Home: Australian Guide to Legal Citation 4th Edition: Secondary sources

Formatting authors

See AGLC Part III — Secondary Sources > rule 4.1

Format author names as shown on the source's title page, with the below Australian Guide to Legal Citation ('AGLC') rule 4.1.1 adjustments.

Initials	Include (if shown on the source)	Not included in citations
No full stops, eg K Smith	Sir, Dame	Post-nominals, eg AM, LLB
No spaces, eg HLA Hart	Peerage titles, eg Lord, Viscount	Qualifications/honorifics, eg the Hon, Dr, Professor
		Conventional titles, eg Mr, Mrs, Ms

Hover over the below flashcards to see the rules for multiple authors. Refer to AGLC rule 4.1.2 for more examples.

Two or three authors

Include all authors.
eg Omar Ahmad and Kim Green
eg Tiffany Rome, GM Smith and Li Zhang

More than three authors

Include the first-listed author followed by et al ['and others'].
eg Olivia Lee et al

See AGLC rule 4.1.4.

For works authored by a subdivision or individual/s on behalf of a body - include the subdivision/individual and the body, eg Lorraine Finlay and Steven Caruana, Australian Human Rights Commission
Use 'Commonwealth' for Commonwealth of Australia
Companies - omit 'the' and corporate status (Pty, Ltd, Co etc), eg Hancock Prospecting.

See AGLC rule 4.1.5.

The format for referencing judicial officers differs between case law and secondary sources. For secondary sources:

only include the judicial title (eg Justice) if it appears on the source
don’t include judicial titles for sources by former judicial officers who were no longer in that position when the source was written
include Sir, Dame, Lord etc
don't include honorifics in citations.

Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) can be included in a citation to aid retrieval of sources. See AGLC rules 4.4–4.5 for further information:

Permalinks can be used as well as, or instead of, URLs: