In short
- OSCOLA is the referencing style most UK law schools use. This page covers the 4th edition.
- Citations go in footnotes. The footnote number goes at the end of the sentence, after the full stop.
- A case is its name in italics, then its citation: R (Miller) v Prime Minister [2019] UKSC 41.
- Later footnotes point back to the first one, like Burrows (n 1) 81, or use ibid for the source in the note straight before.
- Longer work has a table of cases, a table of legislation and a bibliography of secondary sources.
- Peel writes OSCOLA 4 footnotes, bibliographies and tables for you, ready to paste into Word or Google Docs.
OSCOLA is the Oxford University Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities, published by the University of Oxford’s Faculty of Law. It’s the style most UK law schools use. This guide follows the 4th edition, which is the edition Peel formats. Your handbook says which edition your law school wants.
The examples below were made by Peel’s own formatter, so they match what it pastes.
Footnotes
OSCOLA puts every citation in a footnote, never in brackets in your text.
- Put the footnote number at the end of the sentence, after the full stop. If that isn’t clear enough, put it straight after the words it refers to.
- End every footnote with a full stop.
- If one footnote cites more than one source, separate them with semicolons.
- Use no full stops in abbreviations or initials: edn, ed, s, n, ibid, HLA Hart.
- Give authors’ names as they appear on the source, first name or initials first.
- For a pinpoint, the page goes on its own, with no “p”.
| Source | Footnote |
|---|---|
| Case with a neutral citation | R (Miller) v Prime Minister [2019] UKSC 41. |
| Case from a law report | Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562 (HL). |
| Case, with a page pinpoint | Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562 (HL) 580. |
| Case, with a paragraph pinpoint | R (Miller) v Prime Minister [2019] UKSC 41 [50]. |
| Act of Parliament | Equality Act 2010. |
| Section of an Act | Equality Act 2010, s 13. |
| Book, with a pinpoint | Andrew Burrows, A Restatement of the English Law of Contract (2nd edn, Oxford University Press 2020) 81. |
| Journal article, with a pinpoint | HLA Hart, ‘Positivism and the Separation of Law and Morals’ (1958) 71 Harvard Law Review 593, 615. |
Quotes
Short quotes go in single quotation marks, inside your sentence. Longer quotes go in their own indented paragraph, without quotation marks. The footnote number goes after the quote.
Each kind of source
Here’s each kind of source: the footnote pattern (the placeholder words show where each detail goes), a real example, and how it appears in the tables or the bibliography.
Case with a neutral citation
Footnote pattern
Name of the case [2024] UKSC 1.
Footnote
R (Miller) v Prime Minister [2019] UKSC 41.
Footnote, pointing to paragraph 50
R (Miller) v Prime Minister [2019] UKSC 41 [50].
A neutral citation is the year in square brackets, the court (here the UK Supreme Court) and the judgment’s number. Judgments of the higher courts since 2001 usually have one. Point to a paragraph with its number in square brackets.
If the case has also been published in a law report, give the neutral citation first, then a comma and the law report.
Case from a law report
Footnote
Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562 (HL).
Footnote, with a volume number
Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co [1893] 1 QB 256 (CA).
Footnote, pointing to page 580
Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562 (HL) 580.
The year, the volume if there is one, the law report’s abbreviation (AC is the Appeal Cases, QB the Queen’s Bench) and the first page. The court goes in brackets when the report doesn’t make it clear: HL for the House of Lords, CA for the Court of Appeal.
Use square brackets for the year when you need it to find the volume, as with these. Use round brackets when the reports number their volumes on their own, without the year.
Act of Parliament
Footnote pattern
Name of the Act 2024.
Footnote
Equality Act 2010.
Table of legislation
Equality Act 2010
The Act’s short title and year, with capitals on the main words and no italics. For a section, add a comma and “s”: Equality Act 2010, s 13. Use “ss” for more than one section.
Book
Footnote pattern
Firstname Surname, Title of the Book (2nd edn, Publisher 2024).
Footnote, pointing to page 81
Andrew Burrows, A Restatement of the English Law of Contract (2nd edn, Oxford University Press 2020) 81.
Bibliography
Burrows A, A Restatement of the English Law of Contract (2nd edn, Oxford University Press 2020)
The edition (if it isn’t the first), the publisher and the year go in brackets, with no place of publication.
Journal article
Footnote
HLA Hart, ‘Positivism and the Separation of Law and Morals’ (1958) 71 Harvard Law Review 593.
Footnote, pointing to page 615
HLA Hart, ‘Positivism and the Separation of Law and Morals’ (1958) 71 Harvard Law Review 593, 615.
Bibliography
Hart HLA, ‘Positivism and the Separation of Law and Morals’ (1958) 71 Harvard Law Review 593
The title goes in single quotation marks, then the year, the volume, the journal and the first page. The year is in round brackets when the journal has volume numbers, and in square brackets when the year is the volume. A pinpoint follows the first page, after a comma.
Law journals usually go by a short name: Harv L Rev for the Harvard Law Review, LQR for the Law Quarterly Review. The Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations lists them. Peel prints the journal’s name as you type it, so type the short one if your course uses them.
Web page
Footnote pattern
Firstname Surname, ‘Title of the Page’ (Name of the website, 5 March 2024) <www.example.com/page> accessed 20 October 2026.
Footnote, no date
Saul McLeod, ‘Working Memory Model’ (Simply Psychology) <www.simplypsychology.org/working-memory.html> accessed 20 October 2026.
Bibliography
McLeod S, ‘Working Memory Model’ (Simply Psychology) <www.simplypsychology.org/working-memory.html> accessed 20 October 2026
The website’s name and the date go in brackets, the web address in angle brackets, then “accessed” and the date you looked at it.
Where to find the citation
A judgment’s neutral citation is printed at the top of the judgment. You can read judgments free on BAILII and on the National Archives’ Find Case Law service. Law report citations are in databases like Westlaw and Lexis, which your library may give you. For Acts, legislation.gov.uk has the short title, the year and every section.
Later footnotes: (n 1) and ibid
Cite a source in full the first time. After that, use a short form and point back to the footnote where it’s in full. Here’s how five footnotes in a row might look:
| Footnote | What it says |
|---|---|
| 1 | Andrew Burrows, A Restatement of the English Law of Contract (2nd edn, Oxford University Press 2020) 81. |
| 2 | ibid 82. |
| 3 | Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562 (HL) 580. |
| 4 | Burrows (n 1) 81. |
| 5 | Donoghue (n 3) 580. |
- ibid means “in the same place”. Use it when a footnote cites the same source as the footnote straight before it, as in note 2. Add the new pinpoint after it.
- (n 1) means “see footnote 1”. Give the author’s surname, or a short name for a case, then the footnote number in brackets, then the pinpoint, as in notes 4 and 5.
- OSCOLA writes both without full stops: “ibid”, not “ibid.”, and “(n 1)”, not “(n. 1)”.
Tables and the bibliography
A longer piece, like a dissertation, lists its sources in three parts. The tables often come at the start and the bibliography at the end. Your handbook will say what an essay needs, and where each part goes.
Table of cases
- Every case you cite, in alphabetical order by the first important word of its name.
- Case names are not in italics here, unlike in your footnotes.
- Give the full citation, with no pinpoint and no full stop at the end.
Table of legislation
- Every Act you cite, in alphabetical order of its short title: Equality Act 2010
- No pinpoints and no full stop at the end.
Bibliography
- Secondary sources only: books, articles, websites and so on. Cases and Acts are in the tables.
- In alphabetical order of the authors’ surnames.
- Surname first, then initials, with no full stops: Burrows A, Hart HLA.
- No pinpoints, and no full stop at the end of each entry.
Here’s the bibliography Peel copies for four secondary sources, in A to Z order:
- Burrows A, A Restatement of the English Law of Contract (2nd edn, Oxford University Press 2020)
- Hart HLA, ‘Positivism and the Separation of Law and Morals’ (1958) 71 Harvard Law Review 593
- Kahneman D, Thinking, Fast and Slow (Allen Lane 2011)
- McLeod S, ‘Working Memory Model’ (Simply Psychology) <www.simplypsychology.org/working-memory.html> accessed 20 October 2026
Common mistakes
- Full stops in abbreviations. Write edn, s, n and ibid, with no full stop.
- (Author, year) in the text. OSCOLA uses footnotes.
- “p” before a page. A pinpoint is the number on its own: (HL) 580.
- Italics in the wrong place. Case names are in italics in footnotes, but not in the table of cases. Acts are never in italics.
- The wrong brackets. Square brackets when the year finds the volume, round brackets when it doesn’t.
- ibid after a different source. ibid only points to the footnote straight before.
- Cases and Acts in the bibliography. When you have tables, they go in the tables.
OSCOLA in Peel
- Choose OSCOLA when Peel first opens, or later with the style button at the top of a project, or in Settings, then Referencing. Each project can have its own style. Free
- Click Peel’s button in the toolbar, or right-click a page and choose Save this page to Peel. Peel reads the title, authors and date on your computer. Or paste a DOI, ISBN or link. Free
- Fill the gaps looks a source up in Crossref and Open Library, and nothing is made up. Anything still missing is shown before you copy. Free
- Quotes keep their page numbers, from the page you’re reading or a PDF you highlight in Peel’s reader. Free
- Copy citation for a source, and Copy reference list for a project, with the italics kept for Word and Google Docs. Free
- Pip’s Tidy for OSCOLA fixes capital letters and the order of names, and shows every change first. Explain a rule answers from Peel’s own footnote examples. Pip has a free week, then a small free allowance each month. Pip
Law reports and journal names print as you type them, so type the abbreviation, like AC or Harv L Rev. Peel gives you the full first footnote: write ibid and (n 1) yourself.
Every style is free in Peel, and everything is formatted on your computer.
To keep your footnotes in order while you write, see how to reference as you go. For a dissertation, track which sources each chapter uses, so your tables and bibliography are complete.
