AGLC4 Rule 4.1.5: Judicial Officers
Judges writing in a judgment are referred to by surname with their judicial or peerage title, usually as an abbreviation after the name. Judges writing outside judgments are named as the source names them, with the judicial title only if it appears there and with Sir, Dame or peerage titles kept. A former judge's former judicial title is dropped, and a peer's territorial designation is left out unless needed to tell people apart.
AGLC4 page 86
Formatting
- A judge writing curially is referred to by surname and judicial title, in text and in citations, the title usually abbreviated after the name under rules 2.4.1, 10.2.8, 24.1.6 and 25.1.8.
- In a case citation, the judge's name and title are placed in round brackets after the pinpoint.
- Two or more judges writing curially are referred to in text under rule 2.4.5.
- A judge writing extra-curially takes a judicial title, placed before the name, only where the source shows it.
- Sir, Dame and peerage titles are kept for sitting and former judges alike.
- A former judge writing after leaving office is cited without the former judicial title.
- Honorifics for former judges may appear in discursive text but never in citations.
- A peer's territorial designation is omitted unless needed to avoid confusion.
Examples
Quoted from the Guide, page 86- 16Essendon Corporation v Criterion Theatres Ltd (1947) 74 CLR 1, 18 (Dixon J).
- 18James Edelman and Elise Bant, Unjust Enrichment (Hart Publishing, 2nd ed, 2016) 31.
- 19Sir Anthony Mason, ‘Future Directions in Australian Law’ (1987) 13(3) Monash University Law Review 149; Lord Cooke, ‘Foreword’ in Janet McLean (ed), Property and the Constitution (Hart Publishing, 1999); Justice Michael Kirby, ‘Transnational Judicial Dialogue, Internationalisation of Law and Australian Judges’ (2008) 9(1) Melbourne Journal of International Law 171.
- 20Michael Kirby, ‘The Dreyfus Affair: Lessons for Today’ (Speech, Central Synagogue, 24 May 2009).
Not
Quoted from the Guide, page 86- [Not: … Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead]the territorial designation is dropped where no confusion would arise
How judicial officers are referred to in different contexts
Quoted from the Guide, page 86| Context | Example(s) |
|---|---|
| Citing a judicial officer writing curially (in text): | As Dixon J noted in Essendon Corporation v Criterion Theatres Ltd,15 … |
| Citing a judicial officer writing curially (in a citation): | 16 Essendon Corporation v Criterion Theatres Ltd (1947) 74 CLR 1, 18 (Dixon J). |
| Citing a judicial officer writing extra-curially (in text): | Opening the Law Librarians’ Symposium, Sir Daryl Dawson stated: ‘The modern law library is something which I could not have envisioned in my student days.’17 … this is James Edelman and Elise Bant’s most ‘fundamental point’.18 |
| Citing a judicial officer writing extra-curially (in a citation): | 18 James Edelman and Elise Bant, Unjust Enrichment (Hart Publishing, 2nd ed, 2016) 31. 19 Sir Anthony Mason, ‘Future Directions in Australian Law’ (1987) 13(3) Monash University Law Review 149; Lord Cooke, ‘Foreword’ in Janet McLean (ed), Property and the Constitution (Hart Publishing, 1999); Justice Michael Kirby, ‘Transnational Judicial Dialogue, Internationalisation of Law and Australian Judges’ (2008) 9(1) Melbourne Journal of International Law 171. |
| Citing a former judicial officer (in text): | As pointed out by the Hon Mary Gaudron in a recent speech, … |
| Citing a former judicial officer (in a citation): | 20 Michael Kirby, ‘The Dreyfus Affair: Lessons for Today’ (Speech, Central Synagogue, 24 May 2009). |
| Including the territorial designation of a peer | This was a different approach from that of Lord Nicholls.21 [Not: … Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead] … Lord Keith of Avonholm had a very different view of negligence from that held by Lord Keith of Kinkel.22 |
See also
- Rule 2.4.1: Identifying Judicial Officers and Counsel: Identifying Judicial Officers
- Rule 2.4.5: References to Two or More Judicial Officers
- Rule 10.2.8: Reported Decisions: Identifying Judges
- Rule 24.1.6: Cases: Identifying Judicial Officers
- Rule 25.1.8: Cases: Identifying Judges
- Rule 4.1.1: Author: General Rule
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.
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.