Getting Started with AGLC4

AGLC4 is the fourth edition of the Australian Guide to Legal Citation. It is the referencing style used by almost every Australian law school and law journal. The Melbourne University Law Review Association publishes it together with the Melbourne Journal of International Law.

AGLC4 is a footnote style. You do not put citations in brackets inside your sentences the way APA or Harvard do. You mark the spot with a small superscript number and put the full citation in a footnote at the bottom of the page. Most assignments also ask for a bibliography at the end.

Add a footnote whenever your text relies on something outside your own head. That covers direct quotes, paraphrases, facts you looked up, and any proposition of law. If a sentence states a legal rule, a reader should be able to drop to the footnote and find the case or section that supports it.

One footnote can cite several sources. Put the strongest authority first and separate each source from the next with a semicolon. Rule 1.1 covers how footnotes are put together.

The superscript number usually sits at the end of the sentence, after the full stop. If the footnote supports only part of the sentence, place the number directly after that part instead. Every footnote starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop.

A bare citation tells the reader the source states exactly what your sentence says. When the relationship is looser, AGLC4 uses short signal words at the start of the footnote. Rule 1.2 lists them. The common ones are worth memorising.

• See. The source supports your statement but does not state it directly.
• See also. Extra support beyond the authority you already gave.
• See especially. The strongest of several supporting sources.
• See generally. Background reading on the topic.
• Cf. A useful comparison with something different.
• But see. The source cuts against your statement.

Most AGLC4 marks are lost on small mechanical slips, not on hard rules. A short checklist catches nearly all of them.

• End every footnote with a full stop.
• Italicise case names, statute titles, book titles and journal names. Nothing else.
• Give a pinpoint whenever you rely on a specific page, paragraph or section.
• Use the same short title for a source every time once you define it.
• Check bracket shapes on years. Round and square brackets mean different things.