AGLC4 Summary

Background

Legal citation of sources not only contributes to the history of ideas but also to the development of legal principles. The Australian Guide to Legal Citation Fourth Edition (‘Guide’’), or AGLC4, is the authoritative legal citation guide within Australia and will be an essential tool for all your law subjects at Macquarie.

The Guide itself is divided into five parts including General Rules, Domestic Sources, Secondary Sources, International Materials and Foreign Domestic Sources. 

You can access and download a PDF version of the AGLC4 by clicking here.

Citing Cases

The rules regarding case citation begin at Chapter 2, page 39. A case citation should be set out as follows:

1. The parties names in italics, separated by a ‘v’. (2.1.1, 2.1.11)

2. The year - if the law report series is organised by volume, the year of the decision is surrounded by parentheses ‘( )’, and if the law report series is organised by year, the year of the volume is surrounded by square brackets ‘[ ]’. (2.2.1)

3. The volume of the law report series that the case appears in (2.2.1)

4. An abbreviation of the law report series (2.2.3)

5. The number of the page which the case starts on in the report (2.2.4)

6. A pinpointed page, preceded with a comma and a space. (2.2.5)

Citing Statutes

The rules regarding the citation of an Act of Parliament begin at Chapter 3, page 67. The citation of a statute should be set out as follows:

1. The Act’s title and the year it was originally passed, both in italics. (3.1.1, 3.1.2)

2. An abbreviated form of the jurisdiction in parentheses ‘( )’, e.g. ‘(NSW)’. (3.1.3)

3. A pinpoint reference represented by an abbreviated designation and a number, separated by a space, e.g. ‘s 2’. (3.1.4)

Citing Articles

The rules regarding the citation of a journal article begin at Chapter 5, page 91.The citation of a journal article should be set out as follows:

1. The author’s name as it appears on the article and a comma. (5.1)

2. The title of the article surrounded by single quotation marks. (5.2)

3. The year - if the journals are organised by volume number, the year of publication should appear in parentheses ‘( )’, and if the journals are organised by year, the year of publication should appear in square brackets ‘[ ]’. (5.3)

4. The issue - for journals organised by volume, the issue should follow the volume number in parentheses, e.g. ‘40(1)’. For journals organised by year, the issue should follow the year, preceded with a space, e.g. ‘[1995] (2)’. (5.4)

5. The full title of the journal in italics, e.g. ‘Public Law’. (5.5)

6. The starting page of the article. (5.6)

7. A pinpointed page, preceded with a comma and a space. (5.7)

Citing Treaties

The rules concerning treaty citation begin at Chapter 8, page 133. A treaty citation should be set out as follows:

1. The treaty title in italics. (8.1)

2. The parties’ names, only to be included if there are three parties or less. (8.2)

3. The date opened for signature or signed, e.g. ‘open for signature 28 July 1951’ or ‘signed 12 January 1996’. (8.3)

4. The treaties series’ volume number, an abbreviation of the treaty series and starting page, e.g. ‘23 UNTS 35’. (8.4)

5. The date of entry into force, e.g. ‘(entered into force 17 January 1922)’ (8.3).

6. A pinpoint reference represented by an abbreviated designation and a number, separated by a space, e.g. ‘art 2’. (8.7)