The acronym oscola refers to the oxford standard for citation of legal authorities. It is used for the citation of most forms of legal documentation and in essays on the law. Oscola is a specialist referencing system and although it has elements in common with other referencing systems, such as footnotes and bibliography, there are unique stylistic features in oscola, such as very sparse punctuation, which are essential to know when writing about the law. The guidance given, on this webpage, is far from comprehensive and you need to consult denning's guide available online for more information. Be aware that harvard referencing is also frequently used in legal texts but it is essential to use only one referencing style, so everything must be referenced in oscola.

Citing books in oscola demonstrates the absence of punctuation and illustrates how different the style is. The format for citing a book in oscola is as follows: author's name with forename before surname followed by a comma title of book in italics edition, publisher, place of publication and date in parenthesis. Hence, the oscola citation of a book in both footnotes and bibliography should be as follows: j. Freeman, legal referencing 2 nd edit oxford university press, oxford 2014.

Name of author, title of article in quotation marks, not year of publication, page numbers. Freeman, 'legal references' 2013 footnotes in oscola should be numbered in sequence throughout. The number within the text should be placed at the end of the sentence containing the quotation. Footnotes should be cited in the same style as used in the bibliography in the first instance but may then be abbreviated. Oscola ref erencing generator over at our sister website lawteacher.net we have an online referencing generator for automatically creating oscola references. This generator can create references for the following source type: although in text citations are fairly common in legal memos and factums, footnotes are the preferred method of citation used at law school. There are two types of footnotes: citation footnotes: directly support the author's argument and point the reader to the source which is being quoted or referred to.

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textual footnotes: point the reader to peripheral material that is related to the subject, but not directly supporting the author's argument. Generally speaking it is only appropriate to use footnotes under these circumstances in legal writing: at the first reference to a source at every subsequent quotation from the source at every subsequent reference or allusion to a particular passage in the source and, to provide peripheral or parenthetical information. Such as a quotation or brief description, in order to clarify an in text proposition. example 2: the full citation should be provided in the first footnote referring to a source. There are also many other rules, such as: when to combine footnotes how to include parenthetical information within a footnote and, prior and subsequent references to a citation. The only way to really get to know these rules is through practice! in academic research papers and in any other writing that borrows information from sources, the borrowed information such as quotations, summaries, paraphrases, statistics or any facts of ideas that are not common knowledge , must be clearly documented.

what are footnotes? footnotes are used to give credit to sources of any material borrowed, summarized or paraphrased. They are intended to refer readers to the exact pages of the works listed in the bibliography section. 1 where do footnotes go? there are two parts to a footnote: 1 immediately after a citation s quote, statistic, etc. A small number is inserted each citation is given a number in chronological order 2 2 at the bottom foot of the very same page where the direct citation s were made, a footnote is placed that consists of the same small number as the citation and all the publishing information. 3 step 1: click on insert step 2: click on footnote step 3: choose footnote step 4: click ok don't fall into plagiarism. Have you ever wanted a quick and dirty guide to the main principles underlying the methods and motives for correct use of footnotes and citations in australian law? legal citation has been referred to as a ‘peculiar human custom’.1 it allows a writer to refer to legal and non legal authorities clearly and consistently, so as to support the arguments made, as well as to enable a reader locate the references.

The purpose of providing references is to acknowledge sources of your writing, and demonstrate the breadth and depth of your research. We set out for you here the shortest possible instructions on australian legal footnotes style. Despite our increasingly complex world,7 it is not usually necessary to use a footnote for obvious statements. 8 many law students will be surprised to find that their lecturers and tutors discourage the use of footnotes to avoid word count limitations in written assignments. 9 in law, we generally use footnotes rather than bracket or in text systems such as the harvard referencing style. The australian guide to legal citation ‘aglc’ is used in many australian law journals and universities, and it is the system employed in this piece.10 other referencing systems are sometimes used in specific academic communities. Law students at monash university, for example, are also able to use fox and campbell’s students’ guide to legal writing, law exams and self assessment.11 law journals and assignment instructions will specify a style guide.

Where you are given a choice of referencing systems, choose just one and don’t mix them. The law referencing system is best illustrated by the examples in the footnotes here. Now pay special attention to the correct citation of sources found on the internet. The aglc says, ‘ a source should only be cited as internet material if it does not exist in a published form’.23 that means you would cite web material if the source is exclusively available on the internet. You do not have to show that you have obtained a statute, case or journal article from the internet if it is accessible in another form. If you cite a source as internet material, you will have to provide details about the author, the document or page title, the website name if different to the author , the uniform resource locater ‘url’ and the date the page was last updated if that date is provided.24 you can even cite tweets in your academic writing.25 however contractions of urls such as bit.ly or tiny.url should not be relied upon. �above’ is used for a reference to an article or book cited earlier.26 cases and legislation should be cited in full in all subsequent references.27 replace latin terms with their english equivalents if possible.28 this leaves ibid short for ibidem, or ‘in the same place’ as one of the very few latin phrases still in use.29 ibid can only be used if there is no intervening reference.

There may be some documents and sources for which it is difficult to find a rule, so you may improvise, being as clear and consistent as possible, and giving the reader access to as much information necessary to locate the material. There are many books and guides on legal referencing and writing, and you should use them.31 there are small differences between them, on minor issues such as punctuation and format. However the most important goal for the legal writer is to become familiar with one system, and use it consistently. Becky batagol and melissa castan both teach law, and footnotes, at monash university.

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An earlier version of this article appears in the alternative law journal vol 37 1 2012. Patrick mcfadden, ‘fundamental principles of american law ’ 1997 85 california law review 1749, 1749. Jensen, the shortest article in law review history , 50 journal of legal education 156 20.

Joe mirarchi, ‘plagiarism: what is it? how to avoid it? and why? ’ 2001 4 tm cooley journal of practical and clinical law 381, 383. Tertiary students caught plagiarising have been subsequently denied admission as legal practitioners or had their existing practising certificates cancelled by state admission boards: see, eg, legal services commissioner v keough 2010 vcat 108 3 february 2010 re liveri 2006 qca 152 12 may 2006 re: ajg 2004 qca 88 15 march 2004. Most infamously, the vice chancellor of monash university, david robinson, resigned in 2002 after a series of plagiarism claims were raised against him: misha ketchell, ‘plagiarism accusations grow ’, the age melbourne , 25 july 2002, 2. Tommy lee jones playing lt roland sharp, man of the house directed by stephen herek, sony pictures, 2005. Melbourne university law review association ‘mulra’ , australian guide to legal citation 3rd ed, 2010 1. See mcfadden, above n 1, 1754 reporting that society is becoming increasingly complex. Most law teachers would be unlikely to accept for assessment purposes an essay which, like one parody law review article, uses so many footnotes that the citations are almost five times longer than the main text: see andrew mcclurg, ‘the world’s greatest law review article’ 1995 81 10 american bar association journal 84.