Cases (OSCOLA5)

• Cases are not included in the Bibliography.

Cases with Neutral Citations (2001- onwards) 

• Use square brackets when the year is crucial to identify the law report volume (for example when there is more than one volume published per year).
• Use round brackets when the year is not necessary to identify the law report volume (for example if there was only one volume published per year).
• The most important law series (The Law Reports, Weekly Law Reports, Lloyds Law Reports, All England Law Reports) all have more than one volume per year so they will always need square brackets.
• For neutral citation abbreviations see OSCOLA s 5.1.

The format for these is: Case name Neutral Citation, Law Report Citation.

Footnote

^_n Case name [Year] Court Abbreviation Number [Year] Report Abbreviation First page number.

OR

ⁿ Case name [Year] Court Abbreviation Number (Year) Report Abbreviation First page number.

¹⁵ Begum v Special Immigration Appeals Commission [2020] EWCA Civ 918, [2020] 1 WLR 4267.

¹⁶ Corr v IBC Vehicles Ltd [2008] UKHL 13, [2008] 1 AC 884. 

¹⁷ Farraj v Kings NHS Healthcare Trust [2009] EWCA Civ 1203, [2010] 1 WLR 2139.

Older cases without Neutral Citations (pre-2001)

• Do not include a neutral citation for a case decided prior to the neutral citation introduction (2001-2002, depending upon the court).

The format for these is: Case name Law Report Citation (Court abbreviation) pinpoint page if required.

Footnote

ⁿ Case name [Year] Volume Report Abbreviation First page number (Court identifier).

OR

ⁿ Case Name (Year) Volume Report Abbreviation First page number (Court identifier).

³ Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562 (HL) 563.

⁴ Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co [1893] 1 QB 256 (QBD) 258.

Unreported cases

• If it has a neutral citation, include the neutral citation.
• If there is no neutral citation, include the court and judgement date in round brackets, e.g. ¹⁸ Stubbs v Sayer (CA, 8 November 1990).
• Do not add 'unreported'.

Cases from Northern Ireland

See OSCOLA s 2.3

Cases from Scotland

See OSCOLA s 2.2

Court abbreviations

Divisions of the High Court abbreviations

• The following is a list of common law report abbreviations:

• Cases pre-1865 do not need a court type.
• Cases decided before 1865 are republished in the English Reports. 
• Provide the initial report and the English Reports separated by a comma. If there is a pinpoint to the initial report, use a semicolon.

Footnote  

ⁿ Case Name (Year) Initial report abbreviation, pinpoint if required; English Reports citation, pinpoint if required.

⁴ Henly v Mayor of Lyme (1828) 5 Bing 91, 107; 130 ER 995, 1001.

• The Incorporated Council of Law Reporting's Law Reports series should always be cited in preference. See the section The Hierarchy of Law Reports on this page: https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/legal-research-and-mooting-skills-programme/law-reports. 

• If the case you need is not reported in the official Law Reports series, use the All England Law Reports (All ER) or Weekly Law Reports (WLR) instead. Then look to other specialist report series, such as the Family Law Reports.

• Only use WLUK (from Westlaw) if there is no other law report or transcript.

The first time the case is mentioned, provide the party names (in either the text of your essay or the footnote) and the full citation to the case in the footnote with a pinpoint if needed.

For subsequent citations to the same case, provide the first party to the case and a note to the footnote where a reader can find the full citation, e.g.  ² Austin (n 1). 

For example:

On first use: Phelps v Hillingdon LBC (with the appropriate footnote).

Subsequent mentions in the text will be Phelps with the appropriate footnote cross reference.

If there are multiple claimants or defendants in a case, name only the first claimant and first defendant. 

You should abbreviate common terms or roles, for example Director of Public Prosecutions would be DPP.

Do not use full stops within or after abbreviations.

Only the party names should be in italics. This applies both in your text and in the footnote. 

Do not include given names or initials for persons. Use only the family name.

• Pinpoints are generally placed at the end of the footnote and you can separate multiple pinpoints to pages with a comma. For example: Beattie v E & F Beattie Ltd [1938] Ch 708 (CA) 720, 723. This report starts on page 708 and the footnote is pinpointing to page 720 and page 723.

• If the pinpoint is to the first page of the report, repeat the first page number.
• For sources with numbered paragraphs such as judgements, use [  ] for pinpoints. For pinpoints to several paragraphs, separate them with a comma: [  ], [  ]. For a range of pinpoints follow this format: [  ] – [  ].

When referring to a judge, do so according to the guidance at the links below.

• For judges in England and Wales see OSCOLA 2.1.7.
• For judges in Northern Ireland see OSCOLA 2.3.2.
• For judges in Scotland see OSCOLA 2.2.2.

• For cases and legislation from other jurisdictions (nations and parts of nations), cite as it is cited in that jurisdiction.
• Remove all full stops from any abbreviations.
• If a law reporter does not indicate which court it was in, add this in round brackets using either the full name or an abbreviation before the pinpoint.
• If using material from the highest court in a state from the United States, use the state’s two letter abbreviation.

Footnote

¹ Brown v New Zealand Basing Ltd [2018] 1 NZLR 245 (SC).

² Roe v Wade 410 US 113 (1973).

³ Re Lam Kwok Hung Guy, ex p Tor Asia Credit Master Fund LP [2023] HKCFA 9, (2023) 26 HKCFAR 119.

⁴ Henningsen v Bloomfield Motors Inc 161 A 2d 69 (NJ 1960).