The Australian Guide to Legal Citation (AGLC) is a footnote citation style specifically designed to identify legal sources. It does not deal with legal writing style. AGLC is medium neutral, which means it allows for a resource to be cited in a consistent manner, regardless of whether it has been published in print or online, in reported or unreported format.
Proper citation in both academic and legal contexts serves to correctly and appropriately acknowledge relevant sources and authorities. Any time an idea or content from a source is used, it should be acknowledged in a footnote with appropriate locators (pinpoint references), and often also with a bibliography entry.
The main components of AGLC are:
How to use AGLC effectively:
First footnote
Subsequent footnotes
Creating footnotes
Microsoft Word provides inbuilt functions to allow for easy tracking and building of footnote numbers. See this AskUs FAQ to learn how to use these functions.
A bibliography must list all sources that were used, not only those referred to in the text and footnotes. Sources should be listed alphabetically under each heading. Full stops should not follow the citation. AGLC recommends dividing your bibliography into the following:
A Articles/Books/Reports: Where there is one author, the author's first name and surname should be inverted and separated by a comma. When there are two or more authors, only the first author's name and surname should be inverted.
B Cases: Use only surnames, only cite the first plaintiff and defendant. Do not use '& Anor' or '& Ors.' Do not include punctuation in abbreviations. A reported version of a case should always be cited in preference to an unreported version. Authorised report series should be used when available. Generalist (unauthorised) report series should be cited in preference to subject specific (unauthorised) report series.
C Legislation Cite the short title of the Act including the year in which the Act was originally passed in italics: Citations of an Act refer to that Act as amended (and consolidated). Do not italicise the title and year of a bill.
D Treaties A citation of a treaty should include the treaty title in italics as it appears on the first page of the treaty. For multilateral treaties with more than three signatories, the names of states parties should not be included after the title.
E Other See the complete guide for material covered by this division, which includes Law Reform Commission Reports, Legal Encyclopedias, Looseleaf services, Government documents, such as Parliamentary Debates and Theses. It also covers Internet Materials.
In-text quotations are covered in rule 1.5.1
Long quotations (four lines or more) should be indented from left margin, in a smaller font size, and without quotation marks, unless there is a quote within your long quote. See rule 1.5.1.
The University Library provides students with free access to EndNote and RefWorks software. Both have the same purpose: to make the management and formatting of references more streamlined. It is worth looking at both tools to determine which one could be right for you, depending on how you like to work. The Library recommends that undergraduate and coursework students use RefWorks, and higher degree by research students and academic staff use EndNote.
Read more about the difference between EndNote and RefWorks.
Australian Guide to Legal CitationCertain errors have been identified in the fourth edition of AGLC4. Click on Australian Guide Legal Citation Erratum, to view authoritative changes. These corrections are accurate as of 29 December 2018
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