Legislation consists of Acts (also called 'statutes') and subordinate (or delegated) legislation.
In Australia's federal system, the power to make legislation is divided between the Commonwealth and the States.
These powers to make legislation are limited in scope by the Constitution of the jurisdiction and the interaction of the common law with the legislation.
Legislation has the paramount position overriding case law.
If the common law is working effectively, a parliament may choose not to enact legislation in that area of law.
A special category called "extrinsic" materials are those documents which can be used in court or legal analysis to help determine the intention of a piece of legislation.
These include Parliamentary debates (Hansard), Bills and Law Reform documents. See AGLC
Rule 7.5.1 for information about citing these materials.
Chapter 3 of the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (4th ed, 2018) provides details on how legislation should be cited.
It is easy to work out what a piece of legislation should be called; it is always stated clearly in section 1 of every Act as the short title.
The short title given in section 1 includes the year the Act was passed, as in this example, the Environmental Protection Act 1986.
The short title does not include the jurisdiction.
When you are writing an essay or other document and the jurisdiction is not obvious, you must add the jurisdictional notation.
In the case of this example, this is a Western Australian Act so it would be cited as:
Environmental Protection Act 1986 (WA).
See AGLC rule 3.1.3, for the correct abbreviations of the jurisdictions.
The essence of citing an Act in a footnote is:
Short title + year + (jurisdiction) + pinpoint reference.
The Environmental Protection Act 1986 (WA) details can be sourced from the Western Australian Legislation website:
The section number is given as the pinpoint reference, rather than a page number.
The same Rules also apply to Federal/Commonwealth legislation.
For example, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) details can be sourced from the Federal Register of Legislation website:
Note:
The Self Paced Lesson is not exhaustive, but is designed to point students to the pertinent sections of the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (4th ed, 2018). AGLC rule 3 details the requirements for citing legislation.
Short Title
The short title of an Act is to be used in all Act citations except in cases where the Act does not contain a short title (rule 3.1.1).
Short tiles can be identified in section one of Commonwealth and Western Australian Acts.
The short title is to be in italics (rules 3.1.1 and 1.8.2)
Year
The year in which the Act was originally passed should appear in italics following the title of the Act (rule 3.1.2).
Generally, a principal Act rather than an amending Act should be cited (rule 3.1.2), but there are some exceptions to this that are detailed in rule 3.8.
Jurisdiction
An abbreviated form of the jurisdiction in which the Act was passed should appear in parentheses (round brackets) following the year.
The jurisdiction should not be italicised (rule 3.1.3).
The following abbreviations should be used for Australian jurisdictions:
| Jurisdiction | Abbreviation |
| 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 |
Capitalisation
It is important that capitalisation is consistent throughout a document, particular when citing an Act of Parliament (rule 1.7).
Words should only be capitalised where they:
- appear at the beginning of a sentence, title or heading; or
- are proper nouns (rule 1.7)
In the titles of all cited materials and in all headings, the first letter of the following should be capitalised:
- the first word in a title or heading (and a subtitle or subheading); and
- all other words in the title except:
- articles (such as 'the', 'a', 'an')
- conjunctions (such as 'and', 'but')
- prepositions (such as 'on', 'with', 'before') (rule 1.7)
Titles of legislation should appear as they do in the statute, subject to what is set out above and in rule 1.7 which sets out some general capitalisation rules for specific words.
Italics
All case names, statute titles, treaty titles and titles of other materials that the AGLC requires to be in italics should be in italics in both the text and footnotes (regardless of whether or not a full citation is included) and in quotes (rule 1.8.2, see also 3.1.1).
Pinpoint Reference
Pinpoint references in an Act usually comprises an abbreviation and a number, separated by a space.
Examples of the abbreviations that may be required include a section or sections (‘s’ and ‘ss’ respectively) a subsection or subsections ('sub-s' and 'sub-ss' respectively) a part or parts (‘pt’ and ‘pts’ respectively) a schedule or schedules (‘sch’ and ‘schs’ respectively) or an appendix or appendices (‘app’ and ‘apps’ respectively).
Where a subsection is added, it should appear in parenthesis after the section number with no space. In the example above, the section number is 122A and the subsection number is 3.
The abbreviation should correspond to the highest ‘level’ cited in the pinpoint reference. In the example above, the highest level of the pinpoint is to a section, therefore the abbreviation being used is ‘s’.
Page number are not usually given as pinpoint references in legislation.
A more extensive discussion of the correct way to cite a pinpoint reference can be found at AGLC rule 3.1.4.
Summary
Therefore when you are citing an act, it should be as follows:
Short title + year + (jurisdiction) + pinpoint reference.
The essence of citing delegated legislation is:
Short title + year + (jurisdiction) + pinpoint reference.
Details for the element required to create a citation can be sourced from the Delegated Legislation (Regulation):
Notes:
The notes listed here are not exhaustive, but are designed to point students to the pertinent sections of the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (4th ed, 2018).
AGLC rule 3 details the requirements for citing legislation.
Delegated legislation should be cited in the same manner as primary legislation
Pinpoint Reference
When completing a pinpoint reference, additional abbreviations to those listed in rule 3.1.4 may need to be used.
These abbreviations include order or orders (‘ord’ or ‘ords’ respectively), regulation or regulations (‘reg’ or ‘regs’ respectively) and rule or rules (‘r’ or ‘rr’ respectively).
See AGLC rule 3.4 for a list of acceptable abbreviations for pinpoint references when citing delegated legislation.
Where a sub-regulation is added, it should appear in parenthesis after the regulation number with no space. In the example above, the regulation number is 41 and the sub-regulation number is 7.
The abbreviation should correspond to the highest ‘level’ cited in the pinpoint reference.
In the example above, the highest level of the pinpoint is to a regulation; therefore the abbreviation being used is ‘reg’.
Page numbers are not usually given in pinpoint references in Delegated Legislation.
Example: Disability Standards for Education 2005 (Cth), s 3.4.
The essence of citing a Bill is:
Short title + year + (jurisdiction) + pinpoint reference.
Bills are cited in the same way as Acts, except the name is not italicised.
Pinpoint references are made to a clause or clauses (AGLC rule 3.2).
These are abbreviated to ‘cl’ and ‘cls’ respectively (AGLC rule 3.1.4).
Bills have clauses.
These are changed to sections in Acts.
Page numbers are not usually given as pinpoint references in Bills.
The essence of citing an explanatory memorandum for a Bill is:
Explanatory Memorandum + citation of Bill + pinpoint.
The Explanatory Memorandum for a Bill is cited the same as the Bill, prefixed with the term 'Explanatory Memorandum' as in the example above (AGLC rule 3.7).
Pinpoint references should be to page, or pages, or paragraphs of the memorandum.
Pinpoint Reference in an Act
Pinpoint references in an Act usually comprise of an abbreviation and a number, separated by a space.
Examples of the abbreviations that may be required include a section or sections (‘s’ and ‘ss’ respectively) a subsection or subsections ('sub-s' and 'sub-ss' respectively) a part or parts (‘pt’ and ‘pts’ respectively) a schedule or schedules (‘sch’ and ‘schs’ respectively) or an appendix or appendices (‘app’ and ‘apps’ respectively).
Where a subsection is added, it should appear in parenthesis after the section number with no space.
In the example above, the section number is 122A and the subsection number is 3.
The abbreviation should correspond to the highest ‘level’ cited in the pinpoint reference.
In the example above, the highest level of the pinpoint is to a section, therefore the abbreviation being used is ‘s’.
A more extensive discussion of the correct way to cite a pinpoint reference can be found at AGLC rule 3.1.4.
The essence of citing an Act is:
Short title + year + (jurisdiction) + pinpoint reference.
Pinpoint Reference in Delegated Legislation
When completing a pinpoint reference, additional abbreviations to those listed in rule 3.1.4 may need to be used.
These abbreviations include order or orders (‘ord’ or ‘ords’ respectively), regulation or regulations (‘reg’ or ‘regs’ respectively) and rule or rules (‘r’ or ‘rr’ respectively).
See AGLC rule 3.4 for a list of acceptable abbreviations for pinpoint references when citing delegated legislation.
Where a sub-regulation is added, it should appear in parenthesis after the regulation number with no space.
In the example above, the regulation number is 41 and the sub-regulation number is 7.
The abbreviation should correspond to the highest ‘level’ cited in the pinpoint reference.
In the example above, the highest level of the pinpoint is to a regulation.
Therefore the abbreviation being used is ‘reg’.
The essence of citing delegated legislation is:
Short title + year + (jurisdiction) + pinpoint reference.
Pinpoint Reference in Bills
Pinpoint references are made to a clause or clauses, abbreviated to ‘cl’ and ‘cls’ respectively (AGLC rule 3.1.4).
Pinpoint Reference in Explanatory Memoranda
Pinpoint references should be to page, or pages, or paragraphs of the memorandum.
Legislation Databases
Legify - A free tool that locates and links to the authoritative version of Australian legislation and delegated legislation.
Western Australian Legislation - Western Australian Legislation Database, includes links to Bills and other parliamentary documents.
<https://www.legislation.wa.gov.au/>
Federal Register of Legislation - Commonwealth Legislation Database, includes legislative material from the non self-governing territories and Bills and other parliamentary documents including Government Gazettes.
<https://www.legislation.gov.au/>
Commonwealth Bills and Legislation Information - Parliament of Australia website, offers searching, browsing, information on proposed legislation and alert services.
<https://www.aph.gov.au/>
Statutes are considered 'media neutral', so do not include database in the citation.
