The AGLC citation style is the footnote-based referencing system used across Australian law schools and legal writing, built on the Australian Guide to Legal Citation, now in its fourth edition (AGLC4). Instead of an author-date system like APA or Harvard, AGLC places a superscript number in the text that points to a full citation in a footnote at the bottom of the page, with a bibliography listing every source consulted at the end of the assignment. This guide covers the footnote format, the in-text superscript rules, and how to format the source types most often cited in a law assignment or problem question, so the text you submit follows AGLC consistently from the first footnote to the last.
What Is AGLC Citation Style?
AGLC is published by the Melbourne University Law Review Association in conjunction with the Melbourne Journal of International Law, and it is the standard citation guide taught at Australian law schools and used in Australian legal scholarship and court documents. The current edition, AGLC4, was released in 2018 and remains the authoritative reference for the style, so always check with your lecturer or unit outline before assuming an older edition applies. See the official AGLC4 manual for the full rule set behind every example on this page. The manual itself is distributed as a PDF, so if you ever need to cite the manual (or another PDF document) directly, see our guide on how to cite a PDF.
AGLC is a numbered footnote style, which sets it apart from the citation styles covered elsewhere on this site. If you are comparing options for a general essay rather than a law assignment, our citation styles guide breaks down author-date formats like APA and Harvard alongside numbered styles like AGLC and Chicago notes.
How AGLC In-Text Citations and Footnotes Work
Every claim, quote, or paraphrased idea drawn from a source gets a superscript reference number placed at the end of the relevant sentence or clause, after any punctuation. That number corresponds to a footnote at the bottom of the same page containing the full citation. Footnotes always end with a full stop, and pinpoint page references belong in the footnote, not in the bibliography.
Correct placement: The Court held that the contract was void for uncertainty.4
4 Alati v Kruger (1955) 94 CLR 216, 223.
Incorrect placement: The Court held4 that the contract was void for uncertainty.
The reference number should follow the whole clause it supports, not interrupt it mid-sentence.
Once a source has been referred to in full, later references use a short form instead of repeating the whole citation:
- Ibid refers to the immediately preceding footnote and can be used more than once in a row. Add a pinpoint after it if needed, for example Ibid 71.
- Author or short title with (n X) refers back to an earlier footnote that is not the one directly above it. Replace X with the footnote number where the source first appeared, for example Burns (n 11) 15.
AGLC rule numbers appear throughout the official manual (for example, rule 1.4.1 governs subsequent references). You don’t need to memorise them, but citing the rule number is useful if you need to double-check a format with your lecturer.
AGLC Citation Formats by Source Type
The exact citation elements change by source type, but the pattern is consistent: author or party names, title, and publication details, formatted according to the rules below. These are the five source types most assignment writers need.
| Source type | Footnote format | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Case | Party v Party (Year) Volume Report Page, Pinpoint. | Alati v Kruger (1955) 94 CLR 216, 223. |
| Act of Parliament | Title Year (Jurisdiction) Pinpoint. | Weapons Act 1990 (Qld) s 51(1). |
| Book (single author) | Firstname Lastname, Title (Publisher, Year). | Michael Kirby, Paradoxes and Principles (Federation Press, 2011) 74. |
| Book chapter | Firstname Lastname, ‘Chapter Title’ in Firstname Lastname (ed), Title (Publisher, Year) Starting Page. | Jeremy Waldron, ‘Do Judges Reason Morally?’ in Grant Huscroft (ed), Expounding the Constitution (Cambridge University Press, 2008) 38. |
| Journal article | Firstname Lastname, ‘Title’ (Year) Volume(Issue) Journal Starting Page, Pinpoint. | Kylie Burns, ‘”In This Day and Age”‘ (2018) 45(2) Journal of Law and Society 226. |
For sources outside these five categories, our guides on how to cite a book and how to cite a journal article cover the general referencing principles that these AGLC source rules build on.
If your assignment cites legislation or a government source specifically, see our guides to how to cite a law and how to cite a government website for the broader referencing context.
Case names and legislation titles are always italicised, and titles follow AGLC’s capitalisation rule: capitalise the first word of a title or subtitle, the word after a hyphen, and every other word except articles, conjunctions, and prepositions.
AGLC also relies on a set of standard abbreviations to keep footnote information concise: s and ss for section and sections, reg for regulation, Cth for Commonwealth, Qld for Queensland, and ed for edition. The official manual lists the complete abbreviations table for any source type your course hasn’t covered here. AGLC also has its own format for dictionary entries, distinct from the general approach covered in our guide to how to cite a dictionary.
More AGLC Source Types and Tools
Beyond cases, legislation, books, and journal articles, two more source types come up often when applying the AGLC citation style in assignments. A general website or online source that isn’t legislation follows the same pattern as other non-government material: issuing body or author, title, and a retrieval date in place of a URL, for example ASX, Listing Rules (at 4 November 2019). Our guide to how to cite a website covers the general principles behind that retrieval-date convention.
An official or government report uses the issuing body as the author, followed by the report title, report type, and date, for example Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry (Final Report, February 2019) vol 2. See our guide on how to cite a report for more on citing official and organisational reports outside AGLC as well.
If your assignment references AI-generated content, check your unit’s academic integrity policy first, since AGLC4 itself predates formal AI citation guidance. Many Australian law libraries now publish short addenda for citing generative AI tools alongside AGLC4, so your library guide is the fastest place to find current information. If you use referencing software such as Zotero to manage sources, it can format footnotes but won’t catch every AGLC-specific rule, so proofread the output against the official manual before submitting your assignment.
Can’t find your exact source type in this guide? The official AGLC4 manual (linked above) covers dozens of additional categories, including treaties, international judgments, and Hansard, indexed by chapter at the front of the document.
Building an AGLC Bibliography
A bibliography is a list of every source you relied on, not just the ones cited in footnotes, and it goes on a new page at the end of the assignment under the centred heading “Bibliography”. AGLC divides the bibliography into five lettered categories, each listed alphabetically:
- A Articles/Books/Reports
- B Cases
- C Legislation
- D Treaties
- E Other
Bibliography entries differ from footnotes in two ways. First, only the first author’s name is inverted to Surname, Firstname. Any additional authors keep the normal Firstname Lastname order. Second, bibliography entries do not end with a full stop, unlike footnote entries. For example, a footnote citing Michael Kirby’s book reads Michael Kirby, Paradoxes and Principles (Federation Press, 2011) 74., while the same source in the bibliography reads Kirby, Michael, Paradoxes and Principles (Federation Press, 2011), with no pinpoint and no closing full stop.
Frequently Asked Questions About AGLC Citation Style
Do I need AGLC for a non-law essay?
Usually not. AGLC is built specifically for citing cases, legislation, and legal scholarship, so it’s the expected style for law units and moot assignments. For a general humanities or social science essay, your unit outline is more likely to specify APA, MLA, Harvard, or Chicago.
What’s the difference between AGLC and OSCOLA?
Both are numbered footnote styles for legal writing, but AGLC is Australian and OSCOLA is the UK equivalent. They share the same superscript-and-footnote structure, though the exact punctuation and ordering of citation elements differ, so don’t mix the two within one assignment.
Which edition of AGLC should I use?
AGLC4, published in 2018, is the current edition and the one taught at Australian law schools today. Check your unit outline or referencing guide if you’re unsure, since some older courses or textbooks may still reference AGLC3.
Does AGLC use in-text parenthetical citations like APA?
No. AGLC uses superscript reference numbers in the text that link to full citations in footnotes, not parenthetical author-date citations. The footnotes carry all the bibliographic detail, which is why pinpoint page references belong there rather than in the bibliography.
Do I need a bibliography if I already have footnotes?
Yes. Footnotes only record sources at the point they’re used, but the bibliography is a complete list of everything you consulted while researching, organised into AGLC’s five lettered categories and sorted alphabetically within each one.
For the full rule set behind every example above, keep the official AGLC4 manual open alongside your university library’s own referencing guide. Between the two, you’ll have the citation conventions that avoid a bare URL, the source-type index, and the background information needed to apply the AGLC citation style confidently across an entire assignment.
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Terry is a Chicago-based writer and editor who creates practical, student-friendly guides on essay writing, research, and citation styles (APA, MLA, and Chicago). He’s spent 15+ years editing educational content and building clear examples that help readers apply rules without guessing. When he’s not revising drafts, he’s usually turning messy notes into clean outlines and hunting down the one detail everyone skips.