Footnotes and bibliographies using OSCOLA - Metranet

Footnotes and bibliographies using OSCOLA
Law students must use the OSCOLA style for referencing (citing) and in your bibliography.
To insert a footnote into your text using Microsoft Word
go to the Toolbar at the top of the screen and left click the mouse on Insert
(or if it does not appear there, try References)
find and click on Footnotes (or Insert Footnote)
click on OK. This will add a number in the text and take you to the foot of the page to
write the footnote
If you add an earlier footnote, the numbers will automatically change to
take account of the addition.
Where do I insert it
The footnote number should be placed before the full stop in a sentence whenever possible.
If you are referencing a quotation, the footnote should be placed outside the quotation
marks.
See the examples in the big OSCOLA guide, starting at p.9, or in the OSCOLA tutorial.
If you wish to refer to the immediately previous footnote you can use ‘Ibid.’ but do not use
any other Latin terms. If in doubt, see the OSCOLA guide.
Information in the footnote
Online sources: in OSCOLA, if you have accessed a case, statute, journal article online, it
is not necessary to include website information or date viewed, just treat it as if it was the
paper version.
Only include the URL if it is a website or something else which is only available online
Book reference:
Author with initials first, Title (edition publisher year) page number
e.g. 23 HLA Hart, The Concept of Law (2nd edn, Clarendon Press 1994) 135
Chapters in books with an overall editor
Chapter author, 'Title of chapter' in Book Editor (ed), Book title (Publisher Year) page
e.g. 24 L Stone, “Early feminist movements” in Evans (edn) The woman question: readings
on the subordination of women (Fontana 1998) 29-32

Journal reference:
Author with initials first, “Article title” (year) page abbreviated journal title (you can find
these in the Cardiff Index of Legal Abbreviations
e.g. 25 FH Newark, ‘The Boundaries of Nuisance’ (1949) 65 LQR
Case reference:
Names of the parties in the text then in the footnote the case citation
e.g. 3 Phipps v Boardman [1967] is 32 AC 46 (HL)
If you quote from a case or mention a particular point, give the exact page number so
anyone who wants to read further can go straight to it.
Legislation reference
Title of statute, year and chapter number. The relevant Section/sub-section etc. should then
be cited.
e.g. 4 Human Rights Act 1998, s 2.
Internet references
Author, 'Web page title' (Website, Full Date) accessed Date
e.g. 5 R Moorhead, 'Solicitors First' (Lawyer Watch, 25 March 2011)
accessed 13 April 2011
In the Bibliography
Bibliographies should include cases, statutes, books, journal articles, reports and any other
written sources which you have used in your research, whether you have quoted directly
from them or referred to them by name in your essay/ dissertation/ project.
There can be no prescribed number of references, but the best bibliographies use a variety
of sources, include all relevant and accessible material and are set out in accordance with
the correct style.
From the outset of your literature search you should make full records of every publication,
including Internet addresses. This may appear time consuming but it will ultimately save
you much time and strife. You can produce a basic bibliography by copying and pasting all
your footnotes onto a separate page, then moving the author initial(s) to after the surname.
e.g. Fisher E, Risk Regulation and Administrative Constitutionalism (Hart Publishing 2007)
Now add any other books or sources you may have referred to but not specifically cited,
and divide into categories such as books, articles, statutes, cases and other sources. Within
each category you should list the references alphabetically by author or, failing that, title.
Sorting your references
You can use Word to sort each section. It is easier to do it in section rather than the whole
list at once
• Select the text in each section.
• On the Home tab, in the Paragraph group, click Sort.
• In the Sort Text dialog box, under Sort by, click Paragraphs and Text, and then click
Ascending

If you are citing more than one item by the same author, list the items in each category
chronologically (in year order). After the reference to the first item, you can replace the
author's name with two dashes (--):
e.g. Hart HLA, Law, Liberty and Morality (OUP 1963)
--Punishment and Responsibility (OUP 1968)
If you cannot find an Author, use the dashes (--) instead (rather than Anon) and place them
at the beginning of the section
Books
References for books need to contain
Author followed by initial(s), Title (Publisher date)
e.g. Choudhry S and Herring J, European Human Rights and Family Law (OUP 2010)
Chapter from edited book
Author followed by initial or name, ‘title’ in editor (ed), book title (additional information,|
publisher year)
e.g. John Cartwright, ‘The Fiction of the “Reasonable Man”’ in AG Castermans and others
(eds), Ex Libris Hans Nieuwenhuis (Kluwer 2009)
Journal Articles
Author followed by name or initial, “article title” (year) volume number official journal
abbreviation page
e.g. Moorhead R, 'An American Future Contingency Fees, Claims Explosions and
Evidence from Employment Tribunals' (2010) 73 MLR 752
N.B. Remember you can find the official abbreviations in the Cardiff Index of Legal
Abbreviations
For Government publications, reports, news media, websites, etc see examples given in
the big OSCOLA guide.
C.Smart
January 2014