OSCOLA

Academic best practice dictates you should always try to read any source in the original rather than someone else's interpretation.  Never cite the original if you did not use the original source.

However, if it is not possible to read the original, link the source you have not read to the source you have read by using "as cited in".  The pinpoint page at the end refers to the page you have read, not the pinpoint page in the original source.

Examples for secondary sources:

Art. 14(1) and (2) Harvard Draft Convention on Piracy (as cited in A Petrig and R Geiss, Piracy and Armed Robbery at Sea: The Legal Framework for Counter-Piracy Operations in Somalia and the Gulf of Aden (UP 2011) 140).

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).


Cases

You should make every effort to locate and read primary sources.  If a case is citing another case, cite the first case followed by 'citing' and then cite the second case.

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.

Reference: Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, OSCOLA: Oxford Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities (4th edn Oxford University 2010) 35.
 Suggestion re sources cited in a secondary source on this page are modeled on the FAQs section on the OSCOLA website (https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/oscola-faqs).  These have not yet been discussed and approved by the OSCOLA editorial board.

 

You should always try to read any source in the original rather than someone else's interpretation and you should never cite a footnote to it from another work. However, if reading the original is not practical, you should link the journal article or book (which you have read) to that which your source (which you have not read) cites by using the word "citing". For example the footnote will look something like this (the pinpoint page at the end refers to the page you have read, not the pinpoint page in the original source:

Art. 14(1) and (2) Harvard Draft Convention on Piracy (as cited in A Petrig and R Geiss, Piracy and Armed Robbery at Sea: The Legal Framework for Counter-Piracy Operations in Somalia and the Gulf of Aden ()UP 2011) 140).

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 it is a case citing another case 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.

In such cases you should make every effort to locate primary sources so they can be included in your bibliography but if the secondary citation is a secondary source you might simply list the item you have actually read.

• Reference: Faculty of Law, University of Oxford, OSCOLA: Oxford Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities (4th edn Oxford University 2010) 35.
•  Suggestion re sources cited in a secondary source on this page are modelled on FAQs on the OSCOLA website (https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/oscola-faqs) but have not yet been discussed and approved by the OSCOLA editorial board.