OSCOLA
Finally Made Easy

Designed for law students. Build complex footnotes and create tables and bibliographies, all with Pincite. Stop losing marksStop stressingNo AINo compromises

Footnote

Alison L Young, ‘In Defence of Due Deference’ (2009) 72 MLR 554, 567.

Later footnote

Young (n 12) 567.

Table / bibliography

Young AL, ‘In Defence of Due Deference’ (2009) 72 MLR 554

Reference Like an Expert

Pincite gives you the tools to create expert-grade footnotes for any citation. Reference over 160 citation types and access the advanced referencing techniques with ease. Create multiple source footnotes, use introductory signals, pinpoint different sections from multiple judges. Build perfect bibliographies that are pre-formatted in one click, and much more.If OSCOLA has a rule for it, Pincite can build it.

LAWS5120 Example Essay.docx

III Context and Purpose

The better view is that context controls. In Harrigan v Bellamy, the High Court read the disputed power against the statute as a whole. Mason CJ put the point beyond argument:

An example essay

[T]he grant of power takes its colour from the purpose of the statute … a court falls into error the moment it reads [the words of the grant] in isolation from that purpose.1

A quotation
Quotations follow OSCOLA r 1.5: single quotation marks inline, and quotations longer than three lines set as an indented block.

The commentary has since pressed that method further,2 and it is now mirrored in European data-protection law and the constitutional jurisprudence it answers to.3


1Sevilleja v Marex Financial Ltd [2020] UKSC 31, [2021] AC 39 [3] (Lord Reed).
A simple source
A Supreme Court case with its neutral citation and best report, a paragraph pinpoint and the speaking judge.
2Defamation Act 2013, s 1(1); Lachaux v Independent Print Ltd [2019] UKSC 27, [2020] AC 612 [12]–[17], [20]–[26].
A combined source
Two sources in one footnote for a single proposition. OSCOLA puts the legislation before the case, joins them with a semicolon, and the pinpoint carries two separate paragraph ranges.
3Brent v Haddon (1619) Cro Jac 555, 79 ER 476; Broder v Saillard (1876) 2 Ch D 692 (Ch); Pemberton v Bright [1960] 1 All ER 792 (CA). See also Torette House Pty Ltd v Berkman (1939) 62 CLR 637 (HCA).
A rare, older source
Three cases in chronological order. The first is a pre-1865 case with its English Reports reprint, the next two take bracketed courts because neither has a neutral citation, and an Australian case follows behind the indicator See also.

Every example above was created in Pincite.

Explore Pincite’s Workflow

  • Choose from over 50 citation types, from reported cases to treaties, UN documents and EU legislation. Cite cases from England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, devolved and assimilated legislation, and every secondary source the 5th edition covers — generative AI included. Your footnote, table entry and later references are all created at once.

    Citations
    The Pincite generator's input fields for a reported case — case name, year, report series and starting page filled in, with the Optional, Pinpoint and Advanced sections beneath.
  • Create pinpoints, and attach notes about their relevance to your argument. Paragraph ranges stay unelided, page ranges elide to the OSCOLA rule, and the later-footnote forms carry the (n __) cross-citation for you.

    Pinpoints & notes
    An open Pincite project — a case holding a main note and two page pinpoints with their own notes, and a journal article holding a quotation with its pinpoint and note, each filed under its source.
  • The projects page is the heart of Pincite. Everything you create is saved and organised into a project, and each assignment keeps its own. A source saves once and holds every pinpoint, quotation and note you file under it. Your work stays saved even if your subscription lapses.

    Projects
    The Pincite projects workspace — a rail of assignments beside the open project's saved sources, grouped under Cases, Legislation and Secondary Sources.
  • When you’re ready, generate the full bibliography from the projects tab. Sourcesare grouped the way rr 1.6 and 1.7 ask: a table of cases, a table of legislation with statutory instruments listed separately, and a bibliography with repeat authors collapsed to a double em-dash. Every copycarries real formatting, so the font, the sizes you set and every italic land intact in Word.

    Bibliography
    A Pincite bibliography with bold section headings — A Articles/Books/Reports, B Cases, C Legislation, D Treaties — and every entry alphabetised, flush left, in bibliography form.