Students Studying Law should use the OSCOLA referencing system.
Guides to OSCOLA:
- Students should read the Law Division's OSCOLA Guide first and use this as the definitive guide to law referencing at Abertay.
- The complete OSCOLA guide (4th edition) is also available.
- Also useful is the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations
What is OSCOLA referencing?
There are three parts to OSCOLA referencing:
- the footnote marker
- the footnote, and
- the bibliography
The footnote marker appears in your text to acknowledge a case or piece of legislation. It is also there to reference where an idea, piece of research, statistic, quotation etc came from - this avoids plagiarism.
The footnote appears on the bottom of the page with details of the resource, ie book, case, legislation etc. Footnotes should be written and formatted according to OSCOLA.
The bibliography appears at the end of your work, listing all primary and secondary sources. The bibliography should be written and formatted according to OSCOLA.
Reference types
Below are a few of the main types of resource you'll need to reference. These are just examples. What's included in your reference can vary depending on a number of different factors. For example, what's included in a case footnote and how it's formatted, will depend on whether a neutral citation is available, and jurisdiction. So always refer to the Law Division's OSCOLA guide as your definitive guide to referencing legal materials.