AGLC4 Citation Generator

What is AGLC4?

The Australian Guide to Legal Citation, fourth edition (AGLC4), is the principal Australian manual for identifying legal authorities in academic and professional writing. It was produced by the Melbourne University Law Review Association in collaboration with the Melbourne Journal of International Law and published in 2018, with minor corrections issued in 2019. Its purpose is not to decide what authority proves a legal proposition. It supplies a consistent system for showing readers exactly which case, statute, article, book, report or other source the writer used and where the relevant material can be found.

AGLC4 is a footnote system rather than an author–date system. A proposition in the text is normally supported by a superscript footnote number, and the corresponding footnote contains the citation. This matters because legal sources carry identifiers that do not fit comfortably into a single author-and-year pattern. A reported case may need a report series and starting page; an unreported judgment may need a court identifier and judgment number; legislation needs a jurisdiction; and a report may need a document type and series number. AGLC4 gives each source type its own sequence while keeping punctuation and later references consistent.

Two principles run through the manual: clarity and consistency. Include the information a reader needs to locate the source, choose the rule for the source that actually exists, and use that rule consistently throughout the work. The fourth edition covers Australian cases and legislation, secondary sources, international materials and selected foreign jurisdictions. This guide concentrates on six sources students use frequently. It is a practical companion, not a replacement for a faculty instruction, journal house style or the full AGLC4 rule that applies to an unusual authority.

Footnotes and the bibliography do different jobs

A footnote connects a particular statement, quotation or part of the argument to its authority. Under rules 1.1.1–1.1.4, the first footnote citation of a source is given in full, a footnote number usually follows the punctuation at the end of the relevant sentence, and every footnote ends with suitable closing punctuation. A direct quotation should have a footnote unless its source is already identified in full in the text. When one footnote contains several sources under the same signal, separate those sources with semicolons rather than inserting “and” before the last source. If the relationship changes and a new introductory signal is needed, begin a new sentence in the footnote.

A bibliography, when the assessment or publisher requires one, is a consolidated list of all sources relied on, not merely every string copied from the footnotes. Rule 1.13 suggests sections for Articles/Books/Reports, Cases, Legislation, Treaties and Other materials, but permits unused sections to be removed and useful subdivisions to be added. The bibliography therefore lets a reader survey the research base, while footnotes show the authority for individual propositions and provide the relevant pinpoint at the moment it is needed.

Do not build the bibliography by pasting footnotes unchanged. Bibliography entries identify the source as a whole, so footnote-specific pinpoints and later-reference devices such as “ibid” or “(n 12)” do not belong there. For a personally authored source, invert the first author’s name to surname-comma-given-name order. If there is more than one author, only the first author is inverted. Institutional authors, case names and legislation titles are not inverted. Omit the full stop that would close the same citation in a footnote, then alphabetise each section using the detailed ordering rules in rule 1.13.

• Footnote workflow. Place the number at the relevant proposition, give the source in full the first time, add the most useful pinpoint, and close the footnote with punctuation. On a later use, decide between ibid and a cross-referenced shortened citation by checking the immediately preceding footnote.
• Bibliography workflow. Collect every source actually relied on, sort it into an appropriate category, convert the first personal author to inverted order, remove proposition-specific pinpoints and the closing full stop, and alphabetise. Keep the source’s substantive citation elements—such as a case report, statute jurisdiction, journal starting page or report number—because those identify the source.

Six common source types

Start by classifying the source, not by asking where you downloaded it. A case remains a case when read on a court website, a journal article remains an article when retrieved from a database, and an official report remains a report when supplied as a PDF. The internet-material rule is residual: use it only when the item has no published form and no more specific AGLC4 rule applies. Correct classification determines the order of elements, the kind of year brackets, the punctuation before a pinpoint and the bibliography section.

The examples below pair a full footnote with a bibliography entry. They deliberately show the same source in both places so that the transformation is visible. A bibliography entry has no footnote number; the labels only explain where each string belongs. In a word processor, italicise the elements identified in the accompanying explanation even though the example cards themselves use plain text.

Pinpoints, ibid and repeat citations

A full citation tells the reader which source you used; a pinpoint tells the reader where in that source the supporting passage appears. Rule 1.1.6 places the pinpoint immediately after the citation and generally forbids “p”, “pg” and “at” before an ordinary page reference. Paragraph pinpoints appear in square brackets, while legislation uses designations such as “s” and “para” under its own rule. If both page and paragraph help locate material in a reported case, use the page followed by the paragraph in square brackets. Separate several pinpoints with commas rather than “and”.

Punctuation before the pinpoint depends on the source. Reported cases and journal articles use a comma because the pinpoint follows a starting page. A book page follows its parenthesised publication details without a comma. Legislation moves directly from the jurisdiction to a provision abbreviation. For a range, rule 1.1.7 uses a non-spaced en dash. Page ranges are usually shortened in the AGLC4 manner, such as 121–7, while both paragraph numbers remain complete and separately bracketed, such as [56]–[59].

Five common AGLC4 mistakes

Most citation errors come from applying a familiar rule in the wrong context. Use this five-part check after generating a citation and before submitting the document.

• 1. Starting with shorthand instead of a full citation. A surname, short title, ibid or “(n …)” cross-reference cannot introduce a source. Rule 1.1.1 requires the first footnote citation to be full. Check that the reader can identify and retrieve the authority from its first footnote alone, then introduce any short title at the end of that citation. Also confirm that the footnote number is placed after sentence punctuation unless clarity genuinely requires it beside a particular phrase, and that the footnote itself has closing punctuation.
• 2. Citing the easiest case version instead of the preferred report. A database may show an authorised report citation, one or more unauthorised reports and a medium neutral citation together. AGLC4 does not ask for all of them. Apply the preference order in rule 2.2.2 and use the authorised report when available. Do not add a parallel citation, and do not substitute a medium neutral version merely because it has convenient paragraph numbers. If the decision is genuinely unreported, then use the court-assigned medium neutral citation and paragraph pinpoint.
• 3. Importing pinpoint punctuation from another style. Do not put “p” or “pp” before an ordinary page, do not put “para” before an ordinary case paragraph, and do not place a comma before a book page. Conversely, reported cases and journal articles do use a comma before a pinpoint because a starting page already appears. Legislation uses its own provision abbreviations without a comma. Check en dashes, shortened page spans and fully repeated bracketed paragraph numbers as separate details rather than assuming one range rule fits every source.
• 4. Treating every downloaded source as a web page. The delivery medium does not replace the source type. Cite a PDF journal article as an article, a judgment on AustLII as a case, and a departmental report as a report. Use rule 7.15 only for internet material without a published form or another applicable rule. For a true web page, use the displayed update or creation date when available, put the URL in point brackets and do not add a retrieval date. This preserves the source’s legally meaningful identifiers instead of reducing everything to a URL.
• 5. Using ibid or “above n” without checking the citation chain. Ibid works only when the immediately preceding footnote has one source and the new reference is to that source. A different intervening footnote, several sources in the prior footnote, or a change from a specific pinpoint to the source generally requires the shortened cross-reference rule instead. Write the author surname or introduced short title followed by “(n footnote)”; do not revive the old “above n” form for an external source. Finally, remove all ibid and footnote cross-references when preparing the bibliography, invert the first personal author there and omit each entry’s closing full stop.