c).

6
Human Rights Act 1998, s 2.
7
Criminal Attempts Act 1981, ss 1(1) and 4(3).
8
Sexual Offences Act 2003, s 1(1) (c).

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Explanatory Notes to Statues
Precede the name of the statute with the words ‘Explanatory Notes to the …’ when pinpointing, cite
the paragraph number(s), preceded by ‘para(s)’. For example:

Explanatory Notes to the Charities Act 2006, para 15

Bills

Cite a Bill in the following way:

Title / House in which it originated / parliamentary session in brackets / running number assigned
(in brackets or not)

For example:

Academies HL Bill (2010-11) 1

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

Running numbers for House of Commons bills are put in square brackets; those for House of Lords
are not. When a Bill is reprinted at any stage, it is given a new number.

Citing Secondary Legislation – Rules of Court

The Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) and their predecessors, the Rules of the Supreme Court (RSC)
and the County Court Rules (CCR), can be cited without reference to their SI number of year. All
other court rules should be cited in full as SIs.

For example: CPR 7

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

For example: 6A PD 4.1

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Citing Secondary Legislation – Statutory Instruments (SI)

Statutory Instruments are numbered consecutively throughout the year. The year and the serial
number then combine to provide the SI number that follows the abbreviation ‘SI’, used to identify the
legislation.

Cite an SI in the following way:

Name / year / (after a comma) the SI number (in the format year/ number)

For example:

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

2004/3266

As with Acts, where the same SI is cited a number of times in the same work, you can use an
abbreviated form in the footnotes, provided that you have provided warning with the first citation.

The rules for referring parts of Sis are the same as those referring to parts of Statutes. In addition to
those used for parts of statutes, use the following abbreviation:

Full Form Abbreviation

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

Citing European Legislation

Official Notices of the EU are published in the Official Journal of the European Communities (OJ).
The OJ is cited in the following way:

Legislation title / [year] / OJ series / number/ page

For example:

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

The letter ‘L’ denotes legislation, ‘C’ denotes cases and ‘S’ invitations to tender.

Regulations, Directives, Decision, Recommendations and Opinions should be cited in the following
way:

Legislation type / number / full title / OJ L issue / first page

For example:

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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

Once you have cited the legislation in its full form, a short form may be used in subsequent citations
as long as sufficient warning has been given. In the footnote you may also just give the document
type and number (using ‘Reg’ and ‘Dir’ as abbreviations).

C. Citing Secondary Sources – General Principles

Author’s Name

Give the author’s name exactly as it appears in the publication, omitting ‘postnominals’ such as QC.

If there are more than three authors, give the name of the first author followed by ‘and others’.

If there is no individual author, but an organisation or institution takes responsibility for the work, cite
them as the author.

If there is no author or organisation/ institution, start the citation with the title.

In footnotes, the author’s first name or initial(s) precedes their surname. In bibliographies, the
surname comes first, followed by the initial(s), then a comma.

Titles

Titles of books and similar publications with an ISBN should be italicised. For all other titles, you
should use single quotation marks.

Ensure the first letter of all major words is in capitals; minor words such as ‘an’ ‘a’ and ‘of’ do not
need to be capitalised unless they begin the title or subtitle.

Parts / Chapters etc.

Pinpoints to parts, chapters, pages and paragraphs come at the end of a citation. They should be
abbreviated as: pt (part); ch (chapter); para (paragraph).

Page numbers standalone without p or pp. If citing a chapter with a page number, include a comma
before the page number. Where possible, specify the range of pages.

Electronic Sources

If you source an online publication which is also available in hard copy, cite the printed version.

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Online-only publications should end with the web address in angled (< >) followed by the date of
most recent access, for example, ‘accessed 9 May 2012’.

Citing Books
Cite all publications with an ISBN as books whether they were accessed online or in hard copy.
Older books without ISBNs should still be cited as books even if read online.

Authored Books

Cite the author’s name first, followed by a comma, then the title of the book in italics. If a book has a
title and a subtitle not separated by punctuation, add a colon.

The edition, publisher and year of publication follow in brackets – there should be no punctuation
between publisher and year. The place of publication is not needed. If you are using a subsequent
nd
edition to the first edition, indicate that using the form ‘2 edn’ or ‘rev edn’.

The citation should be in the form:

Author, / title / (additional information, / edition, / publisher / year)

For example:

Timothy Endicott, Administrative Law (OUP 2009)

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

To identify a particular chapter in a book edited by one or more people, cite the author and title
of the contribution in a similar format used when citing an article, followed by the editor’s name (use
‘ed’ or ‘eds’), the title in italics, and the publication information:

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

For 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 2010)
For up to three authors, insert ‘and’ between their names as in the following example:

nd
D Chalmers and G Davies and G Monti, European Union Law: Text and Materials (2 edn,
CUP 2010)

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For more than three authors, give the details of the first author and add ‘and others’, in the following
format:

D Chalmers and others, European Union Law: Text and Materials (CUP 2005)

Citing Looseleafs

Cite the title of the work in italics, excluding the current author/ editor, but including names which
have become part of the title.

Do not give publication information.

Avoid pinpointing from looseleafs, but if you do, supply the volume number (if there is on) and
provide a pinpoint to the paragraph number rather than the page number. If pinpointing, you
should also supply the issue/ release of the looseleaf and/ or date of issue in brackets after the
paragraph number, in the form used by the publisher, without any full stops.

Looseleaf examples include:

Ryde on Rating and the Council Tax Cross on Local Government Law, para 8-106 (R 30 July 2008)

Parker’s Law and Conduct of Elections, vol 1, para 9-24 (issue 29)

Citing Articles

Hard Copy Journals

Give the author’s name first, followed by a comma, then the title of the article in roman (e.g. not
italicised) within single quotation marks. The main title words should start with a capital letter
even if the original does not. The publication detail should then follow in the format:

- 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 (including issue number only if the page numbers begin again
for each issue – in which case, put the issue number in brackets immediately after the volume
number – but most volumes run consecutively throughout a year);
- The first page of the article

It should be in the form of:

Author, / ‘title’ / [year] / journal name or abbreviation / first page of article

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OR

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

For example:

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

Alison Young, ‘In Defence of Due Deference’ (2009) 72 MLR 554

If you want to pinpoint a particular page of the article, put a comma after the first page of the article
and include the page number you want to pinpoint, as in the example:

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

Case Notes
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, as in the following example:

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

Online Journals
If the article is only published electronically, provide publication details as you would for a hard
copy article but bear in mind that some of the elements available in printed form may not be
available.

If citation advice is offered by the website, follow it but remember to remove full stops so that is
follows the OSCOLA rules.
The citation should be followed by the web address in angled brackets (< >) and the date you
most recently accessed the article.
Pinpoints follow the citation and come before the web address.

The format for online articles should be:

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

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For example:

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

Other Secondary Sources

Hansard and Parliamentary Papers

There are three series of Hansard:

- One reporting debates in the House of Lords

- One reporting debates on the floor of the House of Commons

- One reporting debates in the Public Bill committees of the House of Commons

When referring to the first two, 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

For example:

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

HC Deb 4 July 1996, vol 280, col 505W

HL Deb 21 July 2005, vol 673, col WA261

Command Papers

These include Green and White Papers, treaties, government response to select committee reports,
and reports of committees of inquiry.

Begin the citation with the name of the department or other body which produced the paper,
followed by the title of the paper in italics, then the command paper number and year in brackets.
The abbreviation before the command paper number depends on the year of publication.

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Examples would be:

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

Department for Education, 2008 Autumn Performance Report (Cm 7507, 2008) 54

European Commission Documents

Documents such as proposals and action plans should show the body that produced the document,
followed by the title in quotation marks, and the COM number. Describe the document type in
brackets after the title if appropriate.

For example:

Commission, ‘Proposal for a Council Decision on the conclusion, on behalf of the

European Community, of the Protocol on the Implementation of the Alpine Convention in the
Field of Transport (Transport Protocol)’ COM (2008) 895, ch 1, art 3.

Websites and Blogs

If you access information from, for example, Westlaw of Lexis library, you do not need to
mention this.

If there is no relevant advice in OSCOLA, use the general principles for citing secondary sources
when citing websites and blogs.

If there is no author, begin the citation with the title in the usual way. If you cannot find a date of
publication, provide the date you access it.

Examples would look like this:

Blog:

Sarah Cole, ‘Virtual Friend Fires Employee’ (Naked Law, 1 May 2009)
<http://www.nakedlaw.com/2009/05/index.html> accessed 26 November 2010

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Website:

Campaign for Freedom of Information ‘Whistleblowing’

<http://www.cfoi.org.uk/whistle.html> accessed 11 August 2012

Newspaper Articles

You need to give the author, title, 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 don’t. Include
it if it is there.

If you know it, give the number of the page on which the article was published, after the brackets.

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

If the item is sourced from the web and there is no page number available, provide the web
address and date of access.

For example:

Jane Croft, ‘Supreme Court Warns on Quality’ Financial Times (London, 1 July 2013) 3

Ian Loader, ‘The Great Victim of this Get Tough Hyperactivity is Labour’ The Guardian
(London, 19 June 2008) <http://guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun19/justice.ukcrime>
accessed 19 November 2009

Citing Quotations
When quoting, you need to use the exact words of the original. If there are mistakes in the originals,
show this by using the word [sic].

If the quote is mid-sentence in your text, it must be in single quotation marks and be less
than three lines long. Punctuation follows the closing quotation mark, unless it is an essential part
of the quotation (such as a question or exclamation mark). The footnote marker comes last after
both the closing quotation mark and punctuation.

For example:

The Chief Justice explained that this power “is not limited to defence against aggression
from a foreign nation”.

Quotations within short quotations take double quotation marks.

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Quotations which are longer than three lines should be presented in an indented paragraph
(both left and right), with no further indentation of the first line. Do not use quotation marks, except
for single quotation marks around quotations within quotations. Leave a line space either side of the
indented quotation.
When a quotation begins in the middle of a sentence in the text, the first letter of the quotation
should be capitalised if the quotation itself is a complete sentence, but not otherwise.

When a quotation begins at the start of a sentence in the text, the first letter should be
capitalised, and square brackets placed around it if it was not capitalised in the original text.

When text is missing from the quotation, or if it ends mid-sentence in the original text, use an
ellipsis (…) to indicate that some of the original text is missing. Leave a space between an ellipsis
and any text or punctuation, except quotation marks.

If a quotation is incorporated into the text, then no more than a comma at most is needed to
introduce it.

For example:

Bix raises the question, ‘What is the point of dissent, after all, at least on the highest court
of the jurisdiction, is the law simply is whatever the majority on that court says it is?’

Usually, a colon is used to introduce an inverted quote.

If you add your own emphasis in a quotation, for example italicising words which strengthen your
argument, put (emphasis added) after the footnote citation.

D. Bibliographies

Items in bibliographies take the same form as all other OSCOLA citations, except in three cases:

- The author’s surname should precede his or her initial(s), which no comma separating them, but
a comma after the final initial;
- Only initials should be used and not forenames
- Titles of unattributed works should be preceded by a double em-dash (--). Works should be
presented 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 citation in a footnote would look like this:

Elizabeth Fisher, Risk Regulation and Administrative Constitutionalism (Hart Publishing

2007).

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And in a bibliography, it would look like this:

Fisher E, Risk Regulation and Administrative Constitutionalism (Hart Publishing 2007)

If citing several works by the same author, list the author’s works in chronological order,
beginning with the oldest, and in alphabetical order of the first major word of the title within a single
year. After the citation of the first work, replace the author’s name with a double em-dash (--).

Works by more than one author should be presented in alphabetical order under the first author’s
name, but place them after any titles by that author as a sole author.

If a first author has more than one co-author, arrange the co-authored works in alphabetical
order of co-authored works in alphabetical order of co-author surname, and if you are citing more
than one work by the same first author and co-author, arrange the works in chronological order,
repeating the co-author’s name each time.

For example:

Hart HLA, Law, Liberty and Morality (OUP 1963)

- - ‘Varities of Responsibility’ (1967) 83 LQR 346

- - Punishment and Responsibility (OUP 1968)

- - and Honore AM, ‘Causation in the Law’ (1956) 72 LQR 58, 260, 398
nd
- - and Honore AM, Causation in the Law (2 edn, OUP 1985)

The bibliography should be divided into two sections: 1) primary sources and 2) secondary sources.

The primary sources section should be divided into subsections for a) legislation and b) case law;
and the legislation section should be divided into subsections for Acts and Statutory Instruments. All
references should be arranged alphabetically by title within each section.

The secondary sources section should be divided into subsections for a) books and book chapters,
b) journal articles and c) other resources. All references should be arranged alphabetically by
author's surname within each section. Where the author is not known, references should be listed
at the beginning, in alphabetical order by title.

Example Bibliography

Primary sources
- Legislation
- Acts

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- Statutory Instruments
- Cases

Secondary sources
- Books and book chapters
- Journal articles
- Other resources

For a full guide to legal citation and for OSCOLA tutorial visit:

http://www.law.ox.ac.uk/publications/oscola.php

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