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OSCOLA Citation Guide

📐 Citation Style⏱ 13 min read⚖️ Law & Legal Studies

OSCOLA (Oxford Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities) is the standard referencing style for law in the UK, Ireland, and many Commonwealth countries. It uses footnotes rather than in-text author-date citations, and its rules for cases, statutes, and EU law are unlike any other style.

How OSCOLA Footnotes Work

Instead of putting citations in the text, OSCOLA places them in numbered footnotes at the bottom of the page. A superscript number in the text corresponds to the full citation in the footnote below.

The Supreme Court has held that a reasonable expectation of privacy exists in digital communications.1 This approach was later extended in a further landmark ruling.2 Academic commentary has questioned whether this adequately balances state security interests.3
1 R v Investigatory Powers Tribunal [2021] UKSC 12, [45].
2 Liberty v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWCA Civ 478, [31]–[34].
3 Adam Horne, 'Privacy Rights and Digital Surveillance' (2022) 42 Legal Studies 201, 215.
No reference list? OSCOLA typically does not use a separate reference list — all citations live in footnotes. Some institutions ask for a bibliography; if yours does, check their specific guidance.

Cases

Case names are the most distinctive element of OSCOLA. They are italicised and cited with their neutral citation (where available) or law report citation.

UK Case (with neutral citation)

Format
Party v Party [Year] Court Number, [paragraph].
Example
R (on the application of Miller) v The Prime Minister [2019] UKSC 41, [55].

UK Case (law report only)

Format
Party v Party [Year] Volume Report Page.
Example
Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562.

Statutes (Acts of Parliament)

UK statutes are cited by their full title in roman (not italic) type, followed by the year. No author, no publisher — the Act title alone is sufficient.

Format
Title of Act Year, section number.
Examples
Human Rights Act 1998, s 6.
Equality Act 2010, ss 4–12.
Companies Act 2006, s 172(1).
Abbreviations: s = section, ss = sections, sch = schedule, para = paragraph. These are standard OSCOLA abbreviations — never write out "section" in full.

Journal Articles

Format
Firstname Lastname, 'Article Title' (Year) Volume Journal Abbreviation Page, Pinpoint.
Example
Alan Bogg, 'Labour Law and the Gig Economy' (2019) 48 Industrial Law Journal 429, 435.

Books

Format
Firstname Lastname, Title (Edition, Publisher Year) Page.
Example
Andrew Ashworth, Principles of Criminal Law (8th edn, OUP 2019) 112.

Subsequent Citations: Short Forms

When you cite the same source more than once, OSCOLA uses short forms — not ibid. for everything (though ibid. can be used for immediate repetition).

First CitationSubsequent Citation
R v Brown [1994] 1 AC 212 (HL), 230.Brown (n 1) 235.
Andrew Ashworth, Principles of Criminal Law (8th edn, OUP 2019) 112.Ashworth (n 4) 156.
Alan Bogg, 'Labour Law and the Gig Economy' (2019) 48 ILJ 429, 435.Bogg (n 7) 440.

The "(n X)" refers to the footnote number of the first citation. So "(n 3)" means "see footnote 3 for the full citation."

EU Legislation and Cases

EU Regulations and Directives

Format
Title [Year] OJ Series/Number/Page.
Example
General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 [2016] OJ L119/1.

CJEU Cases

Format
Case C-XXX/XX Party v Party [Year] ECR Page, [Paragraph].
Example
Case C-131/12 Google Spain SL v Agencia Española de Protección de Datos [2014] QB 1022, [94].

5 Common OSCOLA Mistakes

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