Australian Guide to Legal Citation 4th Edition (AGLC4)

• Party names are italicised

• Where parties are individuals, given names and initials are omitted

• Where a party is a business corporation or firm, abbreviations such as Co (company), Ltd (Limited), and Pty (proprietary) are used

• Where the Crown is the first named party, Rex (the ‘King’) or Regina (the ‘Queen’) is abbreviated to ‘R’

• Where the Crown is the respondent ‘The King’ or ‘The Queen’ is written in full

• Law report series are abbreviated

• The first page of the case should appear after the series details

• A full stop is used at the end of a footnote

• A full stop is not used in a bibliography
   

Examples
 

Individual party names

Smith v Smith (1948) 2 ALR 475
 

Company party names

Village Films Pty Ltd v iiNet Ltd (2012) 286 ALR 466
 

The Crown as first party

R v Milat (2005) 157 A Crim R 565
 

The Crown as respondent

Smith v The Queen [2010] NSWCCA 325
 

Entry in footnote

Walton v Gardiner (1993) 112 ALR 289.
 

Entry in bibliography

Walton v Gardiner (1993) 112 ALR 289
 

Law report abbreviations:

• Legal abbreviations can be accessed via the Cardiff University database or the Monash University website.  
  
   

In text references:

• An ‘in text’ reference usually cites the case, text or reference in the body of an essay or report

• A footnote should immediately follow the portion of text which it is relevant to

• It should also follow directly after any relevant punctuation (i.e. a full stop or comma)

• A full stop should appear at the end of all footnotes citing case law
   

Example

“Recent developments in Australian law following the decision of the High Court in IceTV Pty Ltd v Network Nine Australia Pty Ltd (IceTV)¹  illustrate a fundamental shift in the approach of courts regarding the importance and form of authorship.”
 

Pinpoint references:

• A pinpoint reference is a reference to a specific page, paragraph or other section of a decision

• A pinpoint reference to a page should appear as a number — do not use ‘p’ or ‘pg’

• A pinpoint reference to a paragraph should appear as a number in square brackets
   

Example of pinpoint reference to a page

Universal Music Australia Pty Ltd and Others v Sharman License Holdings Ltd and Others (2005) 220 ALR 1, 3.

Example of a pinpoint reference to a paragraph

Roadshow Films Pty Ltd v iiNet Ltd, (2012) 286 ALR 466, 488 [95]

• Unreported decisions utilise a ‘medium neutral citation’ that does not depend on a publisher or medium

• The party names are listed first and italicised

• The year is enclosed in square brackets “[ ]”

• Court identifiers are abbreviated. For example, FCA is used for Federal Court of Australia and HCA for the High Court of Australia

• Judgment numbers are commonly used, these are applied by the relevant court

• Unreported decisions with a medium neutral citation do not require the full date

• A full stop is used at the end of a footnote

• A full stop is not used in a bibliography
   

Examples

Individual party names

Stanford v Stanford [2012] HCA 52
 

Company party names

Trusted Cloud Pty Ltd v Core Desktop Pty Ltd [2015] FCA 33
 

The Crown as the first party

R v Coulter [2014] VSC 42
 

The Crown as respondent

Picone v The Queen [2015] VSCA 5
 

Entry in footnote

R v Giles [2014] VSC 210.
 

Entry in bibliography

Tauaifaga v TCN Channel Nine Pty Ltd [2013] NSWSC 8
 

In text references:

• An ‘in text’ reference usually cites the case, text or reference in the body of an essay or report

• A footnote should immediately follow the portion of text which it is relevant to

• It should also follow directly after any relevant punctuation (i.e. a full stop or comma)

• A full stop should appear at the end of all footnotes citing case law
   

Example

“Recent developments in Australian law following the decision of the High Court in IceTV Pty Ltd v Network Nine Australia Pty Ltd (IceTV)¹ illustrate a fundamental shift in the approach of courts regarding the importance and form of authorship.”
 

Pinpoint references:

• A pinpoint reference is a reference to a specific page, paragraph or other section of a decision

• A pinpoint reference to a page should appear as a number — do not use ‘p’ or ‘pg’

• A pinpoint reference to a paragraph should appear as a number in square brackets
   

Example of pinpoint reference to a page

Universal Music Australia Pty Ltd and Others v Sharman License Holdings Ltd and Others (2005) 220 ALR 1, 3.
 

Example of a pinpoint reference to a paragraph

Roadshow Films Pty Ltd v iiNet Ltd, (2012) 286 ALR 466, 488 [95]

• Both the title of the act and the year in which the act was passed appear in italics

• The jurisdiction is abbreviated and within parentheses ‘( )’

• Regulations, rules and orders should be cited in the same manner as primary legislation: title; year; jurisdiction (in parentheses)

• Both the title of the act and the year in which the regulation was passed appear in italics
   

Pinpoint references

• A pinpoint reference is a reference to a specific page, paragraph or other section of an act, or regulation

• Pinpoint references should appear as abbreviations and a number separated by a space

• Where referencing a section, separate the relevant reference with a space with an ‘s’ but do not use a full stop
   

Example

Climate Change Act 2010 (Vic) pt 3 div 2 s 16
 

Abbreviations for Australian jurisdictions:

• Commonwealth — Cth

• Australian Capital Territory — ACT

• New South Wales — NSW

• Northern Territory — NT

• Queensland — QLD

• South Australia — SA

• Tasmania — Tas

• Victoria — Vic

• Western Australia — WA

• The name of the author should appear exactly as it does in the source

• If the publication is authored by a body (government department, corporation etc.) use that as the author

• The title of the book should appear in italics as it does on the title page

• A brief version of the publisher’s name should appear in parentheses followed by publication year

• Where there are multiple editions of a book an edition number should be included after the publisher’s name (i.e. 3rd)
   

Entry in bibliography

When the citation appears in a bibliography, list the surname first. Sources should be listed in alphabetical order by surname.

Rimmer, Mathew, Intellectual Property and Biotechnology: Biological Inventions (Edward Elgar, 2008)
 

Use of edition number

Colin Bodkin, Patent Law in Australia (Thomson Reuters, 2nd ed, 2014)
 

Corporate author

Australian Law Reform Commission, Family Violence: a Legal Response: Summary Report (Australian Law Reform Commission, 2010)
 

Notes for ebooks:

• Many books appear in both printed and online versions

• If this is the case, then use the same conventions for citing a printed text

• Use these conventions even if you sourced the book online

• Where there are two or three authors, the names of all authors should be included and the word ‘and’ separate the names of the last two authors

• If there are more than three authors, list the first named author followed by ‘et al’
   

Example of an edited book

Belinda Bennett (ed), Globalization and Health (Springer, 2008)

Example of three authors

Damien J Cremean, Michael H Whitten and Michael F Sharkey, Brooking on building contracts : the law and practice relating to building and engineering agreements (LexisNexis Butterworths, 5th ed, 2014)

Example of four or more authors

Patrick Thomas George et al, Social Media and the Law (LexisNexis Butterworths, 2010)
 

Notes for ebooks:

• Many books appear in both printed and online versions

• If this is the case, then use the same conventions for citing a printed text

• Use these conventions even if you sourced the book online

• When citing chapters in a book list the author and enclose the title of the chapter in single inverted commas — do not italicise the title

• Details of the book follow the same conventions for books with a single or multiple authors
   

Entry in bibliography

When the citation appears in a bibliography, list the surname first. Sources should be listed in alphabetical order by surname.

Picard, Robert G, 'Economic approaches to media policy' in Robin Mansell and Mark Roby (eds), The Handbook of Global Media and Communication Policy, (Blackwell Publishing, 2011)
 

Notes for ebooks:

• Many books appear in both printed and online versions

• If this is the case, then use the same conventions for citing a printed text

• Use these conventions even if you sourced the book online

• The name of the author appears first
• The title appears within single quotation marks (un-italicised)
• The year appears in parentheses
• For journals organised by number, the volume number should follow the year
• The full title of the journal as appears on the title page should appear in italics
• Do not use abbreviations for titles (use ‘Australian Law Review’ not ALR)
   

Entry in bibliography 

When the citation appears in a bibliography, list the surname first. Sources should be listed in alphabetical order by surname.

Meagher, Dan, ‘Digital Sampling/Remix Culture Forum’ (2012) 17(2) Deakin Law Review, 307

• When citing the names of the authors should, they should appear as they exactly do in the source material
• If there are more than three authors, list the first named author followed by ‘et al’
• The title appears within single quotation marks (un-italicised)
• The full title of the journal should appear as it does on the title page in italics
   

Example of three authors

Benjamin Hayward, John Morss and Oscar Roos, ‘Beyond the Separation of Powers: Judicial Review and the Regulatory Proscription of Terrorist Organisations’ (2010) 35(1) University of Western Australia Law Review, 81 

Example of four or more authors

Gary Edmond et al, ‘Law’s Looking Glass: Expert Identification Evidence Derived from Photographic and Video Images’ (2009) 20 Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 337 

• The title of the article is not italicised, and placed within single quotation marks
• The title of the newspaper is italicised
• The place of publication is in parentheses
• The full date is noted
   

Entry in bibliography 

When the citation appears in a bibliography, list the surname first. Sources should be listed in alphabetical order by surname.

Tingle, Laura, ‘Norway fund ponders dumping coal’, The Australian Financial Review, (Sydney), 24 February 2015, 8

• A source should only be cited like this if it does not exist in published form
• The authors name should be included if available on the web page or document
• The title of the page or document cited should be included in italics after the author’s name
• Where available, the full date of the last update of the page or document should be included
• The name of the general website where the document resides should be included if available
• The web address (URL) should be within ‘< >’ symbols
   

Example with full date

Australian Academy of Science, Academy warns of climate risk to Australia (13 February 2015) <https://www.science.org.au/news/academy-warns-climate-risks-australia> 

Example of source within a general website

Board of Examiners, Admission Requirements (18 February 2010) Council of Legal Information <http://www.lawadmissions.vic.gov.au>

• The same convention applies for both film and sound recordings
  
• List the title first in italics
• Enclose the name of the director, production company and year of the recording in parentheses ‘( )’
• Pinpoint references should be at the point of time of the recording, and appear in the following format — hours:minutes seconds
   

Example of a pinpoint reference 

A Few Good Men (Directed by Rob Reiner, Castle Rock Entertainment, 1992) 1:15:25

• List the name of the broadcaster first
• Enclose the title of the segment in single quotation marks
• Italicise the name of the program
• List the full date of the program
• The name of the speaker should be included unless it is otherwise apparent and is in parentheses
• A URL may be included after the speaker’s name where the transcript is available online
• The web address (URL) should be enclosed within ‘< >’ symbols
   

Example with a URL 

ABC Radio National, ‘Using evidence obtained in search warrants’, The Law Report, 3 February 2015, (Damian Carrick) <http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/lawreport/surfers-paradise/6028122#transcript>