SCHOOL OF LAW, DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC LAW

PARKLANDS LAW CAMPUS

BLAW 1101: LEGAL RESEARCH & WRITING MODULE

WEEK 13: CITING LEGAL SOURCES USING OSCOLA

Objectives of this topic:

To understand the forms of plagiarism and how to avoid them

To become familiar with OSCOLA as the citation system for legal sources

Expected outcome of the topic

By the end of this topic, you should be able to:

Understand the meaning and forms of plagiarisms; and

Practice correct use of legal citation using OSCOLA.

Content
4.1 What is plagiarim?
4.2 Forms of plagiarism
4.3 How to avoid plagiarism
4.4 Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities
4.4.1 What is OSCOLA?
4.4.2 Why use OSCOLA?
4.4.3 What does OSCOLA look like?
4.5 General tips

Page | 1
4.1 What is plagiarim?
This is when you use another person’s sentences, ideas or opinions without acknowledging them as
being from that other person. It is using someone else’s ideas or words and presenting them as if
they are your own. It may be intentionally or not intentionally. It is therefore your responsibility to
know what will be regarded as plagiarism and to know how to avoid it.

4.2 Forms of plagiarism

Obvious forms of plagiarism include:

 Buying or borrowing a paper and copying it;

 Hiring someone to write the paper or thesis for you;
 Cutting and pasting large portions of text from the web or from someone else’s paper or
book without any quotation marks (or clear indentation for block quotes) or proper
reference to the source;
 Word-for-word copying of a sentence, or paragraph without any proper acknowledgement;
 Direct translation into English of a paper - or large sections of writing - written in another
language;
 Citing sources that you didn’t actually use;
 Using substantive extracts from your own earlier work without acknowledgement;
Less obvious forms of plagiarism

 Improper paraphrasing (paraphrasing means to summarize someone else’s ideas in your

own writing style, sentence structures and, where applicable, own words).
o Improper paraphrasing would then be:
 One only changing around a few words or phrases or the order within
which the original sentences appear or
 Using ideas or facts without citing a source
 Failing to give a proper reference
 Not acknowledging outsourcing of substantive data analysis
 You may have someone else do the descriptive statistics or statistical data analysis for you,
but you need to acknowledge the extent to which it is not your own analysis.

Page | 2
Test your understanding
In the two columns, there are definitions of variaus forms of plagiarism and the type of plagiarims in a
mismatched manner. Match the definition to the type of plagiarism.

Offering to complete another person’s work or seeking payment for completing Self- plagiarism
academic work.

Citing sources, which have not been read without acknowledging the 'secondary' Inappropriate
source from which knowledge of them has been obtained. paraphrasing

Re-using parts of a body of work that has already been submitted for assessment Collusion
without proper citation.

Changing a few words and phrases while mostly retaining the progression of Copying
ideas of the original without acknowledgement.

Using very similar words to the original text without acknowledging the source Inappropriate citation
or using quotation marks.

4.3 How to avoid plagiarism

1. Fully reference and acknowledge the work of others

Definition of Referencing

 It is attributing the work that belongs to someone else and which you are using in your
research work.
 It should be possible for someone else to look up the other person’s work and read it in its
original source.

General rule: Give a reference for any text, diagram, table, illustration or an idea if it comes from:

 book, journal, website, or any other public medium;

 what someone has said in an interview you have conducted;
 someone’s personal correspondence in the form of a letter or email.

2. Use a Reference Style – Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA).
Other examples: Harvard, APA, Turabian, Chicago

Page | 3
 3. Use Citation tools (also called bibliographic management tools or citation managers) such
as Endnote, Mendeley, RefWorks, and Zotero help you organize, manage and format
citations for your research.

4. Use TURNITIN

 Turnitin is an internet-based service that checks the extent of unoriginal content in your
research work.
 It will identify all the parts where you have copied text from elsewhere.
 Where you have acknowledged doing so with direct quotes that is acceptable.
 However, you should not have too many direct quotes since you are required, after all, to
demonstrate your own academic writing and critical thinking skills.

5. Use your own expressions and present your work in your own writing style.

4.4 Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities

4.4.1 What is OSCOLA?

OSCOLA is the standard way of referencing legal material, giving rules and examples for:
 Main UK legal primary sources (cases, statutes etc); &
 Many types of secondary sources (books, journal articles, websites, statements etc).

Although originally devised for use within Oxford University, OSCOLA is now used by law schools
and publishers throughout the world.

4.4.2 Why use OSCOLA?

OSCOLA should help the author achieve consistency and make it easier for the reader. The reader
will find it easier to follow the argument if it is easy to identify and find the author’s sources.

4.4.3 What does OSCOLA look like?

OSCOLA is a ‘footnote style’ - so all citations appear in footnotes. It does not use endnotes or in-
text citations. When citing a source, whether directly, as a quotation, or indirectly, by paraphrasing
or referring to ideas in a source, the reference should be cited in a footnote. Footnotes are
indicated with a superscript number, which should appear after the relevant punctuation in the
text (if any).

OSCOLA is a footnote system which uses a numerical footnote marker in the form of a superscript
number with a footnote at the base of the same page.

Example:

Page | 4
Romeo and Juliet.1
Difference between reference list and bibliography
Reference List
It is the full bibliographic details of the source you have cited.

Bibliography
This includes any sources you have read as part of your research, whether you have cited them
directly or not.A bibliography appears at the end of your work.

Citation in a bibliography:

Fisher E, Risk Regulation and Administrative Constitutionalism (Hart Publishing 2007)

4.5 General tips

 OSCOLA uses very little punctuation.

 There are no full stops after abbreviations (e.g. use EACC instead of E.A.C.C.) or after the
v (for versus) between the party names.
 Case names should be in italics and in lower case (other than titles) including the ‘v’.
 Footnotes should be closed with a full stop.
 Where more than one citation is given in a single footnote reference, separate them with
semi-colons.
 In footnotes, the author’s first name or initial precedes their surname.
 In bibliographies, the surname comes first, then the initial, followed by a comma.
 Titles of books and similar publications are italicized. All other titles should be in single
quotation marks.

Example:

52 Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (6th Edn, Penguin Publishers 1985) 268.

53 J.B. Ojwang and D. R. Salter, ‘Legal Education in Kenya’ (1989) 33 J. Afri. L 89 – 90.

 If you source a publication online which is also available in hard copy, cite the hard copy
version.
 Publications which are only available online should end with the web address in angled
brackets < > followed by the date of the most recent access.

Example:
Page | 5
Access to Legal Information’ (2010) 1(1) EJLT <http://ejlt.org//article/view/17 > accessed 27 July
2017

 Repeat references/citations in OSCOLA

 When referring to the same source twice in a row - use ibid (footnote immediately
above the current one).

Example:

53 J.B. Ojwang and D. R. Salter, ‘Legal Education in Kenya’ (1989) 33 J. Afri. L 89 – 90.
54 Ibid.

 You can have a “chain of ibids” if you refer to the same source in a series of footnotes,
but once that chain is broken (by a reference to a different source) one uses (n X)
 When referring to a source you used earlier (but you have cited different sources in
between), use (n X).

Example:

52 Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (6th Edn, Penguin Publishers 1985) 268.

53 J.B. Ojwang and D. R. Salter, ‘Legal Education in Kenya’ (1989) 33 J. Afri. L 89 – 90.
54 Ibid.

64 Hobbes (n 52) 73.

This topic in essence

 Plagiarism is using someone else’s ideas or words and presenting them as if they are your
own.

 You can avoid plagiarism by:

 Fully acknowledging the work of others;

 Using a reference style such as OSCOLA;
 Using a citation tool like Zotero;
 Using an anti-plagiarism software to detect plagiarism like Turnitin;
 Using your own expressions and present your work in your own writing style

Page | 6
General discussion question
For an open-book exam, a law professor allows students to bring any materials into the room:
commercial outlines, class notes, study guides, case book, etc. If students repeat information from
these sources, without identifying the sources, are they guilty of plagiarism? Give reasons for your
answer.

Recommended reading:
The Oxford Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities (4th Edition, University of Oxford 2010)
[OSCOLA]

The Oxford Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities – Citing International Law Sources Section (3rd
Edition, University of Oxford 2006)

Lisa Webley, Legal Writing (3rd Edition, Taylor and Francis Group 2018) chapter 6

Page | 7