INTRODUCTION

The Oxford University Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA) is designed to help
the author to achieve consistency and to make life easier for the reader. OSCOLA does not purport
to be comprehensive but gives rules and examples for the main UK legal primary sources, and for
many types of secondary sources. As far as possible, the guidelines in OSCOLA are based on
common practice in UK legal citation, but with a minimum of punctuation. When citing materials
not mentioned in OSCOLA, use the general principles in OSCOLA as a guide and try to maintain
consistency. OSCOLA was first devised by Peter Birks in 2000 in consultation with law students
and faculty at Oxford University and with Oxford University Press and Hart Publishing. The
Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal uses it, and the editors of that journal have also
played an important role in its development. Subsequent editions of OSCOLA were produced in
2002 (by Professor Birks) and in 2004 (revised 2006 by Timothy Endicott and Sandra Meredith).
This latest revision of OSCOLA provides more detailed coverage of domestic legal sources, and in
particular, the treatment of Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish sources has been considerably
expanded.
 CITING CASES
When citing cases, give the name of the case, the neutral citation (if appropriate), the volume and
first page of the relevant law report, and where necessary, the court. If the name of the case is given
in the text, it is unnecessary to repeat it in the footnote.
Phipps v Boardman, and in the earlier Court of Appeal decision in Boulting v Association of
Cinematograph, Television and Allied Technicians. In Boulting [or ‘in the Boulting case’], Upjohn LJ
said that the rule ‘must be applied realistically to a state of affairs which discloses a real conflict of
duty and interest and not to some theoretical or rhetorical conflict’. In Phipps, Lord Upjohn further
developed his view of the rule by adding that there must be a ‘real sensible possibility of conflict’.
The relevant footnotes would appear as follows:
 [1967] 2 AC 46 (HL).
 [1963] 2 QB 606 (CA).
 Boulting (n 32) 638. OR ibid 638.
 National Commission on Status of Women v Government of Pakistan PLD [2019] SC 218.
 Mst. Sobia Shaheen v Muhammad Usman [2023] MLD 279 (Islamabad).
 CITING LEGISLATION
A citation in a footnote is not required when citing legislation if all the
information the reader needs about the source is provided in the text, as
in the following sentence:
This case highlights the far-reaching judicial role the Human Rights
Act 1998 ushered in.
Where the text does not include the name of the Act or the relevant
section, this information should be provided in a footnote.
Human Rights Act 1998, s 2.
Arbitration Act 1940, s 40.
The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan 1973, Art.10.
 CITING SECONDARY SOURCES
If relying on or referring to a secondary source, such as a book or an
article, provide a citation for the work in a footnote.
Hart wrote that the doctrine of precedent is compatible with ‘two types of
creative or legislative activity’: distinguishing the earlier case by
‘narrowing the rule extracted from the precedent’, and widening the rule
by discarding ‘a restriction found in the rule as formulated from the
earlier case’. The citation will be as follows:
HLA Hart, The Concept of Law (2nd edn, Clarendon Press 1994)
135.
Anwarul Yaqin, Legal Research and Writing Methods (LexisNexis,
Butterworths Wadhwa Nagpur 2008) 252.
 CITING CROSS-REFERENCES
Cross-references direct the reader to points of substantive discussion
elsewhere in your work. Avoid sending the reader off to another part
of the text when a short point could as easily be restated. Never make
a cross-reference that will be difficult for the reader to find, such as
‘See above’. A good cross-reference takes the reader straight to the
very place: ‘n 109’ or, within the same chapter, ‘text to n 32’.
Pagination may change from draft to draft, especially in preparation
for publication. It is, therefore, easiest to cross-refer to footnote
markers, for example, ‘Text to n 107 in ch 7’. Cross-reference
functions in word processors can help you keep track of changes in
footnote numbers.
 QUOTATIONS
Quotations from other works, cases, statutes and so on must be faithful to the original, except where it is
necessary to change quotation marks from single to double or vice versa. Any comments on the
quotation, such as ‘emphasis added’, should be in a footnote. When a quotation begins in the middle of a
sentence in the text, the first letter of the quotation should be capitalized if the quotation itself is a
complete sentence, but not otherwise. When intervening text is missing from the quotation, or if it ends
mid-sentence in the original text, use an ellipsis (…) to indicate that some of the original text is missing.
Leave a space between an ellipsis and any text or punctuation, except quotation marks.
The citation is as follows:
 The Chief Justice explained that this power ‘is not limited to defence against aggression from a
foreign nation’.
 Bix raises the question, ‘What is the point of dissent, at least on the highest court of the
jurisdiction, if the law is whatever the majority on that court says it is?
 Lord Hoffmann reasoned as follows: It seems logical to find liability for damages upon the
parties' intention (objectively ascertained) because all contractual liability is voluntarily
undertaken. It must be, in principle, wrong to hold someone liable for risks for which people.
 BIBLIOGRAPHIES
A bibliography listing secondary sources should be provided after the main body of text and
any appendices in longer works, such as theses and books. It should include all sources cited
in the work and not need to be indexed. Items in bibliographies take the same form as all
other citations in OSCOLA, with three exceptions:
(1) The author’s surname should precede his or her initial(s), with no comma separating
them but a comma after the final initial;
(2) Only initials should be used, and not forenames; and
(3) A double em-dash should precede the titles of unattributed works. Works should be
arranged in alphabetical order of author’s surname, with unattributed works listed at the
beginning of the bibliography in alphabetical order of the first major word of the title.
The Citation will be as:
Fisher E, Risk Regulation and Administrative Constitutionalism (Hart Publishing 2007)
 LAW REPORT
A law report is a published report of a judgment, with additional features such as a
headnote summarising the facts of the case and the judgment, catchwords used for
indexing, and lists of cases considered. If a case is reported in the Law Reports, this
report should generally be cited in preference to any other report. If a judgment is not
reported in the Law Reports, cite the Weekly Law Reports or the All England Law
Reports. If a judgment is not reported in one of these general series, you should refer to
a specialist series, such as the Lloyd’s Law Reports or the Family Law Reports. When
citing a case report, put the title of a newspaper in roman, not italics.
The example is as under:
Taylor v Glass [1979] CLY 672 (CA)
Mst. Sobia Shaheen v Muhammad Usman [2023] MLD 279 (Islamabad).
 BILLS
Cite a Bill by its title, the House in which it originated, the
Parliamentary session in brackets, and the running number assigned to
it. Running numbers for House of Commons Bills are put in square
brackets; those for House of Lords Bills are not. When a Bill is
reprinted at any stage, it is given a new running number.
The bill will have the following components:
title | HC Bill | (session) | [number] OR title | HL Bill | (session) |
number
EXAMPLE:
Consolidated Fund HC Bill (2008–09) [5]
Academies HL Bill (2010-11) 1, cl 8(2)
 JUDGEMENT
Give the case registration number in roman and then the name of the case
in italics, with no punctuation between them. Give the report citation in
the same form as for UK cases.

The Citation will have the following components:

case number | case name | [year] | report abbreviation | first page

EXAMPLE:
Case 240/83 Procureur de la République v ADBHU [1985] ECR 531
Mir Bat Khan v Mst. Sherin Bibi [2019] SCMR 520.
 ELECTRONIC SOURCES
Citations of publications that are available only electronically should end
with the web address (or ‘url’) in angled brackets (< >), followed by the date
of most recent access, expressed in the form ‘accessed 1 January 2010’.
Include ‘http://’ only if the web address does not begin with ‘www’.
EXAMPLE:
<https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/> (accessed on
21April 2020)
Momina Khurshid, ‘Jirga System in Pakistan: A Transgression of Human
Rights’ Research Society of International Law (11 April 2022)
<https://rsilpak.org/2022/jirga-system-in-pakistan-a-transgression-of-human-
rights/> (accessed 11 March 2023).
 ARTICLES
When citing articles, give the author’s name first, followed by a comma. Then, give the title
of the article, in Roman, within single quotation marks. After the title, give the publication
information in the following order: · year of publication, in square brackets if it identifies the
volume, in round brackets if there is a separate volume number; · the volume number if there
is one (include an issue number only if the page numbers begin again for each issue within a
volume, in which case put the issue number in brackets immediately after the volume
number); · the name of the journal in roman, in full or abbreviated form, with no full stops;
and · the first page of the article.
EXAMPLE:
Paul Craig, ‘Theory, “Pure Theory” and Values in Public Law’ [2005] PL 440.
Zeeshan Ashraf Qureshi, Hafiz Muhammad Usman Nawaz and Mirza Shahid Rizwan
Baig, ‘Towards the Establishment of Family Dispute Resolution Center in Pakistan’
[2021] VI (1) Global Legal Studies Review 1, 3.
 BOOKS
Publication information follows the title within brackets. Publication elements should
always include the publisher and the year of publication, with a space but no punctuation
between them. The place of publication need not be given. If you are citing an edition
other than the first edition, indicate that using the form ‘2nd edn’ (or ‘rev edn’ for a
revised edition). Additional information should be of a clarifying nature: it may include
the editor, the translator or other descriptive information about the work.

EXAMPLE:
Gareth Jones, Goff and Jones: The Law of Restitution (1st supp, 7th edn, Sweet &
Maxwell 2009)
Anwarul Yaqin, Legal Research and Writing Methods (LexisNexis, Butterworths,
Wadhwa Nagpur 2008)
 ENCYCLOPEDIAS
Cite an encyclopedia much as you would a book, excluding the author, editor, and
publisher and including the edition and year of issue or reissue. Pinpoints to volumes and
paragraphs come after the publication of information. When an encyclopedia credits an
author for a segment, give both the author and the segment title at the beginning of the
citation. If citing an online encyclopedia, give the web address and date of access.

EXAMPLE:
CJ Friedrich, ‘Constitutions and Constitutionalism’, International Encyclopedia of
the Social Sciences III (1968) 319
 JOURNALS
When citing journal articles which have been published only electronically, give publication details
as for articles in hard copy journals, but note that online journals may lack some of the publication
elements (for example, many do not include page numbers). If the online journal provides citation
advice, follow it, removing full stops as necessary to comply with OSCOLA. Follow the citation
with the web address (in angled brackets) and the date you most recently accessed the article.
Pinpoints follow the citation and come before the web address.

EXAMPLE:
James Boyle, ‘A Manifesto on WIPO and the Future of Intellectual Property’ 2004 Duke L &
Tech Rev 0009 accessed 18 November 2009
Asmat Khan, ‘Pakistan’s Supreme Court Rules Jirgas and Panchayats May Violate
Constitution’ ConstitutionNet (1 August 2019) <https://constitutionnet.org/news/pakistans-
supreme-court-rules-jirgas-and-panchayats-may-violate-constitution> accessed 29 December
2022.
 LAW COMMISSION REPORTS
Cite Law Commission reports by title in italics, Law Com number and year. Do the
same with Scottish Law Commission reports, giving the Scot Law Com number. For
Law Commission consultation papers and Scottish Law Commission discussion
papers, give the Law Com CP number or the Scot Law Com DP number.

EXAMPLE:
Law Commission, Reforming Bribery (Law Com No 313, 2008) paras 3.12–3.17
Nazish Brohi, Women, Violence and Jirgas Consensus and Impunity in Pakistan
(National Commission on the Status of Women 2017) para 9.
Saleem Akhtar, Study On Informal Justice System In Pakistan SJA (Sindh
Judicial Academy, 2018) 40
<http://sja.gos.pk/assets/publication/Misc/Report%20Informal%20Justice%20S
ystem%20in%20Pakistan.pdf> accessed 29 December 2022.
 THESES
When citing an unpublished thesis, give the author, the title and then in brackets the
type of thesis, university and year of completion.

EXAMPLE:
Javan Herberg, ‘Injunctive Relief for Wrongful Termination of Employment’
(DPhil thesis, University of Oxford 1989)
Muhammad Ibrahim, ‘Role of Baradari System in Power Politics of Lahore:
Post-Independence Period’ (PhD thesis submitted to the Department of
Political Science & International Relations Bahauddin Zakariya University,
Multan 2009)
<http://prr.hec.gov.pk/jspui/bitstream/123456789/1526/1/1234S.pdf> accessed
11 September 2023.
 INTERVIEWS
When citing an interview, you conducted yourself, give the interviewee's
name, position, and institution (as relevant), as well as the location and full
date of the interview. If the interview was conducted by someone else, the
interviewer’s name should appear at the beginning of the citation.

EXAMPLE:

Timothy Endicott and John Gardner, Interview with Tony Honoré,

Emeritus Regius Professor of Civil Law, University of Oxford
(Oxford, 17 July 2007)
 PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS

When citing personal communications, such as emails and letters,

give the author and recipient of the communication, and the date.
If you are yourself the author or recipient of the communication,
say ‘from author’ or ‘to author’ as appropriate.
EXAMPLE:
Letter from Gordon Brown to Lady Ashton (20 November
2009)
Email from Amazon.co.uk to author (16 December 2008)
For your online guidelines to prepare and cite easily,
you may use the “Mybib” website.

https://www.mybib.com

Session Activity on Mybib for OSCOLA referencing.