The ''Oxford University Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities'' (''OSCOLA'') is a

style guide A style guide or manual of style is a set of standards for the writing, formatting, and design of documents. It is often called a style sheet, although that term also has multiple other meanings. The standards can be applied either for gene ...

that provides the modern method of

legal citation Legal citation is the practice of crediting and referring to authoritative documents and sources. The most common sources of authority cited are court decisions (cases), statutes, regulations, government documents, treaties, and scholarly writin ...

in the United Kingdom; the style itself is also referred to as OSCOLA. First developed by

Peter Birks Peter Brian Herrenden Birks (3 October 1941 – 6 July 2004) was the Regius Professor of Civil Law at the University of Oxford from 1989 until his death. He also became a Fellow of the British Academy in 1989, and an honorary Queen's counsel in ...

of the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

Faculty of Law, and now in its 4th edition (2012, Hart Publishing, ), it has been adopted by most law schools and many legal publishers in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. An online supplement (developed for the third edition) is available for the citation of international legal cases, not covered in the main guide.

Cases

Cases are to be cited without periods in the names or the report names. If there is
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 ''Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Company'' 892EWCA Civ 1is an English contract law decision by the English Court of Appeal">Court of Appeal, which held an advertisement containing certain terms to get a reward constituted a binding unilateral of ...

893 __FORCETOC__ Year 893 ( DCCCXCIII) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Vladimir, ruler (''khan'') of the Bulgarian Empire, is dethroned by his fat ...

1 QB 256 * ''

Transfield Shipping Inc v Mercator Shipping Inc (The Achilleas) ''The Achilleas'' or ''Transfield Shipping Inc v Mercator Shipping Inc'' 008 UKHL 48 is an English contract law case, concerning remoteness of damage. Facts Transfield Shipping was a charterer. It hired use of Mercator's ship, ''The Achilleas' ...

008 008, OO8, O08, or 0O8 may refer to: * The Streetwear Brand @008us , inspired by Ian Fleming & Virgil Abloh *"030", the fictional 030 Agent of MI6 * '' 038: Operation Exterminate'', a 1965 Italian action film * '' Explosivo 030'' a 1940 Argentine c ...

UKHL 48,

009 009 may refer to: * OO9, gauge model railways * O09, FAA identifier for Round Valley Airport * 0O9, FAA identifier for Ward Field, see List of airports in California * British secret agent 009, see 00 Agent * BA 009, see British Airways Flight 9 * ...

1 AC 61 Use round brackets if the year is not needed to identify the report, but square brackets when it is. For example, the All England Reports are identified by year then volume, meaning you should use something such as " 0051 All ER". 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) 2::N.B. The foregoing parenthetical reference to a prior note or page may be disrupted if an editor inserts a new reference in the article before the reference of the parenthetical. For European Union cases, * Case 240/83 ''Procureur de la République v ADBHU''

985 Year 985 ( CMLXXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Europe * Summer – Henry II (the Wrangler) is restored as duke of Bavaria by Empress Theoph ...

ECR 531 For European Court of Human Rights cases, * ''Omojudi v UK'' (2009) 51 EHRR 10

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 Alison L. Young is a British legal scholar, specialising in public law and constitutional theory. Since January 2018, she has been Sir David Williams Professor of Public Law at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of Robinson College, Cambri ...

, 'In Defence of Due Deference' (2009) 72 MLR 554 * Paul Craig, 'Theory, "Pure Theory" and Values in Public Law' 005PL 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)

Legislation

The title of UK legislation should always be written in Roman with the year at the end. The section is abbreviated without any periods. *

Employment Rights Act 1996 The Employment Rights Act 1996 (c. 18) is a United Kingdom Act of Parliament passed by the Conservative government to codify existing law on individual rights in UK labour law. History Previous statutes, dating from the Contracts of Employment ...

, s 86(1)(a) EU legislation should be as follows. * Council Directive 2001/29/EC of 22 May 2001 on the harmonisation of certain aspects of copyright and related rights in the information society 001OJ L167/10

''Hansard'' and Parliamentary reports

* 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

References

External links

''OSCOLA'' websiteAn online tutorial
from

Cardiff University , latin_name = , image_name = Shield of the University of Cardiff.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms of Cardiff University , motto = cy, Gwirionedd, Undod a Chytgord , mottoeng = Truth, Unity and Concord , established = 1 ...

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