Law

OSCOLA Referencing Simplified: A Practical Guide for UK Law Students

Alexander Hayes, LLM

• 15 Oct 2026 • 🕒 8 min read

If you study law in the UK, you will almost certainly be asked to reference in OSCOLA, the Oxford University Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities. It is used by most UK law schools and many law journals, and getting it wrong is an easy way to lose marks on an otherwise strong essay. The good news is that OSCOLA follows a small number of consistent rules. This guide explains them simply, with the formats you will use most often.

The basics: footnotes, not in-text citations

Unlike Harvard or APA, OSCOLA does not use author-date citations in brackets. Instead, you place a footnote reference number in the text, usually after the punctuation at the end of the relevant clause or sentence, and give the citation in the footnote. Three general rules apply throughout:

Minimal punctuation: OSCOLA avoids full stops in abbreviations, so you write "QB" not "Q.B." and "s 3" not "s. 3".
Footnotes end with a full stop.
Italics: case names are italicised in the text and footnotes. Book titles are italicised; journal article titles go in single quotation marks.

How to cite cases

The general format for a reported case is:

Square brackets are used when the year identifies the volume, as with the official Law Reports (AC, QB, Ch, Fam) and the Weekly Law Reports. Round brackets are used when the report series has its own volume numbers and the year is extra information.

For cases decided since 2001, include the neutral citation first, followed by the best law report. Neutral citations identify the court and the judgment number, for example UKSC (Supreme Court), EWCA Civ and EWCA Crim (Court of Appeal) and EWHC (High Court, with the division in brackets). The best report is usually the official Law Reports where available, then the Weekly Law Reports or the All England Law Reports.

Older reported case: Party v Party [year] AC first page (HL).
Modern case: Party v Party [year] UKSC number, [year] volume WLR first page.
Unreported case: use the neutral citation alone, or the court and date if there is none.

To refer to a particular part of a judgment, add a pinpoint: a page number after the first page, separated by a comma, or a paragraph number in square brackets for judgments with numbered paragraphs.

How to cite legislation

UK Acts of Parliament are cited by their short title and year, with no comma: Human Rights Act 1998. Pinpoint references to sections use "s" (plural "ss"), followed by subsections in brackets: Human Rights Act 1998, s 3(1). In the text you can write "section 3" in full, particularly at the start of a sentence.

Statutory instruments include their SI number: Title Regulations year, SI year/number. For EU legislation and international treaties, OSCOLA has separate formats that include the official journal or treaty series reference.

How to cite books

The format is:

Author, | Title | (edition, publisher year) | pinpoint page.

Give the author's name as it appears in the book (first name or initials, then surname) in footnotes.
Include the edition only if it is not the first, and abbreviate it, for example "5th edn".
For edited books, add "(ed)" or "(eds)" after the editor's name.

How to cite journal articles

The format is:

Use the standard abbreviation of the journal, such as LQR (Law Quarterly Review), MLR (Modern Law Review) or CLJ (Cambridge Law Journal). As with cases, square brackets are used when the year identifies the volume, and round brackets when the journal has separate volume numbers. Article titles go in single quotation marks and are not italicised.

How to cite websites and online sources

For online material with no print equivalent, give the author, the title in single quotation marks, any further details such as the publisher or website name, the date of publication, the web address in angle brackets and the date you accessed it in the form "accessed 15 October 2026". Use online sources sparingly in law essays and prefer primary materials and peer-reviewed scholarship.

Subsequent citations: short forms, ibid and cross-references

You do not need to repeat a full citation every time:

Cases and legislation: after the first full citation, you can use a short form of the case name, such as the first party's name, if it is clear which case you mean.
Secondary sources: give the author's surname and a cross-reference to the footnote with the full citation, for example "Smith (n 4) 56".
Ibid: means "in the same place" and refers to the source in the immediately preceding footnote. Add a pinpoint if it differs.

Tables and bibliography

Longer pieces of work, especially dissertations, usually include:

A table of cases, listed alphabetically. Case names are not italicised in the table.
A table of legislation, with primary and secondary legislation listed separately.
A bibliography of secondary sources, alphabetised by author surname, with the surname first followed by initials and without pinpoints.

Check your module handbook, as some law schools ask for a bibliography even in shorter essays and some have their own house variations on OSCOLA.

Common OSCOLA mistakes

Using Harvard-style brackets in the text instead of footnotes.
Adding full stops to abbreviations such as "s." or "Q.B.".
Mixing up square and round brackets for years.
Leaving out neutral citations for modern cases.
Forgetting pinpoints when relying on a specific passage.
Italicising article titles or failing to italicise case names.

Where to find the official guide

The full OSCOLA guide (currently the fourth edition) and a quick reference guide are published free by the University of Oxford Faculty of Law. Your law library may also provide examples specific to your university. For help applying OSCOLA in your own work, see our guides on how to write a law essay and writing a law case study, or get support from qualified writers through our law essay help and law dissertation service. For other styles, read our APA and Harvard guide.