Frequently Asked Questions about OSCOLA
Suggestions on this page have not yet been discussed and approved by the OSCOLA editorial board.
Sources not specifically referred to in OSCOLA 4th edn:
A source cited in a secondary source
A judgment citing another judgment
General questions:
Which journals use square brackets in the citation?
Why does OSCOLA have some examples with full-stops and some without?
URLs (web addresses):
A source cited in a secondary source
If it is not possible to find the original source, cite the source as cited in the secondary source then in brackets put ‘as cited in’ then cite the secondary source including the page number. For example:
Quoted in WL Clay, The Prison Chaplain: A Memoir of the Reverend John Clay (London 1861) 554 (as cited in M Wiener,Reconstructing the Criminal Culture, Law and Policy in England 1830–1914 (CUP 1990) 79).
If the ebook provides the same page numbers as in the printed publication, cite the ebook as if it was the printed book.
If the ebook has no page numbers, follow the normal book (or edited book) citation form, including the ebook type/edition before the publisher.
For pinpoints where there are no page numbers, provide chapter or section number (or section name, if a number isn't provided) and subsection or paragraph number if provided. For example:
Williams on Wills (9th edn, Lexis Library edn, Lexis Nexis 2007) vol 1, part F, para 23.1.
Jill E Martin, Hanbury & Martin Modern Equity (19th edn, Kindle edn, Sweet & Maxwell 2012) ch 1, part 2E, 1-008, text above n 24.
William Lucy, Philosophy of Private Law (Kindle edn, OUP 2007) ch 1, text above n 16.
It may be helpful to refer to a footnote to indicate the relevant text as in the second and third example. However, in the third example there are three pages of Kindle text between footnotes 15 and 16. If you can locate a hard copy of the book use that in preference, unless you can pinpoint accurately without the page number.
Cite a book review in the same way as a journal article, but without the quote marks. For example,
Rowan Cruft, Book Review, (2011) Law & Philosophy 637.
One judgment citing another judgment
Cite the first case, followed by 'citing' and then cite the second case. For example, SG&R Valuation Service Co LLC v Boudrais et al [2008] EWHC 1340, [2008] IRLR 770 [22] citing Miles v Wakefield Metropolitan Borough Council [1987] AC 539.
Cite the name of the speaker (if a direct quote), the title of the programme, the radio station and the date of the programme. If there is no obvious author/speaker, begin the citation with the title of the programme. If available online, include the url and date of access. For example:
Simon Tonking, ‘Jury Trial’ (BBC Radio 4, 1 May 2010) <www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00s3gq7> accessed 15 February 2013.
Follow the advice in OSCOLA 3.4.1, 'General principles' for 'Other secondary sources'. Include the url (web address) and date of access if it is helpful for finding the speech. The third example on page 39 is a speech by Lord Bingham. Another example:
Stavros Dimas, EU Environment Commissioner, 'Improving Environmental Quality through Carbon Trading' (Speech at the Carbon Expo Conference, Köln, 2 May 2007) <http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/07/265> accessed 29 May 2011.
See this document for a more complete answer to this question; it includes information about Endnote.
Which journals use square brackets in the citation?
Journals that use the year rather than a consecutive number to identify the volume have the year shown in square brackets, as shown in the following citation: J Ip, 'The Rise and Spread of the Special Advocate' [2008] Public Law 717. A partial list of square bracket journals:
- Acta Juridica
- British Tax Review
- Criminal Law Review
- International Family Law
- Journal of Business Law
- Journal of Planning and Environment Law
- Journal of Personal Injury Litigation
- Legal Action
- Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
- Public Law
- Private Client Business.
Note: Some journals change from consecutive volume numbers to year identification (eg Cambridge Law Journal used the year from 1954 to 1967).
Why does OSCOLA have some examples with full-stops and some without?
Most examples in OSCOLA show how to cite a particular reference. All examples of references in footnotes end with a full stop. In your own work, close footnotes with a full stop (or question or exclamation mark) (OSCOLA, section 1.1).
OSCOLA doesn’t explicitly object to short/tiny urls, nor does it advocate using them. They have two disadvantages.
Disadvantage 1: short urls give no indication of the actual source of the document. This url indicates that the document comes from an authoritative source:
http://lawcommission.justice.gov.uk/areas/marital-property-agreements.htm
If the Law Commission moves that content the reader knows whose website it was on and where they might find it. The url has useful information even when if it ceases to point to a webpage. But if the content has moved the short url gives no information.
Disadvantage 2: there is no guarantee that a short/tiny url will work in the future. TinyURL, for example, state that ‘This service is provided without warranty of any kind’: <http://tinyurl.com/#terms> accessed 25 February 2013.
A url ending in .pdf points directly to a document. If/when that document is moved to another part of the website the url is no longer useful. It is better to provide a url for the part of the website where documents/publications are available, or simply not to provide a url.
Here is an example of a document that seems to be only available with a url ending in .pdf. It doesn’t appear to be stored in any identifiable part of the website.
The Havens (Sexual Assault Referral Centres), ‘Wake Up to Rape Research Summary Report’ (2010) <www.thehavens.co.uk/docs/Havens_Wake_Up_To_Rape_Report_
Summary.pdf> accessed 8 February 2013.
In cases like this, where the url repeats the content of the citation, the reader is as well off without the url in the citation:
The Havens (Sexual Assault Referral Centres), ‘Wake Up to Rape Research Summary Report’ (2010)
Here is another example of a document that can be easily found without the url:
Giancomo De Giorgi and Michele Pellizzari, ‘Welfare Migration in Europe and the Cost of a Harmonised Social Assistance’ (2006) IZA Discussion Paper Series 2094 http://ftp.iza.org/dp2094.pdf accessed 29 September 2012.
URLS to some working papers databases, such as the NBER and SSRN databases, have useful numbers that help to locate the document, even if it is changed.
