KENYATTA UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF LAW
LPL 314 : LEGAL RESEARCH AND WRITING – II
By : Dr. JohnPaul Kanya Musembi

RESEARCH CITATIONS AND REFERENCING

SYNOPTICAL OUTLINE:
a) Introduction
b) Major general points to note when OSCOLA is to be used
c) Cases
d) Statutes
e) Bills
f) Secondary legislations
g) Books
h) Journals
i) Websites
j) Newspapers
k) Quotations
l) Bibliography
m) Conclusions

1. INTRODUCTION:

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  The aim of a system for citing legal authorities is relatively straightforward:
‘it is a simple and practically costless way to point at the source that
provides authority for your claim.1
 A uniform citation system:
a) ensures that an advocate adequately identifies the authority s/he is
presenting to the Court;
b) gives the Court a reference that it can use to quickly find the authority,
and
c) ensures that the Judges understand what an authority says and how it is to
be used.
 There are several legal citation systems developed by different jurisdictions,
universities, and publishing houses. Two of such system are the Bluebook
and the Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities [hereinafter
referred to as OSCOLA].
 OSCOLA is one of the recommended standard way of referencing legal
material, giving rules and examples for the main United Kingdom legal
Primary Sources (Cases, Statutes, etc), and Secondary Sources (Books,
Journal Articles, Websites, Statements, etc).2
 OSCOLA is purposely used to help an author achieve clarity and
consistency as well as making it easier for the reader to identify the author’s
sources.
2. OSCOLA is a ‘footnote style’ and as such, all citations appear at footnotes.
Thus, the mode does not employ endnotes or in-text citations. The footnotes
are indicated with a superscript number that appears after the relevant
punctuation in the text (if any).3

1
Lawrence Lessig, ‘Foreword’ in Frank G Bennett, Citations: Out of the Box (2013) viii.
2
OSCOLA was initially devised for use within Oxford University. However, it is now used by Law Schools throughout the United Kingdom and
overseas and by a number of Legal Journals and Publishers.
3
Detailed information on OSCOLA is available at http://www.law.ox.ac.uk/published/OSCOLA_4th_edn.pdf.
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3. MAJOR GENERAL POINTS TO NOTE WHEN OSCOLA IS TO BE
USED:
 There are no full stops after abbreviations (For 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 citation is given in a single footnote reference, they
should be separated with semi-colons.
 Commas should be used to separate distinct parts of a book reference,
notably between the author and the title. Equally, they are used between the
neutral citation and the law report citation in cases.
 Pinpoints to parts, chapters, pages and paragraphs come at the end of the
citation. If citing a chapter or part and page number, use a comma before the
page number.
 Where a publication is sourced from online and it is also available in hard
copy, it is better to cite the hard copy version only or both.
 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 e.g., Competition
Law: Precedents and Procedures).
 Acts should be cited by their short title, using capitals for the major words.
 Statutes are divided into Parts, Sections, Subsections, Paragraphs and Sub-
Paragraphs. Use the full form of the Part /Section, etc., at the beginning of a
sentence or when referring to a part of a Statute without repeating the name
of the Act. The short form should be used in footnotes.
 Author’s name:
a) The author’s name, exactly as it appears in the publication, omitting
‘postnominals’ such as QC should be given.
b) Where there are more than three authors, the name of the first author
followed by ‘and others’ should be given.
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 c) Where there is no individual author, but an organisation or institution
takes responsibility for the work, they should be cited as the author.
d) Where there is no author or organisation / institution, start the citation
with the title.
e) In footnotes, the author’s first name or initial(s) precedes the surname. In
bibliographies, the surname comes first, followed by the initial(s), then a
comma.
 Titles:
a) Titles of books and publications with an International Standard Book
Number [hereinafter referred to as ISBN] are italicised. All other titles
should be in single quotation marks.
b) The first letter of all major words in a title should be in capital letter.
Minor words such as ‘an’ ‘a’ and ‘of’ do not need to be capitalised unless
they begin the title or subtitle.
 Page numbers stand-alone without p or pp. In citing a chapter with a page
number, a comma before the page number should be included.

4. CASES:
 Case names should be in italics and in lower case (other than titles)
including the ‘v’ in italic to separate the names of the adverse parties.
 In case reporting, the date should be in round or square brackets according to
the style of the law report series e.g., Electronic Kenya Law Report (eKLR),
Weekly Law Reports (WLR) and All England Law Reports (ALL ER).
 Citing of the issuing Court where a matter is handled is also important e.g.,
Supreme Court (SC), Court of Appeals (CA), High Court (HC),
Environmental and Land Court (ELC), Employment and Labour Relations
Court (ELRC), Magistrate Court (MC), Khadis Court (KC), East African
Court of Justice (EACJ), Appeal Court (AC); Chancery Division (Ch);
Queen’s Bench (QB).

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 [ ] - indicates the ‘year’ the case was reported, so the year can be used to
locate the case; while ( ) - indicates the ‘date’ of judgment. A case can be
judged in one year but reported the following year. Hence, the volume
number can be used to locate the case.
 Case name | [Year] | Court | Number I OR (Year) | Volume | Report
Abbreviation | First Page.
For e.g., Omojudi v UK (2009) 51 EHRR 10 or Omojudi v UK [2009] 51
EHRR 10.
 Where there are multiple parties, the first claimant and the first defendant are
only the ones to be named.
 Re in preference to In Re…, In the Matter of… can be used.
For e.g., Re the Companies Act 1989 … rather than In the Matter of the
Companies Act 1989.
 Abbreviate Ex parte (on behalf of) to Ex p with a capital E only if it is the
first word of the case name. The p has no full stop.
 Popular names for cases can be used. The popular name must be in brackets
after the full citation. The popular name can then be used in subsequent
citations.
For e.g., Re A (conjoined twins) [2001], Fam 147
Leigh & Sullivan Ltd v Aliakmon Shipping Co Ltd (The Aliakmon) [1986]
AC 785 (HL). Subsequent citations would then be like this: 40 The
Aliakmon (n25).
 Where 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.
For e.g., It is well represented in the case law, perhaps most notably in the
expression of the no conflict rule advocated by Lord Upjohn in Phipps v
Boardman,31 and in the earlier Court of Appeal decision in Boulting v
Association of Cinematograph, Television & Allied Technicians.32 In

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 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 theoretical or rhetorical conflict’. 33 In
Phipps, Lord Upjohn developed his view of the rule further by adding that
there must be a ‘real sensible possibility of conflict’.34
The footnotes would then look like this:
31 [1967] 2 AC 46 (HL).
32 [1963] 2 QB 606 (CA).
33 Boulting (n32) 638. OR 33 ibid 638.
34 Phipps (n31) 124.
The numbers at the end of 33 and 34 are ‘pinpoints’ which show the page
number where the quotation can be found.

5. STATUTES:
 A Statute should be cited in its short title form using capitals for the major
words, and without a comma before the year.
For e.g., the Land Registration Act 2012.
 Where reference to a Statute is to be made a number of times in quick
succession, an abbreviated form of the title (of the main words in the title
along with the year) can be provided in the footnotes, without a cross-
citation, as long as the reader is warned in advance.
For e.g., for the Land Registration Act 2012 would be ‘LRA 2012’ and not
just ‘LRA’.
 Where the text does not include the name of the Act or the relevant Section,
the information should be provided in a footnote.
For e.g., The British Courts must only consider Strasbourg jurisprudence.
They are not bound by it.4
 The following is the mode of abbreviating various segments of a Statute:
4
Human Rights Act 1998, s 2. Parts of Statutes.
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 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
 While specifying a Paragraph or Subsection as part of a Section, only the
abbreviation for the Section should be used.
For e.g., Paragraph (b) of Subsection (1) of Section 15 of the Land
Registration Act 2012 will be:
The Land Registration Act 2012, s 15(1)(b), or
The Land Registration Act 2012, ss 1(1) and 4(3).
There should be a comma after the year and a space but no full stop between
the abbreviation and the initial number, letter or opening bracket.

6. BILLS:
 Cite a Bill in the following way:
Title of the Bill | House in which it originated | Parliamentary session |
Running number assigned (in brackets)
For e.g., The Retirement Benefits (Deputy President and Designated State
Officers) Senate Bill (2018) [2].

7. SECONDARY LEGISLATIONS:
 Cite Secondary Legislations in the following way:
Name | year | (after a comma) the Serial Number (in the format
year/number)
For e.g., The Civil Procedure Rules 2010, L.N. 151/2010.
 Just like the Statutes, where the Serial Number is cited a number of times in
the same work, an abbreviated form in the footnotes can be used.
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  The following is the mode of abbreviating various segments of a Secondary
Legislation:
Regulation/regulations reg/regs
Rule/rules r/rr
Article/articles art/arts

8. BOOKS:
 Publications with an ISBN should be cited as books whether they are
accessed online or in hard copy.
 Older books without ISBNs should as well be cited as books even if read
online.
 If a book has a title and a subtitle not separated by punctuation, add a colon.
 Cite books in the following way:
Author’s Name, | Title | (additional information, | edition, | publisher | year).
For e.g., Timothy Endicott, Administrative Law (OUP 2009)
Gareth Jones, Goff and Jones: The Law of Restitution (1st supp, 7th 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 e.g., 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.

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 For e.g., D Chalmers and G Davies and G Monti, European Union Law:
Text and Materials (2nd edn, CUP 2010).
 For more than three authors, the details of the first author and the words ‘and
others’ should be added.
For e.g., D Chalmers and Others, European Union Law: Text and Materials
(2nd edn, CUP 2010).

9. JOURNALS:
 Hard Copy Journals: The main title words should start with a capital letter
even if the original does not. The publication details should then follow in
the format.
 The following format is recommended:
Author’s Name, | ‘Title’ | [Year of publication] | Journal name or
abbreviation | First page of Article, OR
Author’s Name, | ‘Title’ | (Year of publication) | Volume | Journal name or
abbreviation | [Volume] |[Issue Number] | First page of Article
For e.g., Paul Craig, ‘Theory and Values in Public Law’ [2005] Journal of
Comparative Law 440
Alison Young, ‘In Defence of Due Deference’ (2009) 72 MLR 554.
 Online Articles:
They follow the following format:
Author’s Name, | ‘Title’ | [Year of publication] | Volume/Issue | Journal
name or abbreviation | <Web Address> | Date accessed.
For e.g., Graham Greenleaf, ‘The Global Development of Free Access to
Legal Information’ (2010) 1(1) EJLT <http://ejlt.org/article/view/17>
accessed 22 March 2019.

10. WEBSITES:

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  The general principles for citing secondary sources can be used when citing
websites and blogs.
 The following format is recommended:
Blog: Sarah Cole, ‘Virtual Friend Fires Employee’ (Naked Law, 1 May
2009) <http://www.nakedlaw.com/2009/05/index.html> accessed 22 March
2019.
Website: Campaign for Freedom of Information, ‘Whistleblowing’
<http://www.cfoi.org.uk/whistle.html> accessed 22 March 2019.

11. NEWSPAPERS:
 The following format is recommended:
Author’s Name, | ‘Title’ | Name of the newspaper in italics | (City of
publication, Date of publication) the number of the page on which the article
was published.
For e.g., Jane Croft, ‘Supreme Court Warns on Quality’ Financial Times
(London, 1 July 2018) 3.
If it is available online the following is the format:
Ian Loader, ‘The Great Victim of this Get Tough Hyperactivity is Labour’
The Guardian (London, 19 February 2019)
<http://guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun19/justice.ukcrime> accessed
22 March 2019.

12. QUOTATIONS:
 When quoting, the exact words of the original should be used. Where there
are mistakes in the originals, the same can be indicated by use of the word
[sic].
 Where the quote is in mid-sentence in a researcher’s text, it must be:
a) in single quotation mark;
b) be less than three lines long, and

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 c) the footnote marker comes last after both the closing quotation mark and
the punctuation (if any).
For e.g., The Chief Justice explained that this power ‘is not limited to
defence against aggression from a foreign nation.’5
 Quotations within short quotations take double quotation marks.
 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. Leave a line space either side of the indented quotation.
 When a 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.
 If one adds own emphasis in a quotation, for example italicising words
which strengthen an argument, words (emphasis added) after the footnote
citation should be added.

13. BIBLIOGRAPHY:
 Generally, items in the bibliography take the same form as all other
OSCOLA citations, except in three cases:
a) the author’s surname precedes his/her initial(s) with no comma
separating them, but a comma after the final initial;
For e.g.,
In a footnote: Elizabeth Fisher, Risk Regulation and Administrative
Constitutionalism (Hart Publishing 2007).
In bibliography: Fisher E, Risk Regulation and Administrative
Constitutionalism (Hart Publishing 2007).
b) only initials are used and not forenames;
c) titles of unattributed works are preceded by a double em-dash (--). Works
are presented in an alphabetical order of author’s surname, with

5
Indicate the source of the information here.
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 unattributed works being listed at the beginning of the bibliography in
alphabetical order of first major word of the title.
 When citing several works by the same author, 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 is listed. After the
citation of the first work, replace the author’s name with a double em-dash
(--).
 Works by more than one author are presented in alphabetical order under the
first author’s name.
 Where the first author has more than one co-author, the co-authored works
are arranged in alphabetical order of co-author surname, and where citing of
more than one work by the same first author and co-author is undertaken, the
works in chronological order, repeating the co-author’s name each time is
undertaken.
For e.g., Hart HLA, Law, Liberty and Morality (OUP 1963) — — ‘Varieties
of Responsibility’ (1967) 83 LQR 346 — — Punishment and Responsibility
(OUP 1968) — — and Honoré AM, ‘Causation in the Law’ (1956) 72 LQR
58, 260, 398 —— and Honoré AM, Causation in the Law (2nd edn, OUP
1985).

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