OSCOLA citation generator
Paste a case, statute, EU regulation, journal article, book or URL. It searches the official sources and returns a correct OSCOLA 5th edition footnote and bibliography entry.
ℹIt looks up the authoritative source (EUR-Lex, legislation.gov.uk, BAILII, HUDOC) before formatting, so common names like “GDPR” or “EU AI Act” resolve to the real citation.How does this work?
Type anything from a full neutral citation to just a common name or a URL. For EU or UK law it searches the official register; for cases it checks the neutral citation and law reports.
The output is generated by AI following the OSCOLA 5th edition rules. It is a strong first draft, not a substitute for your own check — always verify pinpoints, dates and report references against the source before you rely on them.
Frequently asked questions
What this tool does, when to use it, and where its limits are.
What is OSCOLA?+
OSCOLA (the Oxford University Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities) is the footnote referencing style used by most UK law schools and legal journals. It sets out how to cite cases, legislation, EU material, books, journal articles and online sources. This tool follows the 5th edition (2026), the current version.
Why use this tool?+
OSCOLA has a lot of small rules (italics, brackets, pinpoints, order of elements) that are easy to get wrong by hand. Paste a source and it looks up the authoritative record (EUR-Lex, legislation.gov.uk, BAILII, HUDOC) and returns a formatted footnote and bibliography entry, so you spend less time on punctuation and more on your argument.
When should I use it, and when not?+
Use it as a fast first draft for individual citations while researching or writing: cases, statutes, SIs, EU legislation, journal articles, books and web pages.
It is less suited to bulk-formatting a whole bibliography at once, to citation styles other than OSCOLA, or to very obscure or unpublished sources it cannot find online. It also does not manage your footnotes inside a document, that stays in your word processor.
Is the output always correct?+
No. The citation is generated by AI following the OSCOLA rules and is a strong first draft, not a guarantee. Always verify pinpoints, dates, party names and report references against the original source before you rely on them, especially for anything you submit or publish.
Are there rate limits?+
Yes. This is a free community tool on a shared key, so usage is capped at roughly 15 citations every 10 minutes per person, with an overall daily ceiling. If you hit a limit, wait a few minutes and try again.
Do you store what I paste?+
Your input is sent to the AI model to generate the citation and is not saved to a user account or profile. Even so, avoid pasting confidential or privileged material, cite from the public source record instead.
Who built this?+
It was built in a one-hour session by law students at the University of Groningen (Aleksandra Sachajko, Sophia Franneck and Wassim B’tina) and hosted by Mino, a community of legal professionals building practical AI tools.
OSCOLA 5th edition (Hart Publishing, 2026)