AGLC4 Rule 1.1.5: Discursive Text in Footnotes

Footnotes may contain explanatory prose as well as citations. Where the prose needs a citation, the citation follows a colon at the end of the relevant words, unless the prose already contains the full citation with its pinpoints. Later pinpoints to a source already cited in the same footnote are introduced with "at".

AGLC4 page 4

Formatting

  • Citation after prose: colon, one space, then the citation.
  • No colon is needed where the prose itself names the source fully, including the pinpoint.
  • A source already cited in the same footnote is pinpointed with a colon, a space, then lower case roman "at" and the pinpoint (rule 1.4.6).
  • Titles in the prose keep their citation styling: case names and Act titles italic, jurisdiction in round brackets in roman.
  • Quotations inside the prose use single curly quotation marks, with double curly marks for a quotation nested inside.
  • Em dashes in the prose are spaced on both sides.

Examples

Quoted from the Guide, page 4
  1. 26
    Note that s 22 of the Trans-Tasman Proceedings Act 2010 (Cth) prohibits anti-suit injunctions that would be granted on the basis that a New Zealand court is not the appropriate forum for the proceeding.
  2. 27
    Agricultural Land Management Ltd v Jackson [No 2] (2014) 48 WAR 1, 64 [335]. Later in the judgment, his Honour explained that a ‘negative “but for” criterion’ applies to some — but not all — claims for equitable compensation: at 75 [395].
  3. 28
    The Acts Interpretation Act 1954 (Qld) provides that a ‘public sector unit’ is ‘a department or part of a department’ or ‘a public service office or part of a public service office’: at sch 1 (definition of ‘public sector unit’).
  4. 29
    The scope of this legislation is confined to children as users of the internet: Enhancing Online Safety Act 2015 (Cth) s 5.

Forms in the rule

Quoted from the Guide, page 4
  • : at 75 [395].
  • : at sch 1 (definition of ‘public sector unit’).

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.