Books and book chapters
You may need to consult more than one section to accurately represent the source used (eg. number of authors and source descriptions)
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One author
Format for footnotes
Elements, punctuation & capitalisation
Example
Michelle Foster, International Refugee Law and Socio-Economic Rights: Refuge from Deprivation (Cambridge University Press, 2007).
Format for bibliography
Elements, punctuation & capitalisation
Author, Title of Book (Publisher, Year) Example
Foster, Michelle, International Refugee Law and Socio-Economic Rights: Refuge from Deprivation (Cambridge University Press, 2007)
Style notes for this reference type
- Book titles are Italicised.
- Capitalisation – capitalise all words of the title, except articles (the, a, an), conjunctions (and, but) and prepositions (on, with, before).
- Edition numbers are placed after the publisher name and before the year (within the brackets).
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Two or three authors
Format for footnotes
Elements, punctuation & capitalisation
Example
Sarah Joseph, Jenny Schultz and Melissa Castan, The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: Cases, Materials, and Commentary (Oxford University Press, 2nd ed, 2004).
Format for bibliography
Elements, punctuation & capitalisation
Example
Joseph, Sarah, Jenny Schultz and Melissa Castan, The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: Cases, Materials, and Commentary (Oxford University Press, 2nd ed, 2004)
Style notes for this reference type
- Book titles are Italicised.
- Capitalisation – capitalise all words of the title, except articles (the, a, an), conjunctions (and, but) and prepositions (on, with, before).
- Edition numbers are placed after the publisher name and before the year (within the brackets).
- Where there are two or three authors, the names of all authors should be included and the word 'and' should separate the names of the last two authors.
- For references in a bibliography, the first author listed in the reference is surname, firstname order. The second (and third if applicable) author names are cited in firstname, surname order.
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More than three authors
Format for footnotes
Elements, punctuation & capitalisation
Author et al, Title of Book (Publisher, Year).
Example
Paul Rishworth et al, The New Zealand Bill of Rights (Oxford University Press, 2003).
Format for bibliography
Elements, punctuation & capitalisation
Author et al, Title of Book (Publisher, Edition ed, Year)
Example
Rishworth, Paul et al, The New Zealand Bill of Rights (Oxford University Press, 2003)
Style notes for this reference type
- Book titles are Italicised.
- Capitalisation – capitalise all words of the title, except articles (the, a, an), conjunctions (and, but) and prepositions (on, with, before).
- Edition numbers are placed after the publisher details, within the brackets, before the year.
- The name of the author appearing first on the source is included followed by 'et al'.
Before selecting a referencing style check with your tutor, lecturer or supervisor for the style preferred by the School or Department.
Introduction to the style
The following style notes provide a brief introduction to the Australian Guide to Legal Citation, 4th Edition (AGLC 4). AGLC is commonly used as the legal citation standard in Australia.
AGLC 4 is a footnote referencing system.
AGLC 4 is divided into five parts:
- Part 1: General rules (covering topics such as how to deal with subsequent references (rule 1.4) quotations (rule 1.5), and punctuation (rule 1.6)
- Part 2: Domestic sources (cases in chapter 2, legislation in chapter 3)
- Part 3: Secondary sources (such as general rules for citing secondary sources in chapter 4 and discussed below, journal articles in chapter 5, books in chapter 6, and more).
- Part 4: International materials
- Part 5: Foreign domestic materials (citing the laws of selected countries other than Australia)
Access to the full style manual
This guide is based on the Australian Guide to Legal Citation, 4th Edition by Melbourne University Law Review Association and Melbourne Journal of International Law.
The full style manual is available as a free digital PDF copy. Print copies are available from the University of Melbourne library. Consult the official manual for more information.
General rules
Pay close attention to the general rules in part 1 and the general rules for citing secondary sources at the start of part 3. Many of the general rules found in these parts are cross-referenced in rules for citing specific sources. For example, the general rules for citing secondary sources in chapter 4 cover:
- rules about citing authors’ and editors’ names including how to deal with post-nominals and honorific titles;
how to cite multiple authors; - publications authored by a body such as a government department or non-governmental organisation;
- citing judicial officers and former judicial officers, citing judges written judgments (curially), and citing judges writing in publications such as law reviews (extra-curially)
- how to cite titles, including punctuation, capitalisation, subtitles and italicisation, and rules for short titles;
- the inclusion of URLs and archived URLs using permalink
Rule 1.13 provides the rules for bibliographies. Where a bibliography is required it should list all sources that were relied upon, not only those referred to in the text and footnotes. Rule 1.13 also includes a suggestion of how to organise your bibliography according to source type.
Abbreviations
Information about law report abbreviations, Australian Medium Neutral Citations and pinpoint abbreviations are included as appendices in the print edition. Acceptable abbreviations in the reference list include: