AGLC4 Rule 1.1.1: When to Footnote

A footnote is used to give authority for a proposition, to direct the reader to a relevant source and indicate how it relates to the argument, to let the reader locate a source or quotation, and to hold side material that does not belong in the body. Every direct quotation needs a footnote unless the text already identifies the source in full. A source is cited in full the first time it appears.

AGLC4 page 1

Formatting

  • The footnote number is superscript and normally follows the closing punctuation of the sentence it supports (rule 1.1.2).
  • The first citation of any source is complete; shortened forms are only available from the second citation onwards (rule 1.4).
  • A case name that appears inside discursive footnote prose remains italic, and its pinpoint follows the report citation after a comma with no word such as "at" or "p".
  • Judges are named in round brackets straight after the pinpoint they relate to, for example (Dixon CJ).
  • A further source introduced by a different signal starts a new sentence in the same footnote, with the signal capitalised.
  • Every footnote finishes with a full stop (rule 1.1.4).

Examples

Quoted from the Guide, page 1
  1. 1
    Wirth v Wirth (1956) 98 CLR 228, 237 (Dixon CJ). See also Calverley v Green (1984) 155 CLR 242, 250 (Gibbs CJ).
  2. 3
    In Gissing v Gissing [1971] AC 886, 907, Lord Diplock commented that presumptions are easily rebutted if both parties are still alive and capable of giving evidence.

In the text

Some judges have argued that a presumption of advancement applies wherever there is a ‘greater prima facie possibility of a beneficial interest being intended’.1

Quoted from the Guide, page 1

This situation is likely to occur only in the rarest of cases, since the court can always make a judgment about the relative credibility of evidence given by living parties.3

Quoted from the Guide, page 1

See also

Check your footnotes against these rules

Paste your paper into the free AGLC4 checker and each footnote is graded against the Guide, with the rule it breaks. To write a citation from scratch, use the AGLC4 citation generator.

AGLC4 citation checker AGLC4 citation generator

Formats, examples, passages, tables and the forms marked Not are quoted from the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (4th ed, Melbourne University Law Review Association, 2018), with the page of the Guide they appear on. Titles, summaries and explanations are our own.