Legal Material

The source of cases may be law reports or transcripts.

When citing a case, the law report series title is abbreviated. Use the abbreviation found in the report itself, or the preferred abbreviation in the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations. If there is no preferred abbreviation you can use accepted abbreviations as listed the OSCOLA guide.  If using Westlaw, remove the full stops in the abbreviated report title.

Footnote form

Pre 2001 cases
Case name (year) or [year] Law report series First page of the report Court (if not self evident) Pinpoint page or [pinpoint paragraph] if required.

Neutral citations for cases after 2001
Case name [year] neutral citation, (year) or [year] volume (if required) Law report series First page of the report Court (if not self evident from neutral citation) or comma Pinpoint page or [pinpoint paragraph] if required.

Footnote examples

¹ Arscott v The Coal Authority [2004] EWCA Civ 892, [2005] Env LR 6 [20].

² Foakes v Beer (1884) 9 App Cas 605 (HL) [611].

³ Kensington Heights Commercial Co Ltd v Campden Hill Developments Ltd [2007] EWCA Civ 245, [2007] All ER 751, 754, [760].

⁴ Secretary of State for the Home Department v E [2007] UKHL 47, [2008] 1 All ER 699, 702.

⁵ St Edmundsbury and Ipswich Diocesan Board of Finance v Clark (No 2) [1975] All ER 772 (CA (Civ Div)).

Citing a particular judge

⁶ Arscott v The Coal Authority [2004] EWCA Civ 892, [2005] Env LR 6 [27] (Laws LJ).

One judgment citing another judgment

Cite the first case, followed by 'citing' and then cite the second case.

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, 541.

Bibliography

Check the assessment directions or assessment criteria for how you should treat cases in your assessments or consult with your lecturer.  

Notes

• If citing several cases in the same footnote organise them chronologically and separate with a semicolon.
• Reference the law report (i.e. where the case was reported) not the Case Analysis page in Westlaw. The Case Analysis document is a summary or abstract.  It is not the case report.  The law report or transcript, contains the judgment, and includes the judge's words.
• In text and in footnote citations the party names of a case are always printed in italics.

Reference: Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, OSCOLA: Oxford Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities (4th edn University of Oxford 2010) 13-14.31.

When there are more than one citation for a case, use the most authoritative.

For information about case citation hierarchy, see Law reports: Hierarchy and the status of authorities by LexisNexisUK Blogs, 26 Jun 2014: https://www.lexisnexis.co.uk/blog/dispute-resolution/law-reports-status-of-authorities

Neutral citations

Neutral citations for cases were introduced from 2001 to recognise the extensive use of electronic law reports, and cite only the parties, year of the judgement, the court and the case number.

Where a neutral citation is available (post 2001), give that first followed by the most authoritative source for a case reported in several sources.

If the case appears in Westlaw, simply use the first two citations given on the case analysis page.

For the "best" available source for your law report, provide a neutral citation for cases after 2001 then cite the most authoritative source, i.e. the Official Law Reports (Appeal Cases, Queen's Bench etc.). The Weekly Law Reports are the next best, then the All England Reports. If your case is only reported in a specialist series such as the Family Law Reports, this is then the accepted best citation.

The first mention of a case name in the text needs to give the party names in full, after which it can be shortened.

For example:

... in Kensington Heights Commercial Co Ltd v Campden Hill Developments Ltd can be shortened after the first mention to ... in the Kensington Heights case or ... in Kensington Heights...

If the name of a case is given in the text, it is not necessary to repeat it in the footnote. The first mention of a case name in the footnote needs to be in full, after which it can be shortened, e.g.

¹ Kensington Heights Commercial Co Ltd v Campden Hill Developments Ltd [2007] EWCA Civ 245, [2007] All ER 751, 754.
² Kensington Heights Commercial Co Ltd (n 1).
or 
² Kensington Heights (n 1).

When referring to judges in the text of your work, use their last name and the appropriate abbreviation for their position.

Use J for High Court Judges. For example:

Megarry J recognised that…

Use LJ for Appeal Court Judges. For example:

Glidewell LJ suggested…

Give Law Lords their proper title. For example:

Lord Denning commented on…

Cases with numbered paragraphs

Square brackets are used to pinpoint in judgements with numbered paragraphs. 

If using multiple non-sequential numbered paragraphs, separate them with a comma. 

If using continuous numbered paragraphs a dash is used between the beginning and ending paragraph numbers.

Case and journal citations

Square brackets are used around years in case and journal article citations where the year is essential to finding the case in the printed volumes on the shelf.

If this is not the situation because the case or journal article has a separate volume or issue number, round brackets are used. 

If using electronic law reports and journals, you may need to look at the index of journal volumes to see if the volume crosses multiple years in one volume. 

Footnote examples

³ Callery v Gray [2001] EWCA Civ 1117, [2001] 1 WLR 2112 [42], [45].
⁴ Bunt v Tilley [2006] EWHC 407 (QB), [2006] 3 All ER 336 [1] - [37].

Citations of cases decided before 1865 do not require the court.

Cases with a neutral citation (2001 onwards) do not require the court.  But where the main citation of the case does not make the court clear, indicate the court in the citation.

In footnotes, the court appears between the first page of the law report and the pinpoint in round brackets.

Footnotes

⁴ Crofter Hand Woven Harris Tweed Co Ltd v Veitch [1942] AC 435 (HL) 436.

Where a case reference ends with the abbreviation for the court, the pinpoint follows without a comma. Where it does not or where there is more than one pinpoint, insert a comma to prevent the numbers running together, e.g.

¹ Secretary of State for the Home Department v E [2007] UKHL 47, [2008] 1 All ER 699, 702.

² Kensington Heights Commercial Co Ltd v Campden Hill Developments Ltd [2007] EWCA Civ 245, [2007] All ER 751, 751. (pinpoint reference is to the first page of the report)

³ Foakes v Beer (1884) 9 App Cas 605 (HL) 611.

UK cases & UK legislation (e.g. statutes and statutory instruments). Do not use for case comments which should be referenced as articles or Parliamentary material.

Includes cases before the European Court of Human Rights

EU legislation from the Official Journal of the European Union.

Covers the European Convention on Human Rights, but NOT cases before the European Court of Human Rights; as well as international, regional, & other treaties.  Treaties may appear to be particularly tricky to reference. Make sure to read the following page in full.

This page does NOTcover CASES before the European Court of Human Rights. 
 

The text of electronic and print versions will be identical, therefore there is no need to give details of the origin of the source.
 

Treaties may appear to be particularly tricky to reference.  Make sure to read the treaty information in full.  Not all treaty types are covered on this guidance page.

For more information, consult the OSCOLA 2006 Citing International Law Sources Section.

Footnote form

International treaties

 Treaty title, date treaty available to sign, date signed/adopted, volume of treaty compilation page of treaty compilation pinpoint. 

European treaties

Formal treaty title (informal treaty title) pinpoint.

• Dates are not usually provided as these treaties may have been amended over the years.  If the date appears as part of the treaty title, include that date.
   

Footnote examples

International treaties

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (adopted 10 December 1948 UNGA Res 217 A(III) (UDHR) art 5 

European treaties

 EC Treaty Protocol on the Statute of the Court of Justice.
 Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (European Convention on Human Rights, as amended) (ECHR) art 3. 
 Act of Accession 1985 (Spain and Portugal) Protocol 34.

Bibliography

Check the assessment directions or assessment criteria for how you should treat treaties in your assessments or consult with your lecturer.

Notes

International treaties

• Reference to articles of the treaty should give only the article number, not the title of the article (if there is a title).
• Include the date if it is part of the title.
• Cite protocols to treaties by their names, preceded by the name of the treaties to which they are appended. 

 European treaties

• Include the date if it is part of the title.
• Reference to articles of the treaty should give only the article number, not the title of the article (if there is a title).
• Cite protocols to treaties by their names, preceded by the name of the treaties to which they are appended.

Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, OSCOLA 2006: Citing International Law Sources Section (University of Oxford, 2006).

Cite primary sources (cases and legislation) as in their home jurisdiction, with the exception that full stops in abbreviations should be removed. 

Cases

If the name of the law report series cited does not itself indicate the court, and the identity of the court is not obvious from the context, you should also give this in either full or short form in brackets at the end of the citation. When citing a decision of the highest court of a US state, the abbreviation of the name of the state suffices.
 

Legislation

Give the jurisdiction if necessary.

For information about selected non-UK jurisdictions, please see below.

Recommended sources of guidance

International Law

• New York University School of Law, Guide to Foreign and International Legal Citations (2006). 

In the absence of any guidance below, please use guide above for other foreign jurisdictions.  These recommendations are from OSCOLA.

Australia

• Australian Guide to Legal Citation (4^th edn, Melbourne University Law Review Association 2018) 

Canada

• McGill Law Review, Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation (8th edn, Carswell 2014).
• Canadian Citation Committee, ‘A Neutral Citation Standard for Case Law’ (2000)

France

Follow the form of citation and presentation generally adopted by the Recueil Dalloz

Germany

• Hildebert Kirchner, Abkürzungsverzeichnis der Rechtssprache (13th edn, de Gruyter 2013).

Ireland

• Jennifer Schweppe and others (eds), OSCOLA Ireland (2^nd edn, legalcitation.ie 2016)

Israel

• ‘The Uniform Citation Rules’ (1989) 39 The Lawyer and (1998) 44 The Lawyer (in Hebrew)

New Zealand

• Alice Coppard and others (eds), New Zealand Law Style Guide (3^rd ed Thomson Reuters 2018)

South Africa

Follow the style used in the South African Law Journal House Style (2018)

USA

• Association of Legal Writing Directors and Darby Dickerson (eds), ALWD Citation Manual: A Professional System of Citation (3rd edn, Aspen Publishers 2006)
• The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (19th edn, Harvard Law Review Association 2010)

For jurisdictions not covered above, please see the World Legal Information Institute website.