AGLC4 Rule 3.6: Australian Constitutions

The Commonwealth Constitution may be called the Australian Constitution, the Commonwealth Constitution or, where no confusion can arise, simply the Constitution, and it may also be cited through the imperial Act that enacted it. State constitutions are cited as ordinary statutes, and the territories' self-government Acts are cited in the same way.

AGLC4 page 76

Formatting

  • The name chosen for the Commonwealth Constitution is italic and carries no year or jurisdiction.
  • Its pinpoint follows the name after one space.
  • The bare name Constitution is used only where it cannot be confused with another constitution.
  • When cited through its enacting Act, the italic Act title and year are followed by (Imp), then the regnal year and chapter in roman separated by commas, then a comma and the section.
  • State constitutions and territory self-government Acts take the ordinary Act form: italic title and year, roman jurisdiction in round brackets, then the pinpoint.

Examples

Quoted from the Guide, page 76
  1. 49
    Australian Constitution s 51(ii).
  2. 50
    Australian Capital Territory (Self-Government) Act 1988 (Cth) s 22(1).
  3. 51
    Northern Territory (Self-Government) Act 1978 (Cth) s 6.
  4. 52
    Constitution Act 1902 (NSW) s 5.
  5. 53
    Constitution of Queensland 2001 (Qld) s 3.
  6. 54
    Constitution Act 1934 (SA) s 5.
  7. 55
    Constitution Act 1934 (Tas) s 9(1).
  8. 56
    Constitution Act 1975 (Vic) s 16.
  9. 57
    Constitution Act 1889 (WA) s 2(1).

Forms in the rule

Quoted from the Guide, page 76
  • Australian Constitution
  • Commonwealth Constitution
  • Constitution
  • Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900 (Imp) 63 & 64 Vict, c 12, s 9.

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.