---

name: output-citation-format-oscola
description: Use when formatting legal citations for a UK-trained audience, or for common-law jurisdictions that follow UK legal culture — including DIFC and ADGM. OSCOLA (Oxford Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities) uses footnotes rather than in-text parenthetical citations, and differs structurally from Bluebook in case name formatting, year-in-brackets convention, and statutory citation style.
license: MIT
metadata:
id: output.citation-format-OSCOLA
category: output
jurisdictions: [UK, DIFC, ADGM]
priority: P1
intent: [oscola, citation, uk-legal, difc, adgm, formatting]
related: [output-citation-format-bluebook, output-citation-format-civil-law-fr, output-citation-mena-conventions, output-creac-structure]
source: Louis — HAQQ Legal AI (github.com/sboghossian/mini-claude-for-legal)
version: "1.0"

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:

Reporter	Abbreviation
Appeal Cases	AC
All England Law Reports	All ER
Weekly Law Reports	WLR
Queen's/King's Bench	QB / KB
Chancery Division	Ch
Neutral citation (UKSC)	[2023] UKSC 14

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:

Journal	Abbreviation
Law Quarterly Review	LQR
Modern Law Review	MLR
Cambridge Law Journal	CLJ
Oxford Journal of Legal Studies	OJLS

Subsequent references (short forms)

Situation	Form	Example
Immediately preceding footnote, same source	ibid	ibid
Immediately preceding, different page	ibid 580	ibid 580
Not immediately preceding, same case	[Party name] (n [footnote number])	Donoghue (n 3)
Not immediately preceding, same book	Author (n [footnote number]) page	Burrows (n 7) 150

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

Mistake	Correct
Donoghue v. Stevenson	Donoghue v Stevenson (no period after v)
(1932) AC 562	[1932] AC 562 (square brackets for year as volume identifier)
Companies Act 2006, §172	Companies Act 2006, s 172
Using id.	Use ibid
In-text parenthetical citation	Footnote only in OSCOLA

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