Guide to legal referencing
The Oxford University Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA) is used
to ensure consistent and accurate citation of authorities, legislation, and other legal
materials. It is edited by the Law Faculty at Oxford University. The full OSCOLA
guidance can be accessed online at: http://www.law.ox.ac.uk/publications/oscola.php
Cardiff University have created an online tutorial called Citing the Law which you can
work through at your own pace. You can access it at
https://ilrb.cf.ac.uk/citingreferences/oscola/tutorial/index.html
This guide covers the main points of legal referencing. For comprehensive guidance
please use OSCOLA.
Footnotes
You must cite your source any time you refer to another person’s or organisation’s
work in your document. OSCOLA uses footnotes to indicate a citation. You must
number your footnotes consecutively using superscript1. The number should appear
at the end of the sentence, unless it is necessary to insert it after the word to which it
refers for the sake of clarity. The footnote should give the full citation(s) and end
with a full stop. If you insert more than one citation in a single footnote, separate
them with semi-colons.
Citing Cases
Many cases are reported in law reports. Some may be reported in more than one
source. It is important that you cite from the most authoritative source.
The commonly recognised order of authority for UK Cases is as follows:
• The Law Reports - Appeal Cases (AC), Queens Bench (QB), Chancery (Ch),
Family (Fam)
• Weekly Law Reports (WLR)
• All England Law Reports (All ER)
• Specialist law reports, e.g. Industrial Relations Law Reports (IRLR) and Building
Law Reports (BLR)
Journal and newspaper summaries should only be cited if the decision is not
available in a full text report.
1
This is an example of a footnote using superscript. Always include the full citation and end your footnote with
a full stop.
UK Cases
UK cases should be cited in footnotes as follows:
Radmacher v Granatino [2011] 1 AC 534 (SC)
Party Names
Report Year
Volume
Abbreviation
Page or Case Number
Court
EU Cases
Where possible, refer to the European Court Reports (ECR) - if the judgment is not
reported in the ECR then use the Common Market Law Reports (CMLR).
EU cases should be cited as follows:
Use C for the European Court of Justice or T for the General Court of the EU.
Case T-344/99 Arne Mathisen AS v Council [2002] ECR II-2905
Case
Registration No.
Name
Citation
European Court of Human Rights Judgements
Where possible, refer to the official reports, the Reports of Judgments and Decisions
(ECHR) or the European Human Rights Reports (EHRR).
ECHR judgements should be cited as follows:
Omojudi v UK (2010) 51 EHRR 10
Party Names
Year Published
Volume
Abbreviated Law Report
Page Number
Citing Legislation
If the full name of a piece of legislation has been cited in the text, then it is not
necessary to add a footnote. For example there is no need for a footnote for the
following,
“The Human Rights Act 1998 gives further legal effect in the UK to the fundamental
rights and freedoms contained in the European Convention on Human Rights.”
UK Acts should be cited in the following way:
Human Rights Act 1998, s 19(1)(b)
Title and Year of Act
Abbreviation (Section)
Section Number
Subsection
Paragraph within Subsection
Scottish Legislation
Acts of the Scottish Parliament should be as follows:
Antisocial Behaviour etc Act 2004 (asp 8)
Short Title of Act
Year of Act
Running Number (in round brackets)
Bills of the Scottish Parliament
Bills can be cited at any stage. It is important to include which version you are
referring to. For example you can refer to the Bill as introduced or as amended.
Bills before the Scottish Parliament should be cited as follows:
SP Bill 59 Double Jeopardy (Scotland) Bill [as introduced] Session 3 (2010)
SP Bill 59A Double Jeopardy (Scotland) Bill [as amended at Stage 2] Session 3 (2011)
Bill Number and Title
Printing [in square brackets]
Session
Year (in round brackets)
Scottish Statutory Instruments
Scottish Statutory Instruments should be cited as follows:
The Cross-Border Mediation (Scotland) Regulations 2011, SSI 2011/234
Title
Year
SSI Year and Number
EU Legislation
Primary EU legislation should be cited as follows:
Treaty of Lisbon amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty
establishing the European Community [2007] OJ C306/01
Title
Year
Official Journal Series
Issue and page numbers
Citing Books
When citing a book in a footnote, it is important to get the format correct. Make sure
you use italics for the title, and include the relevant edition, publisher and year. If
you are quoting from a particular page, you should include the page number at the
end of the reference. If there is more than one author, use the word and before the
last author’s name. Books in footnotes should be cited as follows:
H Hiram, The Scots Law of Succession (2nd edn, Tottel 2007) 237
Author(s)
Title
(Edition [if after first], Publisher and year)
Page number(s)
Citing Journal Articles
Legal journals use abbreviated titles. Do not use full stops in abbreviated titles.
If you do not know the correct abbreviation, you can check it using the Cardiff Index
to Legal Abbreviations which is available at:
http://www.legalabbrevs.cardiff.ac.uk/
Many legal journals run continuous page numbers through journal issues. You
should only include the journal issue number if each issue starts with page 1.
Journal articles in footnotes should be cited as follows:
H MacQueen and S Wortley, “Business Experts and Law Forum Report on
Scots Law” (2009) 13 Edin. L.R. 185
Author(s)
“Title”
(Year)
Volume Number
Abbreviated Journal Title
Page number on which the article begins
Bibliographies
At the end of your work you should provide a bibliography. The bibliography will list
all the sources you cited in your work. Each category of work cited should be given
a separate heading; i.e. Cases, Books, Journal articles, Legislation etc. You should
list each reference alphabetically within the relevant category.
When citing references in a bibliography, the format of the citation may differ from
that used in footnotes. Make sure you use the correct format for your citations.
A bibliography should be constructed as follows:
Cases
Case T-344/99 Arne Mathisen AS v Council [2002] ECR II-2905
Omojudi v UK (2010) 51 EHRR 10
Radmacher v Granatino [2011] 1 AC 534 (SC)
Legislation
Antisocial Behaviour etc Act 2004 (asp 8)
The Cross-Border Mediation (Scotland) Regulations 2011, SSI 2011/234
SP Bill 59 Double Jeopardy (Scotland) Bill [as introduced] Session 3 (2010)
Treaty of Lisbon amending the Treaty on European Union and the Treaty
establishing the European Community [2007] OJ C306/01
Books
Hiram H, The Scots Law of Succession (2nd edn, Tottel 2007)
Journal Articles
MacQueen H and Wortley S, “Business Experts and Law Forum Report on Scots
Law” (2009) 13 Edin. L.R. 185
Last Updated September 2011 E Connolly
