Subject guides: AGLC Guide: General Rules for Secondary Sources

Author Rules

Authors should appear in accordance with rule 4.1 of the AGLC4, page 83.

The authors' and editor's names should appear as they do on the title page of the source.
Initials in names should not be separated by spaces and no full stops e.g. JRR Tolkien.
Post-nominals (e.g. LLB) and honorific titles (e.g. Hon and Dr) should not be included but peerage titles (e.g. Lord) should be included.

Quick Examples

Referring to a person in your assignment	Referring to a person in your citation
Associate Professor Katy Barnett	Katy Barnett
Dame Nellie Melba	Dame Nellie Melba
Lord Nicholls	Lord Nicholls
Dr Cockburn	John Cockburn
Ms Sharon Rodrick	Sharon Rodrick
Mr Gageler SC	Stephen Gageler
HLA Hart	HLA Hart
Chief Justice Susan Kiefel	Cheif Justice Susan Kiefel

See rule 4.1.2 of the AGLC4, page 84, for a full list of examples.

For 1-3 authors, all authors must be listed out; after three authors, list the first author and use 'et al'.

One Author Footnote Example

RJ Ellicott, 'The Autochthonois Expedient and the Federal Court' (2008) 82(10) Australian Law Journal 700.

Two Authors Footnote Example

James Edelman and Elise Bant, Unjust Enrichment (Hart Publishing, 2^nd ed, 2016).

Three Authors Footnote Example

Jonathan I Charney, Lewis M Alexander and Robert W Smith (eds), International Maritime Boundaries (Martinus Nijhoff, 1993-2002).

More than Three Authors Footnote Examples

Paul Rishworth et al, The New Zealand Bill of Rights (Oxford University Press, 2003).
Helen M Paterson et al, 'iWitnessed: Capturing Contemporaneous Accounts to Enhance Witness Evidence' (2022) 29(3) Current Issues in Criminal Justice 273.

Bibliography Example

Note: All authors should be listed in the bibliography.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Charney, Jonathan I, Lewis M Alexander and Robert W Smith (eds), International Maritime Boundaries (Martinus Nijhoff, 1993-2002)

Edelman, James and Elise Bant, Unjust Enrichment (Hart Publishing, 2^nd ed, 2016).

Ellicott, RJ 'The Autochthonois Expedient and the Federal Court' (2008) 82(10) Australian Law Journal 700

Paterson, Helen M Paterson, Celine van Golde, Chris Devery, Nicolas Cowdery and Richard Kemp 'iWitnessed: Capturing Contemporaneous Accounts to Enhance Witness Evidence' (2022) 29(3) Current Issues in Criminal Justice 273

Rishworth, Paul, Grant Huscroft, Scott Optican and Richard Mahoney Paul Rishworth et al, The New Zealand Bill of Rights (Oxford University Press, 2003)

Editors should appear in accordance with rule 4.1.3 of the AGLC4, page 84.

Footnote Example:

Peter Birks (ed), New Perspectives in the Roman Law of Property: Essays for Barry Nicholas (Clarendon Press, 1989).

See rule 4.1.4 of the AGLC4, page 85.

Format:

Individual/Subdivision, Body

Footnote Examples:

Family Court of Australia, 'Response of the Family Court of Australia to the Attorney-General's Department Paper on Primary Dispute Resolution Services in Family Law' (1997).
Information Management Committee, Department of Justice and Attorney-General (Qld), 'Terms of Reference' (4 March 2015).
Queensland Government, ClimateSmart 2050: Queensland Climate Change Strategy 2007 (2007).

See the full rule and examples in rule 4.1.5 of the AGLC4, page 86.

Context	Examples
Citing a judicial officer writing curially (in text):	Dixon J noted in Essendon Corporation v Criterion Theaters Ltd,¹⁴
Citing a judicial officer writing curially (in a citation):	Essendon Corporation v Criterion Theaters Ltd (1947) 74 CLR 2, 28 (Dixon J).
Citing a judicial officer writing exta-curially (in-text):	Opening the Law Librarians' Symposium Sir Daryl Darwin states: 'The modern law library is something which I could not have envisioned in my student days'.⁴
Citing a judicial officer writing extra-curially (in a citation):	Justice Michael Kirby, 'Transnational Judicial Dialogue, Internationalisation of Law and Australian Judges' 92008) 9(1) Melbourne Journal of International Law 171.
Citing a former judicial officer (in text):	As pointed out by the Hon Mary Gaudron in a recent speech,...
Citing a former judicial officer (in a citation):	Michael Kirby, 'The Dreyfus Affair: Lessons for Today' (Speech, Central Synagogue, 24 May 2009).
Including the territorial designation of a peer:	This was a different approach from that of Lord Nicholls.⁸¹

URLs

See rule 4.4 of the AGLC4, page 90, for a full list of examples.

A URL may be added to a citation to aid its retrieval. The format is: <URL>

Example:

Northern Territory Legal Aid Commission, Annual Report 2020/2021 (Report) <https://www.legalaid.nt.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/NTLAC-Annual-Report-2020-21-Financials-web-version.pdf>.

What if my source don't fit into any of these categories?

When you find a source and want to cite it, the first step is to ask what type of source it is. For example, is it a case, legislation, journal, internet material, or something else?

If you find a source that isn't included in the AGLC4 (see page xi for the full statement), use the principles of clarity and consistency; use the other rules in the AGLC for a guideline.

Other secondary sources

This guide has a range of popular secondary sources, other formats provided in the AGLC4 include:

ABS Material, rule 7.1.5, page 109.
Theses and Dissertations, rule 7.2.5, page 112.
Speeches, rule 7.3, page 113.
Press and media releases, rule 7.4, page 114.
Parliamentary material, rule 7.5, page 115.

Sources Citing Other Sources

Use this rule when you want to show that one source is referred to another source.

See rule 1.3 of the AGLC4, page 8, for a full list of examples.

Introductory Signal	Meaning
quoting	The first-listed source quotes the second source directly.
quoted in	The first-listed source is quoted directly in the second source.
citing	The first-listed source refers to (but does not quote directly) the second source.
cited in	The first-listed source is referred to (but not quoted directly) in the second source.
discussing	The first-listed source discusses the second source.
discussing in	The first-listed source is discussed in the second source.

Example in a footnote:

Sandy Steel, 'One When Fairchild Applies' (2015) 131(July) Law Quarterly Review 363, 364, cited in Caason Investments Pty Ltd v Cao (2015) 236 FCR 322, 357 [184] (Elderman J).