Legal Citation
Attribute all words, ideas, concepts, cases, legislation, articles, etc. every time they are mentioned in your assignment.
Every item you consult to inform yourself about a topic, and subsequently use in your university essays, assignments, etc., must be referenced or cited.
Your writing should be littered with references!
This shows your degree of research.
If you don't have at least four footnotes per page, you have not properly referenced your sources.
This is different to your bibliography, which will only have the list of sources once
e.g. the Engineers' Case may occur in footnotes 10 times, but will only be listed in the Bibliography once.
AGLC Rule 1.1.1 When to Footnote
Footnotes should be used to:
- provide authority for a proposition
- acknowledge a source relevant to an argument
- provide information that enables the retrieval of relevant sources and quotations that appear in the text
Check the General Rules to see when, where and how to reference using footnotes according to the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (AGLC)
AGLC Rule 1.1.2 The Position of Footnote Numbers
Footnote numbers should appear after the punctuation at the end of a sentence.
However, footnote numbers may appear directly after the relevant text (after any punctuation except em-dashes) if this is necessary for the sake of clarity.
In Text Referencing Using Footnotes
Pinpoint references
Footnotes should include the exact page, paragraph, or section number the quotation has bee copied from.
To source page numbers, open the document as a PDF version.
Reference List
Reference List Headings
Legal materials must be first grouped by type, then arranged alphabetically within each heading
Headings must comply with this formatting:
Every item you consult to inform yourself about a topic, and is used in your university essays, assignments, etc., must be referenced or cited.
The Australian Guide to Legal Citation (AGLC) sets ot the rules for referencing different types of materials.
The Legal Citation Lesson will explain how to cite:
- Legislation
- Cases
- Books
- Encyclopaedia articles
- Journal articles
Other legal research materials are also included in the lesson, so be selective about what you learn for this Unit.
Murdoch's AGLC Referencing Guide clearly sets out the rules and gives citation examples.
Tip
Use the Research Strategy Template to record sources so that they comply with Australian Guide to Legal Citation (AGLC) rules at the time of use.
Include a pinpoint reference for every quote (even if it will be paraphrased in your writing).
Example:
| Source | Quote | Page/Part No. |
|---|---|---|
|
RJ Ellicott, 'The Autochthonous Expedient and the Federal Court' (2008) 82(10) Australian Law Journal 700. URL: <https://www.libproxy.murdoch.edu.au/https://www.westlaw.com.au |
Prior to 1975, partly as a result of s 39(2) and partly as a result of special provisions in Commonwealth statutes, the High Court and the State Supreme Courts in many matters had concurrent jurisdiction. |
p.702 |
Then, when you are writing your assignment, inserting references and compiling a Reference List are just a matter of copying from the Research Strategy Template.
The format of legislation citation is:
Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth)
Note that the year the Act became law is always included in the title of the legislation.
This does not change, no matter how often the original Act has been amended.
The jurisdiction is always designated (within brackets) after the title.
Example citations
1 Australian Constitution
2 Australian Constitution s 51(ii).
3 Dividing Fences Act 1961 (WA)
The format of a case citation for a reported series is:
Parties' names + year + volume (if any) + series abbreviation + starting page number + pinpoint reference.
This citation tells me that, to find this case from 2005, I should select volume 221 of the Commonwealth Law Reports, and turn to page 496, as this is the start page for the case State Revenue v Dick Smith Electronics.
I should turn to page 509 to find the specific sentence/s referenced in the writing.
Brackets
Tip: imagine printed court reports
Square brackets
– the year is the volume number
Amalgamated Society of Engineers v Adelaide Steamship Co Ltd [1920] HCA 54
Round brackets
– the volume is numbered in order of publication, with the year given as secondary or helpful information
Amalgamated Society of Engineers v Adelaide Steamship Co Ltd (1920) 28 CLR 129
Parallel Citations
Court reporting is a business.
Different publishers publish different court reporting series, each with their area of specialty and emphasis.
These are called parallel citations.
Parallel citations are listed in order of authority – most authoritative first.
For consistency in legal writing and court cases, the authorised reporting series is always sourced and quoted.
List of Authorised Reporting Series
Court reporting is similar to how there are versions of news reports of an event on the television news – Seven Network, Nine Network, Network 10, ABC, SBS.
Compare commercial stations’ coverage (sensationalising and emphasis) to ABC and SBS coverage.
Consider the authorised version of a case as impartial and balanced (like ABC or SBS).
Unauthorised reports:
Produced more quickly
Satisfy needs of specialist practitioners
Authorised reports:
Given official approval by judiciary or government
Only one reporting series in each jurisdiction is designated as authorised
Always cite an authorised report rather than an unauthorised report (AGLC rule 2.2.2)
Example of Parallel Citations
Example of Different reporting series
Examples of two versions of the same case reported in different court reporting series
Amalgamated Society of Engineers v Adelaide Steamship Co Ltd (Engineers' case)
Publisher: Westlaw | Publisher: Wilson and MacKinnon
Commonwealth Law Reports | Argus Law Reports
Authorised Reporting Series | Unauthorised Court Reporting Series
All available versions of a case are given as parallel citations in textbooks and databases, as not everyone has access to the authorised version.
This ensures that access can be given to a case, regardless of the version.
As a Murdoch University student, you have access to the authorised version – so no excuse for citing an unauthorised version.
Always source the authorised version of a case.
Amalgamated Society of Engineers v Adelaide Steamship Co Ltd [1920] HCA 54, (1920) 28 CLR 129, 26 ALR 337, R & McG 439
Reference includes only the authorised citation (or the version you have sourced):
Amalgamated Society of Engineers v Adelaide Steamship Co Ltd (1920) 28 CLR 129
Journal Articles
The way an article is cited is determined by use:
- in a footnote (AGLC rule 5.1);
- or in a bibliography (AGLC rule 1.13).
These notes are not exhaustive. Please see AGLC Part 3 (particularly rules 5.1- 5.8) for details of citing journal articles.
Journal Articles from Online Journals
Rule 5.10
Articles sourced online should be cited in the same manner as articles in printed journals.
If the journal does not have a volume number, issue number, or starting page number, use the article number or some other identifier instead of the starting page number.
If the article appears as a PDF, give the page range* as the number of pages contained in the PDF.
* Use an en-dash to indicate a span between two numbers (How to insert an En dash or Em dash in Microsoft Word).
Footnote:
Author(s), + 'article title' + (Year) + volume(issue) number details + journal title + page number +, pinpoint reference.
Bibliography:
Author(s), + 'article title' + (Year) + volume(issue) number details + journal title + page number/range + <URL>
Notes:
As with a book, if there is more than one author of an article, only the first author’s name and surname should be inverted (AGLC rule 1.13).
The URL should be cited after the page number or pinpoint reference, but the date of retrieval should not be included (AGLC rule 4.4).
These notes are not exhaustive. Please see AGLC rule 5.10 for the requirements for citing articles published in electronic journals.
Reference list
- only those sources quoted or paraphrased
Bibliography
- list of all sources consulted during research to become informed on the writing topic – not just those referenced
Reference List/Bibliography Headings
Regardless of whether you have been told to create a reference list or bibliography, the heading for sources at the end of your paper it always titled BIBLIOGRAPHY.
Legal materials must be first grouped by type, then arranged alphabetically within each heading
Headings must comply with this formatting:
If you do not have material to enter below a heading, then omit that heading.
Direct quotes
- copy the words exactly from the source
- quotations of 3 lines or less should be incorporated into the text using single quotation marks
- quotations of 4 lines or more should appear indented from the left margin, in a smaller font size, and without quotation marks
- legislative and treaty extracts, however long, may also appear this way
- quotations should appear exactly as they do in the original source
- MUST be referenced in a footnote, with pinpoint (page or paragraph or section or clause number)
Paraphrase
- retell in your own words
- MUST also be referenced in a footnote
Rule 1.4.1 Subsequent References General Rule
The first citation of a source should appear in full (rule 1.1.1).
When citing a previously cited source, a shortened form of the citation may be provided with a cross-reference in parentheses to the footnote number in which the citation may be found in full.
Example
48 Catharine MacMillan, Mistakes in Contract Law (Hart Publishing, 2010) 9.
...
50 MacMillan (n 48) 41.
Rule 1.4.3 Ibid
Use ibid to refer to a source in the immediately preceding footnote, including any pinpoints, where that source was the only source mentioned, whether or not the source was cited in full.
Ibid should be capitalised if it appears at the start of a footnote.
When using ibid with pinpoint references:
- if the pinpoint is the same as the above footnote, ibid is all that is required
- if the pinpoint differs, use ibid followed by the new pinpoint. There is no punctuation between ibid and the pinpoint.
