OSCOLA referencing: a practical guide for law students

OSCOLA — the Oxford University Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities, now in its 4th edition — is used by most UK law schools. Unlike Harvard, it uses footnotes rather than in-text brackets, and citations carry pinpoint references to paragraph or page.

Cases

Situation	OSCOLA format
Case citation	Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562
Pinpoint to paragraph	Caparo Industries plc v Dickman [1990] 2 AC 605 [6]
Neutral citation	R v Brown [1993] 2 All ER 75
Unreported case	Smith v Jones [2021] EWHC 123 (QB)

Case names are italicised in footnotes and in the body of your text. In a bibliography or table of cases, they are listed without italics, alphabetically.

Legislation

Situation	OSCOLA format
Act of Parliament	Human Rights Act 1998, s 2(1)
Section and subsection	Consumer Rights Act 2015, ss 9–11
Statutory instrument	Working Time Regulations 1998, SI 1998/1833
Bill	Assisted Dying Bill 2024

No comma between the Act title and the year, "s" for section, "ss" for sections, and no full stop after abbreviations.

Journal articles

Situation	OSCOLA format
Journal article	Jane Smith, 'The Limits of Tort' (2021) 77 MLR 245
Pinpoint	Jane Smith, 'The Limits of Tort' (2021) 77 MLR 245, 250
Online journal	Jane Smith, 'AI and Liability' (2024) 3 JLIT 12 <https://example.org/jlit> accessed 19 September 2026

Author name is written first-name-first, with no comma before the title. The title goes in single quotation marks, not italics; the journal name is abbreviated and italicised.

Books and other sources

Source type	OSCOLA format
Book	Jane Smith, Textbook on Tort (3rd edn, OUP 2020) 45
Chapter in edited book	Jane Smith, 'Negligence' in Peter Jones (ed), Tort Law Essays (Hart Publishing 2019)
Website	Ministry of Justice, 'Court Statistics' (GOV.UK, 19 March 2024) <https://www.gov.uk> accessed 19 September 2026
Hansard	HC Deb 12 March 2024, vol 747, col 210

Frequently asked questions

Last reviewed: 19 September 2026