What is OSCOLA Ireland?
OSCOLA Ireland is adapted from OSCOLA, and is a comprehensive system of citation for use in Ireland. It is designed to facilitate students, academics and professionals in their accurate citation of legal materials. It is edited by a group of Irish academics, in consultation with both the OSCOLA Ireland Editorial Advisory Board, and the OSCOLA Editorial Advisory Board.
What is OSCOLA?
The Oxford University Standard for Citation Of Legal Authorities is designed to facilitate accurate citation of authorities, legislation, and other legal materials. It is widely used in law schools and by journal and book publishers in the UK and beyond. OSCOLA is edited by the Oxford Law Faculty, in consultation with the OSCOLA Editorial Advisory Board.
Can I use OSCOLA Ireland in my classroom?
OSCOLA Ireland has been created under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License. This means that it can be freely distributed, and used in classrooms by teachers or lecturers. If you adapt it for your own purposes, please let us know.
Can I use OSCOLA Ireland in my essay?
If your lecturer does not specify the system of citation that you should use, then you can use OSCOLA Ireland in your essay. If your lecturer specifies that you use OSCOLA, then you can use OSCOLA Ireland also. If you are unsure about what system of citation is appropriate, you should always check this with your module coordinator.
Can I use OSCOLA Ireland with reference packages, such as Endnote?
OSCOLA can be used with Endnote, Refworks, BibLaTeX and other tools. For further information on this, see the main OSCOLA webpage and the Juris-M project.
Have any of the publishing houses accepted OSCOLA Ireland as their standard of citation?
Each publishing house in Ireland, and sometimes each journal, have their own system of citation, so you should check the house style of the publishing house or the journal before submitting an article or book to them.
Where can I learn more about legal citation in Ireland?
The authors of this website have also written a book, “How to Think, Write and Cite: Key Skills for Irish Law Students” published by Round Hall in September 2011. Further information is available in T O’Malley, Sources of Law: An Introduction to Legal Research and Writing (2nd edn, Round Hall 2001).
I have a question which is not answered on this page?
Please contact us if you have any further questions regarding OSCOLA Ireland.