Output Citation Format Oscola

OSCOLA Citation Format (UK / DIFC / ADGM)

When to use this

Apply OSCOLA format when:

• The output is for a UK-trained reader or will be used in a UK legal context.
• The document will be used in DIFC or ADGM proceedings, which apply English common law and UK-style citation conventions.
• The document will be filed in or presented to an English-language common-law court in the MENA region (DIFC Courts, ADGM Courts).
• The output is a legal opinion or memo citing English, DIFC, or ADGM case law or statute.

Do not apply OSCOLA for purely US outputs (use Bluebook), purely French-law outputs (use civil-law French format), or MENA-law outputs in Arabic (use MENA conventions).

Key structural differences from Bluebook

• OSCOLA uses footnotes exclusively for citations — never in-text parenthetical.
• Case names are italicized but court abbreviations are in brackets, not in parentheses.
• Year is in square brackets [1932] when the year is needed to identify the volume; in round brackets (1932) when it is supplementary information.
• No period at the end of a citation (unlike Bluebook's trailing period).

Citation formats

Cases

Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562 (HL) 580

Components:

1. Case name (italicized): Donoghue v Stevenson — note: v not v. in OSCOLA
2. Year in brackets [1932] — square brackets when the year identifies the volume
3. Volume (if any) — omit if the year already identifies the volume
4. Reporter abbreviation: AC (Appeal Cases), All ER, WLR, QB, Ch, etc.
5. First page of the case
6. Court in brackets (HL) — only include if not obvious from the reporter
7. Pin-cite (specific page referenced)

Common reporter abbreviations:

Neutral citations (post-2001): use the neutral citation alone when no traditional reporter is available:

R (Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union [2017] UKSC 5

DIFC and ADGM cases

DIFC Court judgments use a neutral citation system:

Corinth Pipeworks SA v Barclays Bank plc [2011] DIFC CA 002

ADGM Court judgments:

Re IQ EQ Consulting [2023] ADGMCFI 0001

Statutes

Companies Act 2006, s 172

Components: Statute name (not italicized), year, section abbreviation.

No comma between the statute name and year. Section is abbreviated s (not § or sec.).

For schedules and paragraphs:

Companies Act 2006, Sch 7, para 3

Statutory instruments

Insolvency Rules 2016, SI 2016/1024, r 7.1

Format: SI Year/Number, rule abbreviation.

DIFC and ADGM legislation

DIFC laws use a numbered system:

DIFC Law No 2 of 2019 (DIFC Contract Law)

ADGM regulations:

ADGM Financial Services and Markets Regulations 2015, reg 15

Books

Andrew Burrows, English Private Law (3rd edn, OUP 2013) 145

Components: Author Surname, Title (edition, Publisher Year) Page — no comma between the closing parenthesis and the page number.

Articles

Roderick Bagshaw, 'The Pleading of Negligence' (2019) 135 LQR 459, 465

Components: Author Surname, 'Article title in single quotes' (Year) Volume Journal-Abbreviation First-Page, Pin-Cite.

Note: article titles are in single quotes, not italics.

Common journal abbreviations:

Subsequent references (short forms)

Note: OSCOLA uses ibid (not id.); no period after ibid.

Footnote placement

In academic and formal practitioner documents following OSCOLA:

• Footnotes are placed at the bottom of the page or the end of the document.
• Every citation appears in a footnote, numbered consecutively.
• The body text contains no parenthetical citations.

In-text parenthetical citations (as in Bluebook memos) are not OSCOLA practice.

Common mistakes

Related skills

• [[output-citation-format-bluebook]] — for US-trained audiences
• [[output-citation-format-civil-law-fr]] — for French-law audiences
• [[output-citation-mena-conventions]] — for MENA-specific statutory citations
• [[output-creac-structure]] — the legal memo structure that uses these citations