Looking to cire your legal texts in the OSCOLA referencing format, but don’t know how? Well, you are in luck. This article compiles some essential information about the citation style with information derived straight from the official OSCOLA referencing guide.
OSCOLA
The Oxford Standard Citation of Legal Authorities or the OSCOLA referencing format is a highly popular preferred referencing style in the legal world and used to cite legal works. The necessity of citing essays, case notes, and assignments without fail makes it essential for students to learn the ins and outs of the Oxford referencing style by heart. Below are the core rules of the citation style for your convenience.
The OSCOLA referencing includes two primary elements:
- In-text citations delivered in the form of footnotes
- A list of references at the end of the document called the bibliography
Under the scheme, every kind of information source can be divided primarily into two categories, namely, primary sources and secondary sources. The OSCOLA referencing format has specific citation rules for both types of referencing sources.
Online referencing generators have made citation & referencing extremely convenient. A quick search on the Web will reveal several legal & general referencing generators, such as the Vancouver referencing generator, Deakin referencing & Swinburne referencing tools, to name a few.
Footnotes
- Footnotes are placed at the bottom of the page of a document to reference sources in the text.
- Footnotes should refer to the exact sources of evidence for every reference or quotation of the text.
- It would help if you named the case, statute, or author in your writing and then include the footnote number, either directly after the name or at the end of the sentence. The superscripts refer to the footnotes at the bottom of the page.
For example,
As Pat Robinson2 has suggested….
The view throws some light on the controversial case of Stroke-on-Trent CC v. Wass3...
Bibliography
Every document must contain a bibliography or a list of references on a separate page at the end of the paper. All primary and secondary sources must find a place in the list of sources with a corresponding bibliography for every footnote & in-text citation in any body of legal work.
Any generic OSCOLA reference guide will reiterate the following rules:
- All author initials must come after their family names.
- Add an ‘&' separate the names of the last two authors if there are just two or three authors.
- In the case of more than three authors, add the first author's family name followed by 'et al.’
- Entries should be arranged alphabetically.
- Titles of books, journals, and websites should be in italics.
- Write the titles of articles and chapters in single quotations.
That wraps up this article. Here’s hoping it helps you cite your law assignments and papers perfectly. For any further information, refer to the official OSCOLA referencing guide for help.