The Australian Guide to Legal Citation 4th edition or AGLC4, is a footnote and bibliography referencing system widely used in law courses across Australia. AGLC4 uses superscript numbers and footnotes at the bottom of the page to present the relevant information for the citation. The rules around footnotes can be found in section 1.1 of the AGLC4 guide. Footnotes should be used 1. Whenever you use someone else’s ideas 2. When you refer to information from another source 3. To back up an argument or make a point of law You can use footnotes to provide extra information that isn’t appropriate to include in the body of your work, however it should be used sparingly. Footnote numbers are included consecutively after a punctuation mark. The citation is then included in a footnote at the bottom of that page. A full stop is used at the end of every footnote. If you refer to an Act in full in text, you do not have to cite it in a footnote as well. Authors in secondary sources are covered in section 4.1. When formatting a footnote, authors should be presented as they are displayed on the original source, full stops are not included between initials. Sources with up to three authors should include all three authors in the footnote. If there are more than three authors, include first author followed by et al,; Titles of books, journals, Websites, cases and legislation should be presented in italics; Titles of sections of a larger source, for example journal articles and chapters of an edited book should be included in single quotation marks. Check the rules specific to your resource to make sure you’re italicising the appropriate element. Capitalisation is covered in rule 1.7. All words in the title should be capitalised except for the articles, conjunctions and prepositions (e.g., and, or, the, on, before, but, a, an). Pinpoints are used in footnotes to indicate a specific section of a resource. Rules for pinpoints are included throughout AGLC4, the foundation rules for pinpoints are 1.1.6 and 1.1.7. In secondary sources and cases, pages should be presented as single numbers or a range. Paragraph numbers are presented in square brackets. Where both the page and paragraph numbers exist, include both separated by a space. In legislation, you will need to include the appropriate abbreviation for the designation before the pinpoint. When you need to refer to the same source in your work more than once, don’t repeat the citation information in the subsequent footnotes. Rules around subsequent references are found in section 1.4 There are 2 options you need to follow, depending on the situation. If you are repeating the information in the immediately preceding footnote, use Ibid. A pinpoint can be included after Ibid, if the pinpoint is different to the original footnote. You can keep repeating Ibid while the footnotes are referring to the same source. If your repeated information is not from the immediately preceding footnote, a shortened form of the citation can be used. The subsequent footnote will include either a short title for cases and legislation or the first author’s surname for secondary sources. The cross reference in round brackets will refer the reader back to the original footnote with the full citation details. Pinpoints should be included if they are different to the original footnote. You should include a bibliography at the end of your work. It will include all of the sources you have used in your footnotes, and may include everything you’ve read to write your work – check with your lecturer on what they’d prefer. Bibliographies are covered in rule 1.13. The bibliography is presented in sections and sorted alphabetically within the sections. Each section is labelled with a consecutive letter, followed by the resource type in italics. The heading is centred. If you don’t include any sources under a heading, the heading can be omitted and the remaining heading moved up to that section. You can add additional headings if you feel it is necessary. For secondary sources, the author’s name should be inverted – the surname comes first, followed by a comma, space and first name or initial. If there is more than one author, only the first author’s name needs to be inverted. Pinpoints are not included in your bibliography. Full stops are not used at the end of bibliography citations. For more details on AGLC4, please check the full AGLC4 guide available on the Write & Reference tab on the Law Library Guide.