AGLC4 Rule 8.7: Pinpoint Reference

Pinpoints go at the end of a treaty citation and refer to the treaty's own divisions, such as articles and paragraphs, never to pages of the treaty series. Use the standard abbreviations for those divisions and name the highest level of division used. Copy the numbering style of the treaty itself.

AGLC4 page 140

Formatting

  • The pinpoint follows the entry into force bracket after a single space, with no comma.
  • Pinpoints refer to articles, paragraphs, sections and other divisions of the treaty, not to pages of the series.
  • Division designators use the rule 3.1.4 abbreviations, lower case with no full stops, for example art, para and s.
  • The designator reflects the highest level division used, so a decimal article reference is written with art, not para.
  • The word annex is always spelt out in full.
  • The treaty's own numbering is kept, whether it uses parentheses or decimals for paragraphs within an article, and whether its numerals are Roman or Arabic.
  • Compound pinpoints are separated by single spaces with no commas, for example an article followed by a section.

Examples

Quoted from the Guide, page 140
  1. 17
    International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, opened for signature 21 December 1965, 660 UNTS 195 (entered into force 4 January 1969) art 3.
  2. 18
    Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the United Nations, opened for signature 13 February 1946, 1 UNTS 15 (entered into force 17 September 1946) art III s 9.
  3. 19
    Agreement Establishing the Advisory Centre on WTO Law, opened for signature 30 November 1999, 2299 UNTS 249 (entered into force 15 July 2001) annex II.

Forms in the rule

Quoted from the Guide, page 140
  • ‘art’
  • ‘para’
  • ‘s’
  • ‘art 31.1’
  • ‘para 31.1’
  • ‘annex’
  • ‘art 33(1)’
  • ‘art 33.1’
  • ‘art XX’
  • ‘art 12’

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.

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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.