All sources used, including any online sources, should be fully acknowledged. Case names should be set in italics and essays should be property footnoted and there should be a bibliography at end. Students must use the Oxford System of Referencing (OSCULA), not the Harvard. This is a guide to Oxford System:
OXFORD REFERENCING (OSCOLA) – THE BASICS
WHY REFERENCE?
The Oxford Standard Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA) is the preferred referencing system for law and should be used by law students to cite legal materials. It is important for you to reference your work properly in order to fully acknowledge any sources that have informed your work, such as cases, legislation, books and articles. Referencing your work will show the marker/examiner that you have read widely around the subject and demonstrate that your reading has informed and supported your work. Failure to reference your work properly will mean that your work lacks credibility and this will result in a lower mark and possibly even a fail grade. It may also result in an accusation of academic conduct involving plagiarism or collusion.
Oxford Referencing includes two main elements:
a citation within the text of your assignment using footnotes
a list of references at the end of your assignment (the bibliography)
FOOTNOTES
A footnote is placed at the bottom of the page in your document to reference sources in the text of your work. It enables the reader to check what your authority is for any proposition. You should give a footnote referring in detail to the exact source of your evidence for every reference or quotation you make – name the case, statute or author in your writing and then include a footnote number (either directly after the name or at the end of the sentence). For example: As Paul Robinson1 has suggested… The view throws some light on the controversial case of Stoke-on-Trent CC v Wass.2
1 Paul H Robinson, Structure and Function in Criminal Law (Clarendon Press 1997) 183. (Example book footnote)
2 Stoke-on-Trent CC v Wass [1988] WLR 406. (Example case footnote)
3 ibid 1414.
Note: ibid can be used to repeat the information given in the immediately preceding footnote where you are using information from the same source but a different page number.3
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Your work must contain a bibliography which should start on a separate page at the end of your assignment. Include in your bibliography every secondary source which is mentioned anywhere in the text or footnotes of your essay, and any other work to which you referred in the course of your research. The examiner is going to take the bibliography as some evidence of how widely and deeply you have researched.
An Oxford bibliography should be divided into sections as follows: – Books. – Journal articles – Official published sources such as Law Commission Reports/ Hansard – Other published sources, for example newspapers – Unpublished sources such as unpublished theses – Other sources, for example private communications. – Electronic sources, for example material from websites.
PRIMARY SOURCES
Statutes (Acts of Parliament)
A statute is cited by its short title (found in a section near the end of the statute) followed by its date, with no punctuation before the date and omitting ‘The’ at the start.
Example: Human Rights Act 1998
If using a particular section, subsection or paragraph of a statute, your footnote would also include these details as a pinpoint.
Example: Children Act 1989, s 47(1)(a)
Case Law
Include the following information:
Names of the parties (Date – see brackets rule) Volume number Abbreviation of law report Start page, Court abbreviation (where relevant), Pinpoint(s) if applicable
Example: R v Moloney [1985] 1 All ER 1025, HL, 1026, 1028.
Brackets Rule: You should note the importance of the distinction between square and round brackets. Square brackets are used where the year of the case is essential to locate the case in the relevant law report. Round brackets are used when law report volumes are numbered consecutively and the year is not required for finding the report.
SECONDARY SOURCES
Books
Footnote – include the following information:
Author(s) with first name(s) or initials before surname(s), Title (edition, Publisher Year of Publication) Page Number if relevant.
Example: Mark P Thompson, Modern Land Law (3rd edn, OUP 2006) 45.
Bibliography – include the following information:
Author(s) with surname(s) before initials, Title (edition, Publisher Year of Publication)
Example: Thompson MP, Modern Land Law (3rd edn, OUP 2006)
Multiple authors: If there is more than one author insert ‘and’ before the last author’s name. If there are more than three authors, note the first author only, followed by ‘and others’.
Journal articles Footnote – include the following information:
Author(s) with first name(s) or initials before surname(s), ‘Article title’ (Published Year) Volume number Journal abbreviation Start page
Example: James Chalmers and Fiona Leverick, ‘Fair Labelling in Criminal Law’ (2008) 71 MLR 217.
Bibliography – include the following information:
Author(s) with surname(s) before initials, ‘Article title’ (Published Year) Volume number Journal abbreviation Start page
Example: Chalmers J and Leverick F, ‘Fair Labelling in Criminal Law’ (2008) 71 MLR 217
Note: Oxford Referencing uses standard abbreviations for law report and journal titles. To check these, use the Cardiff Index of Legal Abbreviations at http://www.legalabbrevs.cardiff.ac.uk/.
NOT THE HARVARD
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