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This resource explains some of the more common applications of law style. It is based on the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (2nd ed, 2002) (AGLC), chapters 1-6.
At Deakin, law style is used in the Faculty of Business and Law. If you are enrolled in law units within this faculty you will need to use law style to cite literature in your assignments
You should always check your unit guide and/or with academic staff (unit chair, lecturer or tutor) to make sure that this is the correct referencing style for your unit.
You must reference all material you use from all sources and acknowledge your sources in the body of your paper each time you use the law, commentary on the law, conclusions, ideas or findings from someone's work.
It is necessary to reference your sources each time you:
If you copy an entire table, chart, diagram or graph or if you take only some of the data contained in such sources, you must provide a reference.
Sources such as journals, books, encyclopedias, computer programs and software, information from the Internet, reports, newspapers, interviews, radio and television must be cited in the body of your paper (as footnotes) and detailed in a reference list at the end (a bibliography).
Law style consists of the following elements:
Part 2 deals with setting out footnotes. It gives examples of a range of common types of sources that you are likely to use in your assignments.
Part 3 deals with how to present a bibliography.
Superscript numbers with corresponding footnotes should be used whenever information or ideas from sources are discussed. Sources such as legislation, cases, books, journals, reports, newspapers, interviews, radio, television and information from the Internet must be acknowledged in text and detailed in footnotes. Information from Deakin readers must also be referenced. (Deakin study guides are not generally considered an authoritative source for legal research.)
Footnotes are also used to provide extra information that is not appropriate to include in the body of the text. Additionally, they are used to back up an argument as well as to acknowledge a source that has contributed to an argument.
The superscript number should be placed at the end of the portion of text to which the corresponding footnote refers. The number should appear after any punctuation.
Writers can discuss ideas and findings from sources by using their own words in summaries and paraphrases. Summarising is condensing a text; paraphrasing is conveying all the information in a short stretch of text.
When summarising or paraphrasing material from a source, a superscript number should be used as follows:If the clause creates an equitable charge, it is unregistered and unenforceable against prior and later created registered floating charges.1
This is how a direct quote would appear:
Note the broad definition of security arrangements by the Australian Law Reform Commission: 'an interest in property which is held by one person to ensure the performance of an obligation by another'.1
If a quote is longer than three lines, omit the quotation marks, start the quote on a new line, in a smaller font size and indent the quote about 1 cm from the left-hand margin of the page. A superscript number is used and a footnote is necessary to indicate the source of the quote.
Hoffmann J concluded that:The public interest requires a balancing of the advantages to the economy of facilitating the borrowing of money against the possibility of injustice to unsecured creditors. These arguments for and against the floating of charges are matters for Parliament rather than the courts and have been the subject of public debate in and out of Parliament for more than a century.1
At the bottom of the page you would have a short line separating the body of the text from the footnotes relating to the superscript numbers. The numbers in the footnotes at the bottom of the page should also be superscripted. (Many word processing programs have an automatic footnoting facility.)
Examples of first citations of common footnote types are shown below.(Footnotes 1-5 are examples of a case, a book, legislation, a journal article and an internet document respectively.) The first time a source is cited, the footnote must provide full bibliographic details. The footnotes for subsequent references to the same source do not repeat all the details but use a shortened form (except for legislation, which should always be cited in full). See the section that follows on repeat citations.
A pinpoint reference in a footnote is one that directs the reader to a particular place in the cited work. A pinpoint reference can be provided for a first citation or a repeat citation of a source. For a source like a case, a book or a journal article, a pinpoint reference, if provided, refers the reader to a particular page or paragraph. For legislation, pinpoint references are to sections, subsections, parts, divisions and the like. A pinpoint reference is provided after the work is identified, that is, after the full bibliographic details for a first citation of a source, and after the shortened form in a repeat citation. (Footnotes 2 and 3 below include a pinpoint reference.)
Note that each footnote should end with a full stop.
When a particular source is cited more than once in a paper, the full bibliographic details should not be provided each time in a footnote. The terms 'ibid' and 'above n' are used to refer to previous citations.
Note that repeat citations of cases may be indicated using 'ibid' but not 'above n', and legislation should always be cited in full.Ibid
If there is a pinpoint reference, that is, a reference to a specific place in the cited text, and the next footnote is to the same work and to the same place in the cited text, use 'ibid'.
If you refer to the same source as in the immediately preceding footnote but to a different page or section, use 'ibid' followed by the pinpoint reference, that is, the different page or section number. See the examples of repeat citations using 'ibid' provided later.
Above n
Use 'above n' to refer to a source that has been cited in a previous footnote other than the immediately preceding one (except cases and legislation). Legislation must be cited in full each time. In repeat citation of cases you can use 'ibid' if it is the only source cited in the immediately preceding footnote.
Examples of repeat citations
| 1 | Victoria Park Racing and Recreation Grounds Co Ltd v Taylor (1937) 58 CLR 479. |
| 2 | Joycey Tooher and Bryan Dwyer, Introduction to Property Law (3rd ed, 1997). |
| 3 | Ibid. |
| 4 | Ibid 52-3. |
| 5 | Victoria Park Racing and Recreation Grounds Co Ltd v Taylor (1937) 58 CLR 479. |
| 6 | Ibid. |
| 7 | Banking Act 1959 (Cth). |
| 8 | Banking Act 1959 (Cth). |
| 9 | Tooher and Dwyer, above n 2, 15. |
| 10 | Ibid 20. |
| 11 | Banking and Financial Services Ombudsman, Bulletin 39 (2003) <http://www.abio.org.au/ABIOWeb/abiowesbsite.nsf> at 4 April 2005. |
| 12 | Ibid. |
| 13 | Banking Act 1959 (Cth) s 5. |
| 14 | Banking and Financial Services Ombudsman, above n 11. |
A source should be cited as an internet document if the published version is not easily accessible and if the bibliographic information for the published version is not available.
When you do cite an internet document, use superscript numbers in the body of your assignment in the same ways shown earlier. In your footnotes, use the following format.
1 David Niven and Tim Cough, The Operation of the Uniform Consumer Credit Code (2004) Consumer Credit Legal Service <http://www.ccls.org.au/pdfs/ucccreview.pdf> at 5 May 2005.
Note that if a work is written by two or three authors, the names of all the authors should be included and the names of the last two authors should be separated by 'and'. For a work with more than three authors the name of the first-listed author should be provided and should be followed by 'et al', meaning 'and others' in Latin.
In these examples, pinpoint references are provided in footnotes 1, 3, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16.
Note that the formats set out here are the standard ones. These formats can vary in specific circumstances. Please refer to AGLC for more detailed explanations of each type of citation.
Book
| No. | First Author and Second Author, Title of Book (edition number other than the first, year) pinpoint reference. |
| 1 | Wickrema Weerasooria, Bank Lending and Securities in Australia (1998) 230. |
| 2 | Alan Tyree, Australian Law of Cheques and Payment Orders (1988). |
| 3 | Edward Sykes and Sally Walker, The Law of Securities (5th ed, 1993) 39. |
| 4 | Edward Tyler, Peter Young and Clyde Croft, Fisher and Lightwood's Law of Mortgage (1995). |
| 5 | Robert Baxt et al, Afterman & Baxt's Cases and Materials on Corporations and Associations (7th ed, 1996). |
Case
| No. | Case Name (year) volume Abbreviation of report series first page of case, pinpoint reference. |
| 6 | Uniting Church in Australia Property Trust (NSW) v Mimer (Ion 145) Pty Ltd (1991) 24 NSWLR 510. |
| 7 | Breen v Williams (1995) 186 CLR 71, 113. |
Chapter or article in an edited book
| No. | First Author and Second Author, 'Title of Chapter' in First Editor and Second Editor (eds), Title of Book (edition number other than the first, year) first page of chapter or article, pinpoint reference. |
| 8 | William Gough, 'Securities over Debts' in Gregory Burton (ed), Directions in Finance Law (1990) 220, 223. |
Group author (book)
| No. | Author, Title of Book (edition number other than the first, year) pinpoint reference. |
| 9 | Mallesons Stephen Jaques, Australian Finance Law (4th ed, 1999) 21. |
Internet document
| No. | First Author and Second Author, Title of Document (year) Website Name if different from author's name pinpoint reference <url> at date of retrieval. |
| 10 | The Office of the Mediation Adviser, Resolving Franchise Disputes (2003) <http://www.mediationadviser.com.au/> at 17 November 2004. |
Journal article
| No. | First Author and Second Author, 'Title of Article' (year) volume(issue if journal does not have continuous pagination through volume) Journal Title first page of journal article, pinpoint reference. |
| 11 | Greg Rooney, 'Mediation and the Rise of Relationship Contracting: A Decade of Change for Lawyers' (2002) 76(10) Law Institute Journal 40. |
| 12 | Sharon Rodrick, 'Forgeries, False Attestations and Impostors: Torrens Systems Mortgages and the Fraud Exception to Indefeasibility' (2002) 7 Deakin Law Review 97, 106. |
Legislation
| No. | Title of Legislation year (Abbreviation of jurisdiction) pinpoint reference. |
| 13 | Transfer of Land Act 1958 (Vic) s 74. |
| 14 | Chattel Securities Act 1987 (Vic) s 7(5). |
Newspaper article (authored)
| No. | First Author and Second Author, 'Title of Article', Newspaper (Place of Publication), full date, pinpoint reference. |
| 15 | Ellen Whinnett, 'Industry Poll Reverses Greens' Survey Forestry Offensive', The Mercury (Hobart), 25 September 2004, 3. |
Newspaper article (no author)
| No. | 'Title of Article', Newspaper (Place of Publication), full date, pinpoint reference. |
| 16 | 'Little Corporate Appeal in Green Bottom Line', Business, The Age (Melbourne), 6 June 2005, 4. |
If you are required to present a bibliography, list all works referred to in the body of your assignment and in footnotes, as well as all works that you consulted in writing your assignment.
Sources should be presented under the following sections where applicable:
Note that in a bibliography an author's family name comes first, followed by a comma and the given name. (This is different from footnotes, where the given name appears first, followed by the family name, and no comma is used.)
In addition, no full stop is used at the end of each entry in a bibliography, whereas each footnote entry should end with a full stop.
As for footnote entries, the name of the publisher and the place of publication should not be included for books listed in a bibliography.
Works should be listed in alphabetical order according to the family name of the first-listed author. Where the author is an institution, the work is listed according to the first word of the name of the institution. Works listed by their title are listed according to the first word of the title.
1. Articles/Books/Reports
Boros, Elizabeth, 'Virtual Shareholder Meetings: Who Decides How Companies Make Decisions' (2004) 28 Melbourne University Law Review 265
Rooney, Greg, 'Mediation and the Rise of Relationship Contracting: A Decade of Change for Lawyers' (2002), 76(10) Law Institute Journal 40
Tooher, Joycey, and Dwyer, Bryan, Introduction to Property Law(3rd ed, 1997)
Weerasooria, Wickrema, Bank Lending and Securities in Australia(1998)
2. Case Law
Breen v Williams (1995) 186 CLR 71
Hospital Products Ltd v United States Surgical Corporation (1984) 156 CLR 41
Uniting Church in Australia Property Trust (NSW) v Mimer (Ion 145) Pty Ltd (1991) 24 NSWLR 510
Victoria Park Racing and Recreation Grounds Co Ltd v Taylor (1937) 58 CLR 479
3. Legislation
Banking Act 1959 (Cth)
Supreme Court Act 1986 (Vic)
4. Treaties
Treaty Establishing the European Economic Community, opened for signature 25 March 1957, 298 UNTS 11, art 85 (1) (entered into force 1 January 1958)
5. Other sources
Banking and Financial Services Ombudsman, Bulletin 39 (2003)<http://www.abio.org.au/ABIOWeb/abiowebsite.nsf> at 4 April 2005
'Little Corporate Appeal in Green Bottom Line', Business, The Age(Melbourne), 6 June 2005, 4
Niven, David and Cough, Tim, The Operation of the Uniform Consumer Credit Code (2004) Consumer Credit Legal Service <http://www.ccls.org.au/pdfs/ucccreview.pdf> at 5 May 2005
Whinnett, Ellen, 'Industry Poll Reverses Greens' Survey Forestry Offensive', The Mercury (Hobart) 25 September 2004, 3
Details of all referencing styles used at Deakin can be accessed at www.deakin.edu.au/referencing and in printed form from the Division of Student Life.
Australian Guide to Legal Citation (2nd ed, 2002)
