Law Guide: Referencing

The Australian Guide to Legal Citation refers to the Macquarie Dictionary as its official dictionary.

The University of Queensland has developed an EndNote Output style for the Australian Guide to Legal Citation.

There are two styles: one that is footnotes only for writing journal articles, and one that includes footnotes and bibliography for writing longer works such as a thesis or book. The guide available with the style is essential to understand how to make the output style work correctly. 

Many courts have introduced medium neutral citations. This is so that unreported judgments made available online can be cited in the same way as paper copies. This avoids confusion if page numbering differs over publication formats. The components of a medium neutral citation are :

• names of the parties
• the year of the judgment
• abbreviation for the court name
• number (assigned consecutively by order of issue)
• status (unreported)
• judges
• date of judgment

For example:

Australian Broadcasting Corporation v Lenah Game Meats Pty Ltd [2001] HCA 63 (Unreported, Gleeson CJ, Gaudron, Gummow, Kirby, Hayne and Callinan JJ, 15 November 2001).

Note that the number following the court abbreviation is not a page number - it indicates that this is the 63rd High Court judgment for 2001

Examples of Court Abbreviations include:

• HCA High Court of Australia
• FCA Federal Court of Australia
• QSC Supreme Court of Queensland
• QSCA Supreme Court of Queensland Court of Appeal

To refer to a particular section of an unreported judgment, use the paragraph number. These numbers are listed at the side of unreported judgments and ensure that the case is cited consistently no matter where the judgment has been sourced. Paragraph numbers are cited in square brackets.

Citations to unreported judgments which are not available electronically, or where the court has not adopted medium neutral citation, include the following elements:

• names of the parties (with a v in between)
• status of the judgment (unreported)
• court in which the case was heard
• Judge/s who heard the case
• judgment number
• date of judgment

For example: Zaika v Zaika (Unreported, Supreme Court of New South Wales, Holland, J, No132/76, 5 February 1979).