The Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA) is a referencing style developed by Oxford University and is employed by post-graduate law students and legal publishers in order to give credit to the source of information.
This system follows the method of putting citations in the footnotes instead of in-text citations as used in the Harvard Referencing style, found at the bottom of a page. When writing with OSCOLA, place your cursor on the place where you want to create a reference for your footnote in Microsoft Word. Next, you can find the Insert Footnote command in the topmost bars in the References tab.
This will make a number appear in the text as well as at the bottom of the page, which will enable your audience to locate the source of information you are referring to when reading the text. Described by an academic research writer Dr.James Matthews from dissertation writing help UK service.
Principles of OSCOLA Referencing
- Footnotes
The footnote marker can be placed at the end of a sentence or after the word or phrase, which is referenced at the bottom of the page. If there is more than one citation in a footnote, you can separate them out using a semicolon. Also, make sure that the superscript number is placed after the punctuation and not before it.
- Titles
Titles of books and all publications should be italicised. Titles of other related things should be enclosed in inverted commas and not necessarily italicised. The beginning letter of a title is always capitalised, and words such as for, and, or etc., in a title need not be capitalised.
- Quotations
If the quotations exceed three lines, they should be written as an independent paragraph without inverted commas. However, short quotations can be written as part of a paragraph.
- Authors’ Name
The author’s name is written as it is mentioned in the publication. In case the authors are more than one, the name of the first author is mentioned only in a case where the author is unidentified, so the organisation, which claims the authority of the book, is given due authorial credit.
When compiling a bibliography, make sure that the author’s surname precedes the initials of the name.
- Citing Electronic Sources
When citing electronic sources, make sure that the hard copy does not exist; otherwise, references from the hard copy will only be made.
If you are citing an electronic source, make it a thing to mention the website’s address in <> brackets followed by the date the source was last accessed.
- Dates
The format followed for writing a date is DDMMYY.
- Followed Citations
In case of a subsequent citation where the same source needs to be mentioned, ‘ibid’ is put in the footnote. This way, the full citation does not have to be repeated.
- Pinpointing
In Reference to OSCOLA, pinpointing refers to directing towards an exact page number in a cited book. This can be done by including a page number at the end of your reference, along with any other pages already mentioned.
If paragraph number exists, you can use paragraph numbers for clarity of understanding. Paragraph numbers are enclosed in [] brackets.
If you wish to refer to a judge’s comment in a report, you may use the name of the judge along with specific abbreviations.
If the judge is a colleague, they can be mentioned as Lord. If it is a Lord\ Lady Justice use LJ. If neither of these are well-suited use J for Judge to refer to a judge.
OSCOLA Referencing
- Case reports
When a case is being discussed, a neutral citation is followed by it. Moreover, if no neutral citation exists, then the report can eventually be started.
- Bills
The bills of House Bills and Common Bills are differently mentioned. For House Bill, ‘HB Bill’ is used, and for Common Bill, ‘CB Bill’ is used. Bills numbers for common Bills are enclosed in [] brackets.
- Personal Discussions
When you are referring to personal discussions, which could be in the form of a letter or an email, mention the name of the recipient and the author along with the date on which the discussion took place.
- Online Articles
Online articles are cited just as hard-copy articles are cited. However, it is important to note that an online article might not have all the publication details, and there might be a few things missing. The website address comes within <> brackets, along with the mention of the date the website was last accessed.
[] brackets are used for the volume of the publication, and () brackets are used to denote when a judgment was issued on the article.
- Books
For citing books, mention the full names of the author along with the edition of the book. OSCOLA referencing uses OUP as an abbreviated form of Oxford University Press.
- Encyclopaedias
Encyclopaedias can be mentioned, but there is no need to mention the name of the author or the editor. It is recommended to only mention the edition and the year when the encyclopaedia was issued.
- Parliament Acts
When referring to acts of parliament, use full titles. If the titles are long, you can use a shorter version. Specific parts of an act can be referred to by mentioning sections or paragraph numbers to make locating easier.
OSCOLA Tables
Prof.Tina Paul from do my assignment for me UK communicated that, OSCOLA Tables include cases and legislation you have cited in your thesis or dissertation. This table is found at the end of the thesis and before the bibliography. The cases cited in the table are cited based on their alphabetical order.
Bibliography
A bibliography is a collection of all the secondary sources that are consulted when writing a dissertation. This includes all the sources besides the cases and legislation.
A bibliographical list might include all the books, journals, blogs, newspapers etc. or anything that was read for writing the dissertation. The names of the authors in a bibliography are inverted, and instead of the first names, initials are used.
