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Law: Referencing

This guide is a list of sources for legal research.

OSCOLA

The Oxford Standard for the Citation Of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA) is the referencing style for law coursework at the University of Southampton.  It covers examples of how to cite books, journal articles, websites, blogs, podcasts etc as well as UK and EU cases, statutes and international legal materials. It uses footnotes instead of in-text citations. Footnote markers (superscript numbers) are inserted in the main body of your essay - normally at the end of the sentence, after the punctuation.The full reference is written in the corresponding numbered footnote at the bottom of the page, and the footnote is closed with a full-stop. 

The following websites and online tutorials provide good examples of OSCOLA referencing for both footnotes and bibliography:

Before using a reference manager, ensure that you understand the OSCOLA referencing style, use Cite Them Right Online for guidance. Colleagues at Newcastle University Library have produced some excellent guidance for working with EndNote and OSCOLA at https://libguides.ncl.ac.uk/endnote/oscola