On this page
- What is OSCOLA referencing?
- How do you cite a case?
- How do you cite legislation?
- How do you cite books, chapters and journal articles?
- How do you cite websites and online sources?
- How do you handle repeat citations?
- How do you cite a case you only read in a textbook?
- Do you need a table of cases and legislation?
- How do you format footnotes and the bibliography?
- What are the common OSCOLA mistakes?
- Frequently Ask Questions
The short answer
OSCOLA, the Oxford University Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities, is the footnote-based referencing style used by most UK law schools. You cite sources in numbered footnotes rather than in-text brackets, and you list them in a bibliography at the end. It has its own rules for cases, legislation and secondary sources, and it keeps punctuation to a minimum.
OSCOLA looks fiddly at first, but it is consistent. Once you know the pattern for each source type, the rest follows. This guide covers the main ones with examples, plus the repeat-citation rules and tables that trip students up.
What is OSCOLA referencing?
It is a citation system designed for law. Instead of author-date citations in the text, you place a superscript number at the end of the relevant sentence, usually after the punctuation, and the full citation goes in a footnote at the bottom of the page. Sources are then collected in a bibliography. This suits legal writing, where you cite cases and statutes constantly and need the detail close to hand. For how it sits alongside other systems, see our guide to referencing styles explained.
How do you cite a case?
Give the case name in italics, then the citation. For a reported case, use the law report, for example: Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562. Use square brackets around the year when the year identifies the volume of the report, and round brackets when the report has its own running volume number. Many modern cases have a neutral citation, which comes first and names the court, for example R v Jones [2019] UKSC 1, and you can give the neutral citation followed by the best report. To point to a particular page or paragraph, add a pinpoint, for example a page number after the first page, or a paragraph number in square brackets for a neutral citation. There are no full stops in the abbreviations.
How do you cite legislation?
Cite an Act by its short title and year, with no full stops, for example: Human Rights Act 1998. To point to a specific part, add the section using the abbreviation s, for example: Human Rights Act 1998, s 3. Use sub-sections in brackets where needed, such as s 3(1). For a statutory instrument, give its name, year and SI number. Legislation is not italicised, which is a common point of confusion.
How do you cite books, chapters and journal articles?
For a book, give the author the title in italics, then the edition, publisher and year in brackets. For example: Timothy Endicott, Administrative Law (4th edn, OUP 2018). Add a page pinpoint at the end where you are citing a specific point. For a chapter in an edited book, give the chapter author, the chapter title in single quotation marks, then in, the editor name marked (ed), and the book details, for example: Jane Smith, ‘Judicial Review’ in A Editor (ed), Public Law Essays (OUP 2020). For a journal article, give the author, the article title in single quotation marks, the year, the volume, the journal abbreviation and the first page. For example: Paul Craig, ‘Theory and Values in Public Law’ [2005] PL 440. Our guide to how to cite sources shows the same logic applied across different styles.
How do you cite websites and online sources?
Give the author if there is one, the title of the page in single quotation marks, any site name in brackets, and the web address with the date you accessed it. For example: Law Commission, ‘About Us’ (Law Commission) accessed 1 March 2025. Where a source has a clear author and date, use them; where it does not, start with the title. Keep online citations as full as the source allows, because examiners expect you to show exactly where each point came from.
How do you handle repeat citations?
OSCOLA has short forms for sources you cite more than once. When you cite the same source again immediately, with nothing in between, you can use ibid, and add a pinpoint if the page changes. When you cite a source again later, after other footnotes, you can refer back to the earlier footnote number, for example using the author’s surname and a cross-reference such as (n 4), which points the reader to footnote 4. These short forms keep your footnotes tidy and are expected, not optional.
How do you cite a case you only read in a textbook?
Cite the original case wherever you can, because the case itself is the authority, not the textbook that discussed it. If you genuinely could not reach the original report, you can acknowledge the secondary source you read it in, but the stronger practice is to find and read the case, then cite it directly. Relying on textbook summaries for authorities you have not read is a weakness markers notice quickly, so use the textbook to locate the case, then go to the report and cite that.
Do you need a table of cases and legislation?
For longer pieces, usually yes. Dissertations and longer essays normally need a table of cases and a table of legislation before the bibliography, each listed alphabetically, so a reader can find an authority quickly. A short essay may just need footnotes and a bibliography. Check your course handbook, because the requirement differs between modules and between undergraduate and postgraduate work.
How do you format footnotes and the bibliography?
Number footnotes continuously through the document, and end each footnote with a full stop. The bibliography at the end lists secondary sources such as books and articles, and in it you put the author’s surname first, unlike in the footnotes, and you do not use pinpoints. Keep the formatting consistent throughout, because consistency is one of the things markers check. OSCOLA is a footnote style, like MHRA referencing, so if you know one, the other feels familiar.
What are the common OSCOLA mistakes?
The usual slips are adding full stops to abbreviations, mixing square and round brackets for case years, italicising legislation, forgetting the pinpoint section for a statute, and ordering the bibliography and tables wrongly. A clean, consistent reference list also protects you on similarity, because sloppy or missing citations are a common cause of avoidable matches in a similarity report. You can confirm your referenced draft reads clean by running it through Plag Check before you submit.
Frequently Ask Questions
What is OSCOLA referencing?
The UK legal citation style that uses numbered footnotes and a bibliography, rather than in-text author-date citations.
Does OSCOLA use footnotes or in-text citations?
Footnotes. A superscript number in the text points to a full citation at the foot of the page.
How do I cite a case in OSCOLA?
Case name in italics, then the citation, for example Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562.
What does ibid mean in OSCOLA?
It refers to the source in the footnote immediately before, used when you cite the same source twice in a row.
Do I need a table of cases?
For longer work and dissertations, usually yes, listed alphabetically before the bibliography. Short essays may not. Check your handbook.
Can I cite a case I only saw in a textbook?
Cite the original case where possible. Use the textbook to find it, then read and cite the case itself.
Written by the DoMyWork team. First published 5 Nov 2026.
