Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities
The Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA) is the modern method of legal citation in the United Kingdom. First developed by Peter Birks of the University of Oxford Faculty of Law, and now in its 4th edition, it has been adopted by most law schools and publishers in the United Kingdom as well as the courts.
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[edit] Cases
Cases are to be cited without periods in the names or the report names. If there is a neutral citation, which is generally the case after 2001 or 2002, cite it before the 'best' report: the Law Reports (AC, QB, Ch etc.), or the WLR or the All ER.
- Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co [1893] 1 QB 256
- Transfield Shipping Inc v Mercator Shipping Inc (The Achilleas) [2008] UKHL 48, [2009] 1 AC 61
When you cite something for a second time, an abbreviation can be used. In a footnote referring back to a particular page and another footnote, this would be,
- Carlill (n 12) 854
- The Achilleas (n 13) [12]
For European Union cases,
- Case 240/83 Procureur de la République v ADBHU [1985] ECR 531
For European Court of Human Rights cases,
- Omojudi v UK (2010) 51 EHRR 10
[edit] Journals and books
Journal articles, books etc. should be cited with the author's name as shown in the work being cited. Journal abbreviations are in roman, with no periods (full stops). If the journal does not have consecutive volume numbers, the year should be shown in square brackets, as in the second example.
- Alison L Young, In Defence of Due Deference' (2009) 72 MLR 554
- Paul Craig, 'Theory, "Pure Theory" and Values in Public Law' [2005] PL 440.
Books follow a similar pattern. Note the order is Author, Title (Edition, Publisher Year) page.
- Joseph Raz, The Authority of Law: Essays on Law and Morality (2nd edn, OUP 2009).
If a title and a subtitle have nothing in between, a colon should be used to separate them. A chapter in an edited book would be cited as follows.
- 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 Press 2000)
[edit] Legislation
UK legislation should always be written without any formatting, with the year at the end. The section is abbreviated without any periods.
- Employment Rights Act 1996 s 86(1)(a)
EU legislation should be as follows.
- Council Directive (EC) 2001/29 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society [2001] OJ L167/10
[edit] Hansard
- HC Deb 3 February 1977, vol 389, cols 973-76
- Joint Committee on Human Rights, Legislative Scrutiny: Equality Bill (second report); Digital Economy Bill (2009-10, HL 73, HC 425) 14-16
