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OSCOLA referencing

Mae'r dudalen hon hefyd ar gael yn a Gymraeg

Overview

There are three basic requirements for incorporating references into your work when using OSCOLA: 

  • Citation: when you acknowledge a source, place a footnote marker after the full stop at the end of the sentence, or after any other punctuation mark, or after the word or phrase to which it relates.
  • Footnote: when referring to a publication for the first time, provide a full reference to the source at the foot of the page. Any ‘Subsequent mention of a source’ can then be provided in note form.
  • Bibliography: compile a Table of primary sources at the beginning and a Bibliography of secondary sources at the end of your work.

Punctuation

There is always a full stop at the end of each footnote.

Do not use put full stops after abbreviations or the v between two parties.

Within a footnote, if there is more than one source cited, separate each with a semi-colon.

Footnotes

Footnote markers are a continuous run of numbers placed in the main body of the text and refer the reader to a numerical sequence of references positioned at the bottom of the same page (footnotes).
When you acknowledge a source, place a footnote marker after the full stop at the end of the sentence, or after any other punctuation mark, or after the word or phrase to which it relates (Inserting both footnote marker and footnotes beginning with a 1 can be done automatically in Word)

Pinpointing

Use pinpoint numbers to direct the reader to particular pages and paragraphs within a source.

Use ‘pt’ for part, ‘ch’ for chapter, and ‘para’ for paragraph

Page numbers stand alone; i.e. you do not need to use ‘p' for page or ‘pp’ for pages.

Each type of document has different rules for pinpoints. Make sure you follow the punctuation in the examples below.
Pinpoint to a section in an act
4 Shipping and Trading Interests (Protection) Act 1995, s 4.
Pinpoint to a paragraph number in a case
3 Callery v Gray [2001] EWCA Civ 1117, [2001] 1 WLR 2112 [42].
Pinpoint to a page within a case
3 R v Leeds Country court, ex p Morris  [1990] QB 523 (QB) 530.
Pinpoint for cases with ibid and n
31 Phipps v Boardman [1967] 2 AC 46 (HL).
32 Phipps (n 31) 124. OR ibid 124.
Pinpoint to a page in a book
12 Jonathan Herring, Medical Law and Ethics (4th edn, Oxford University Press 2012) 146.
Pinpoint to a page in an article
13 JAG Griffith, 'The Common Law and the Political Constitution' (2001) 117 LQR 42, 64.
Pinpoint to an article within EU legislation
15 Consolidated Version of the Treaty on European Union [2008] OJ  C115/13, art 8.

Repeated citations

Full citation:

1 Phelps v Hillington LBC [2001] 2 AC 619 (HL).


Subsequent citation immediately after the full citation:

2 ibid.

________

Subsequent citation using shortened form of case name and a cross-citation to footnote 1 where the full citation can be found:

10 Phelps (n 1).  

Full citation with name of statute and shortened version:

32 Human Rights Act 1998 (HRA).


Subsequent citation immediately after the full citation:

32 ibid.

________

Subsequent citation using shortened version of the statute:

40  HRA 1998, sch 1 pt 1.

Full citation:

1 J Knowles, Effective Legal Research (2nd edn, Sweet & Maxwell 2009).


When referring to the same source in the next footnote, you may use ibid, meaning ‘in the same place’, accompanied by the relevant page number.

2 ibid 26.

________
Subsequent citation with pinpoint:

10 Knowles (n 1) 46.

Legal abbreviations

A comprehensive guide to accepted case law report and journal title abbreviations can be found online in the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations.