Law

Pages 28-32 of OSCOLA international law supplement

• International Court of Justice (ICJ):

  • United Nations Documentation Research Guides

  • Permanent Court of International Justice (PCIJ) preceded the ICJ

  • Cite the ICJ Report if available; otherwise cite to the website

    • ICJ decisions are compiled in the series Reports of Judgments, Advisory Opinions and Orders

  • Contentious cases, advisory opinions, & other documents are available on ICJ website

  • Remember to give dates of access for websites

  • Cite case names as they appear in the ICJ Reports, in italics.

  • Examples:

    • Corfu Channel Case (UK v Albania) (Merits) [1949] ICJ Rep 

    • Application of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Bosnia and Herzegovina v Serbia and Montenegro) (Pending) ICJ Press release 2004/37 <http://www.icj-cij.org/icjwww/idocket.htm> accessed 27 July 2025.

• International law reports:

  • International Law Reports (ILR), International Legal Materials (ILM, 1962-), International and Comparative Law Quarterly (ICLQ, 1952-), Reports of International Arbitral Awards (RIAA, or Recueil des Sentences Arbitrales

    • International Law Reports (ILR) is a key publication reporting on decisions from international courts and tribunals, arbitration and municipal decisions.

  • Sometimes international legal cases are only published in certain law reports or journals. For example, judgements from the Nuremburg Tribunal are published in the American Journal of International Law.

• International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda (ICTR):

  • Citation format: Case name (Decision type) ICTY-year#-case# (date). Alternatively, it is acceptable to cite from

  • Example: Tadic Case (Judgment) ICTY-94-1 (26 January 2000)

  • Or, acceptable to cite from International Legal Materials or International Human Rights Reports:

    • Example: Prosecutor v Tadic (Judgment in Sentencing Appeals) (2000) 39 ILM 635 

• The OSCOLA international supplement contains further guidance on citing judgments from the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS), World Trade Organization (WTO.GATT) decisions, International Labour Organization (ILO) recommendations, Permanent Court of Arbitration.
   

Treaties (aka convention, agreement, protocol, covenant, charter, accord)

Pages 25-28 of OSCOLA international law supplement.

International treaties

Footnote format:

Title of treaty (date adopted, date entered into force) Volume Abbreviation of treaty series Page number or article.
Footnote example:

Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees (adopted 31 January 1967, entered into force 4 October 1967) 606 UNTS 267 (Protocol) art 2.
 

Tips:

• If the treaty is a bilateral treaty, include the names of the states/parties, using an en-dash, in parentheses after the title of the treaty.
  • Footnote example: Rehabilitation and Development Co-Operation Agreement (Australia–Nauru) (5 May 1994) ATS 1994 15, art 12.
• It's unnecessary to list the parts to a multilateral treaty.
• You can give an informal/shortened title in parentheses before pinpoint. Include this in your list of abbreviations (standard abbreviations in OSCOLA appendix).
  • But include both the formal and informal/shortened names of the treaty (if the latter exist) in the first reference to a treaty. 
  • Example: Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (adopted 28 July 1951, entered into force 22 April 1954) 189 UNTS 137 (Refugee Convention) art 33.
• Abbreviate article to art in text and footnotes; give only article number, not article title.

League of Nations treaties

• Sometimes the date the treaty entered into force is not available, so just show the date the treaty was signed or adopted:
  • Example: Provisional Arrangement Concerning the Status of Refugees Coming from Germany (signed 4 July 1936) 3952 LNTS 77.

Regional treaties

• European treaties:
  • Cite protocols to treaties by their names, preceded by the name of the treaties to which they are appended. 
  • Dates are generally not given when citing European treaties, as they may have been amended several times. 
  • Include the year if it appears in the standard title of the treaty or if it improves clarity.
  • Example: Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (European Convention on Human Rights, as amended) (ECHR) art 3 
• Other regional treaties:
  • Follow the same pattern as for UN treaties
  • Some regions or countries may have their own specific treaty series
  • Example: African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (adopted 27 June 1981, entered into force 21 October 1986) (1982) 21 ILM 58 (African Charter).

United Nations (UN) sources 

General guidelines, from pp.32-36 of the OSCOLA Citing International Law Sources supplement:

• After the first mention, abbreviate ‘United Nations’ to ‘UN’; ‘UN Security Council’ to ‘UNSC’; ‘UN General Assembly’ to ‘UNGA’; and ‘Resolution’ to ‘Res’.
• Cite the full names of lesser known, or more specialised, UN organs or bodies, rather than their abbreviations.
• Generally speaking, cite UN documents in the following order: author, ‘title’ (date) document number.
  • Example: Report of the Secretary-General, ‘Rape and Abuse of Women in the Areas of Armed Conflict in the Former Yugoslavia’ (1995) UN Doc A/50/329. 
• Italicise the title of an UN document only if it has been published as a book (i.e., it has an ISBN), in which case the UN Doc number is not necessary.

Finding and referencing UN documents

The United Nations have a guide to finding UN documents online.

The Geneva Graduate Institute has a guide for this topic too.

UN Convention (aka treaty, agreement, protocol, covenant, charter, accord)

• Footnote Format:

Title of convention (adopted date, entered into force date if available) Volume number of United Treaty Series convention is published in UNTS page convention starts on, article pinpoint.

• Footnote Example:

Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (adopted 28 July 1951, entered into force 22 April 1954) 189 UNTS 137 (Refugee Convention), art 33.

• Bibliography Format:

Title of convention (adopted date, entered into force date if available) Volume number of United Treaty Series convention is published in UNTS page convention starts on

• Bibliography Example:

Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (adopted 28 July 1951, entered into force 22 April 1954) 189 UNTS 137 (Refugee Convention)

UN Declaration

• Footnote Format:

Declaration name (adopted date) Abbreviation Resolution number, article pinpoint.

• Footnote Example:

Universal Declaration on Human Rights (adopted 10 December 1948) UNGA Res 217 A(III), art 5.

• Table of International Treaties and Conventions (Bibliography) Format:

Declaration name (adopted date) Abbreviation Resolution number

• Table of International Treaties and Conventions (Bibliography) Example:

Universal Declaration on Human Rights (adopted 10 December 1948) UNGA Res 217 A(III) 

UN General Assembly Resolution

• Footnote Format:

UNGA Resolution number (date published), part of article pinpoint.

• Footnote Example 1:

UNGA Res 1234(XIX) (21 September 1988), art 2.

• Bibliography Format:

UNGA Resolution number (date published)

• Bibliography Example 1:

UNGA Res 1234(XIX) (21 September 1988)

Dealing with UN documents that are complex to cite:

Sometimes a UN document does not have its own UN document number, and the guidance on p.33 of the OSCOLA Citing International Law Sources is vague.

Detailed example:

The following UN document can be cited as both a standalone UNGA resolution or by the human rights compilation it is published within: Principles on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, published in Human rights: a compilation of international instruments.

Option 1:

Cite the UN resolution, adapting the examples on p.33 of the OSCOLA Citing International Law Sources supplement:

'Principles on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment’ (4 December 2000), UN Doc A/RES/55/89, Annex.

This follows the example of the 'Declaration on the granting on independence' (p.33 of the OSCOLA international supplement) as it starts with the title, rather than giving an author. Therefore, in the bibliography you would place this reference before the works with authors. Or you could put UNGA as the author in both footnotes and bibliography.

Option 2:

Cite the UN resolution like a book because it has been published within Human rights (identifiable as a book because it has an ISBN). The UN document number is not necessary when you are citing a source with an ISBN:

UNGA, ‘Principles on the Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment’ (4 December 2000) in Human rights: a compilation of international instruments (UN, 2002) 342. 

Pinpointing: if, for example, you are pinpointing paragraph 2 of the ‘Principles’ in a subsequent citation (see Subsequent Citations and Cross-references page), do it like this:

‘Principles’ (nx) [2].