The Oxford Standard for Citation Of Legal Authorities or OSCOLA is the modern method of legal citation in the United Kingdom. Developed by Peter Birks and Andrew Burrows of the University of Oxford Faculty of Law, it has been adopted by most prestigious journals in the United Kingdom as well as the courts.
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Cases
Cases are to be cited without periods in the names or the report names. The neutral citation should be put first, followed by the official reports, or then the Weekly Law Reports or then the All England Law Reports or then others.
- eg Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co [1892] EWCA 1, [1893] 1 QB 256
- eg Transfield Shipping Inc v Mercator Shipping Inc [2008] UKHL 48, [2008] 3 WLR 345
When you cite something for a second time, an abbreviation can be use. In a footnote referring back to a particular page and another footnote, this would be,
- eg Carlill (n 12) 854
For European Union cases,
- eg Case 240/83 Procureur de la République v ADBHU [1985] ECR 531
For European Court of Human Rights cases,
- eg Young, James and Webster v UK (App no 7601/76) (1982) 4 EHRR 38
Journals and books
Journal articles should be cited with the first letter of the author's first name (without a period) and no italics, but an abbreviated name of the journal article.
- eg H Collins, 'Good Faith in European Contract Law' (1994) 14 OJLS 229
Books follow a similar pattern. Note the order is Author, Title (Edition Publisher, Place Year) page.
- eg JH Baker, An Introduction to English Legal History (4th edn Butterworths, London 2002) 419–21
If a title and a subtitle have nothing in between, a colon should be used to separate them. A chapter in a book would go as follows.
- eg PA Thomas and A Rees, 'Law Students - Getting In and Getting On' in PA Thomas (ed), Discriminating Lawyers (Cavendish, London 2000)
Legislation
UK legislation should always be written without any formatting, with the year at the end. The section is abbreviated without any periods.
- eg Employment Rights Act 1996 s 86(1)(a)
EU legislation should be as follows.
- eg Council Directive (EC) 2001/29 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society [2001] OJ L167/10
Hansard
- eg Hansard HC vol 446 cols 366-78 (10 May 2006)
- eg Defence Select Committee, 'Iraq: An Initial Assessment of Post-conflict Operations' HC (2004-05) 65-I [85]-[91]
See also
- In the States
External links
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