AGLC4 Rule 2.1.5: Government Entities, Foreign Governments and International Organisations

For a government body or instrumentality, a foreign state or an international organisation, use the ordinary short form of its name where one exists rather than its full formal title. Use the fuller form only where the short form would be ambiguous, and drop a leading The.

AGLC4 page 41

Formatting

  • The entity's name is italic as part of the case name.
  • The conventional short name is preferred over the formal style of the body or state.
  • The full formal name is kept only when the short form would leave the party uncertain, as with a state that no longer exists in that form.
  • A leading The is omitted.

Examples

Quoted from the Guide, page 41
  1. 13
    BP Refinery (Westernport) Pty Ltd v Shire of Hastings (1977) 180 CLR 266. [Not: … President, Councillors and Ratepayers of the Shire of Hastings …]
  2. 14
    European Community v Commissioner of Patents (2006) 68 IPR 539.
  3. 15
    Papua and New Guinea v Guba (1973) 130 CLR 353, 369 (Barwick CJ). [Not: Administration of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea …]
  4. 16
    O’Donoghue v Ireland (2008) 234 CLR 599. [Not: … Republic of Ireland (2008) …]
  5. 17
    Zoeller v Federal Republic of Germany (1989) 23 FCR 282. [Not: Zoeller v Germany (1989) … (To avoid ambiguity, as the country in the title refers to the former West Germany.)]

Not

Quoted from the Guide, page 41
  • [Not: … President, Councillors and Ratepayers of the Shire of Hastings …]
    the council's full formal style is used instead of its short name
  • [Not: Administration of the Territory of Papua and New Guinea …]
    the full style of the administration is used instead of the short name
  • [Not: … Republic of Ireland (2008) …]
    the formal style of the state is used instead of its short name
  • [Not: Zoeller v Germany (1989) … (To avoid ambiguity, as the country in the title refers to the former West Germany.)]
    the short name would be ambiguous here, so the full name must be kept

See also

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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.