OSCOLA Referencing
Other Books
The following are examples of how to reference older books, books of authority, encyclopaedias and looseleaf services.
Older Works
For books from before 1800, include the original publication date as well as for the edition you have read.
Template (Footnote/Table of Legislation):
Author, | Title | (first published | original edition year, | current edition publisher | Year).
Examples:
Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (first published 1651, Penguin 1985).
Books of Authority/Institutional Works
Books of Authority or Institutional Works should be referenced in the same manner as books. A number of abbreviations exist that can be used to abbreviate the names of these works in footnotes:
| Stair, Institutions of the Law of Scotland | Institutions |
| Bankton, An Institute of the Laws of Scotland in Civil Rights | Institute |
| Blackstone, Commentaries on the Law of England | Bl Comm |
| Bracton, On the Laws and Customs of England | Bracton |
| Brooke, La Graunde Abridgement | Brooke Abr |
| Coke, Commentary upon Littleton | Co Litt |
| Coke, Institutes of the Laws of England | Co Inst |
| Fitzherbert, La Graunde Abridgement | Fitz Abr |
| Fitzherbert, La Novel Natura Brevium | Fitz NB |
| Glanvill, Treatise on the Laws and Customs of England | Glanvill |
| Hawkins, A Treatise on the Pleas of the Crown | Hawk PC |
| Hale, The History of the Pleas of the Crown | Hale PC |
Encyclopaedias
Cite an encyclopaedia as a book, but exclude the author and publisher and include the edition and year of issue/reissue. When an encyclopaedia credits an author for a segment, give both the author and the segment title at the beginning of the citation. If citing an online encyclopaedia, give the web address and date of access.
Example:
Halsbury’s Laws (5th edn, 2010) vol 57, para 53.
CJ Friedrich, ‘Constitutions and Constitutionalism’, International Encyclopaedia of the Social Sciences III (1968) 319.
Leslie Green, ‘Legal Positivism’, The Stanford Encyclopaedia of Philosophy (Fall edn, 2009) <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2009/entries/legal-positivism/> accessed 20 November 2009.
Looseleaf Services
Cite the title of the work in italics, excluding the name of the current author or editor, but including names which have become part of the title. Do not give publication details.