This page contains research tools and tutorials on referencing and writing for Law students.
Referencing is a vital skill you should develop throughout your study. If you feel you would benefit from more information make an appointment with your Academic Librarians by clicking on 'Get Help' on this page.
You can view a recording here of an online OSCOLA session delivered by Academic Librarians.
Daily appointments are usually available (weekdays only) where you can get more help with Harvard or OSCOLA (Law) or APA (Psychology) referencing.
Click on Get Help below to book an appointment, or you can ask via the Library's Contact Us page.
Legal Writing Skills by Creating a Bibliography from Footnotes in Word a guide by Allen Wyatt that shows you an easy way to convert footnotes into a bibliography.
If you are studying Law alongside another subject on one of the "Law with.." courses, you may have to use Harvard referencing for some of your assignments. We advise you to check carefully with your lecturer to see which referencing style you are being asked to use.
OSCOLA Referencing Guide (4th edn, 2012) - the University of Oxford Tip: use the keyboard shortcut "Ctrl+F" to search in the PDF document for a relevant word - e.g. "Footnote" or "Judge".
OSCOLA Quick Reference Guide - the University of Oxford
OSCOLA 2006 Citing International Law section (the 2012 4th edn does not cover international law).
It is common practice in law to abbreviate the titles of publications such as journals and law report series. Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations allows you to search for abbreviations to find out what they mean.
If you have a legal abbreviation you can find the name of the publication to which the abbreviation commonly refers. E.g. CLJ is the 'Cambridge Law Journal'. You can also search for other abbreviations such as courts, e.g. UKSC is the UK Supreme Court.
You can also discover how to abbreviate the name of a law publication to create a recognised legal citation. You will be given the preferred citation abbreviation if one exists, or alternative abbreviations. E.g. the preferred abbreviation for 'Arbitration Law Reports and Review' is ArbLR.
Here you will find a short tutorial produced by Cardiff University, on how to reference the law using OSCOLA. On slide 18 you will find a comprehensive range of examples of different types of footnotes and bibliography entries.
