Tools

Referencing Guides

 

Australian Guide to Legal Citation

There is no set method for referencing legal information in Australia.

Bond University Law School has set the Australian Guide to Legal Citation as the guide to cite references in assignments and research papers.

For more information see Melbourne University Law Review Association Inc, Australian Guide to Legal Citation (2nd Ed, 2002) at K114.K1 AUS 2002 in the Reference and Reserve Collections in the Law Library. It is also available online at http://mulr.law.unimelb.edu.au/aglc.asp

Case Law

Reported case law

(Melbourne University Law Review Association Inc, Australian Guide to Legal Citation (2nd Ed, 2002) at page 27), the details that must be included, in order are:

  • Case Name – cite only the first plaintiff and defendant
  • Year – [ square ] brackets are used when the volumes are organised by year and are an essential part of the reference. ( Round ) brackets are used when the year is not an essential part of the reference.
  • Volume
  • Report Series – use the abbreviation for the report series.
  • Page
  • Pinpoint – a comma and a space should precede specific page references.

Example:

R v Kenny [1983] 2 VR 470

Trobridge v Hardy (1955) 94 CLR 147, 147

 

Unreported Decisions

(Melbourne University Law Review Association Inc, Australian Guide to Legal Citation (2nd Ed, 2002) at page 37) published in medium neutral format should include:

Name of case [Year] Unique Court Identifier, Judgment Number (Unreported, Judge(s), Date of judgment) [Pinpoint]

Example:

R v Swaffield [1998] HCA 1 (Unreported, Brennan CJ, Toohey, Gaudron, Gummow and Kirby JJ, 20 January 1998) [8]-[9].

 

Older Unreported Decisions

(Melbourne University Law Review Association Inc, Australian Guide to Legal Citation (2nd Ed, 2002) at page 38) should include:

Name of case (Unreported, Courts, Judge(s), Date of Judgment) Transcript page number

Example:

Smith v Jones (Unreported, Supreme Court of Victoria, Nathan J, 18 March 1994) 56.

There is no need to cite the electronic database where the unreported decision is found as unreported decisions are easily retrievable from a variety of electronic databases if enough information is supplied.

 

Legislation

Statutes

(Melbourne University Law Review Association Inc, Australian Guide to Legal Citation (2nd Ed, 2002) at page 39) should include:

  • Title – Acts should be referred to by their short title.
  • Year
  • Jurisdiction – use the abbreviation for the Jurisdiction.
  • Pinpoint – abbreviate the section, paragraph etc of the act.

Example:

Trustee Act 1928 (Vic) s 10.

 

Bills

(Melbourne University Law Review Association Inc, Australian Guide to Legal Citation (2nd Ed, 2002) at page 46) should be as follows:

Example:

Evidence Bill 1994 (Cth).

Note: Bills before parliament are not cited in italics.

 

Australian Constitution

(Melbourne University Law Review Association Inc, Australian Guide to Legal Citation (2nd Ed, 2002) at page 45) should be cited as:

Example:

Australian Constitution s 51(xxix).

 

Books

(Melbourne University Law Review Association Inc, Australian Guide to Legal Citation (2nd Ed, 2002) at page 52) For a footnote the citation should consist of:

  • Author – include the full name (first name first and surname second) followed by a comma. List the full names of up to three (3) authors or editors. In a bibliography, the surname is first.
  • Title – main title should be in italics and written in full.
  • Edition Number and Publication Year – refers to the year the edition was cited.
  • Pinpoint – the reference is preceded by a space.

Example:

Footnote: Brent Fisse, Howard’s Criminal Law (5th ed, 1990) 260.

Bibliography: Fisse, Brent, Howard’s Criminal Law (5th ed, 1990).

 

Journal Articles

Print Journal Articles

(Melbourne University Law Review Association Inc, Australian Guide to Legal Citation (2nd Ed, 2002) at page 47) should include, in the following order:

  • Author – include the full name of the author followed by a comma. List the full name of up to three (3) authors.
  • Title – Place the full title in single quotation marks.
  • Year – If a volume number identifies the journal place the year in ( ) ; if the journal is identified by year, place the year in [ ].
  • Volume
  • Journal – Use italics for the full name of the journal
  • Page – cite the number of the first page of the article followed by a comma.
  • Pinpoint – when the pinpoint reference is in the first page of the article, the page number should be repeated.

Example:

Sir Anthony Mason, ‘A Bill of Rights for Australia?’ (1989) 5 Australian Bar Review 79, 81.

 

World Wide Web

(Melbourne University Law Review Association Inc, Australian Guide to Legal Citation (2nd Ed, 2002) at page 51) should use the following conventions:

Author(s), ‘Title’ (Year) Volume (Issue) Journal Title [pinpoint reference] <Journal Uniform Resource Locator> at Date of Retrieval.

Example:

Ben White, ‘Racial Vilification and the Freedom of Speech’ (1997) 3 National Law Review [4] <http://www.nlr.com.au> at 29 February 2004.

 

For more information please see: Australian Guide to Legal Citation (2nd Ed, 2002) in the Reference and Reserve Collections in the Law Library. Also available online at http://mulr.law.unimelb.edu.au/aglc.asp