Style Guide     

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Preparing and Editing Manuscripts ...

Table of Contents

1. GENERAL POINTS 

2. ITALICS

A. Cases 
B. Periodicals 
C. Books 
D. Newspapers and magazines 
E. Reports

3. INITIAL CITATION

A. Cases 
B. Articles
C. Books 
D. Reports

Manuscripts should be submitted as email attachments in MS Word 97 or later version. Manuscripts in any other WP format will not be accepted because they may lose too much formatting in the conversion process. In particular, automatic conversion of footnotes to fully functional HTML hyperlinks is only reliably possible with documents written in MS Word or later, and we do not have the resources to convert them manually. Manuscripts containing hyperlinks to the corresponding cases and legislation on AustLII or ScalePlus (but not a subscription service like Butterworths Online) will be looked on favourably. If you undertake hyperlinking, make sure that you select the correct case or legislation! This is not as easy as it sounds. AustLII has only fairly recently begun assigning a unique citation system to cases, and there are many cases called e.g. NSW v Commonweath OR Singh v Minister for Immigration & Ethnic Affairs.

(a) Manuscripts should be  double spaced leaving generous margins. Uncommon abbreviations should be explained. On no account should anything be underlined (except if you create hyperlinks, which automatically underline the text constituting the hyperlink). Footnotes should appear at the foot of each page.

(b)  A precis of the submission should be included.

The APL E-Journal is committed to the use of non-discriminatory language.

As a general rule, the Macquarie Dictionary should be consulted to determine correct or preferred spelling and hyphenation.For style conventions not covered in this guide it is best to follow the AGPS Style Manual (5th edition, 1994).

Latin and foreign words which are commonly regarded as anglicised should not be italicised. If in doubt, the Macquarie Dictionary should be consulted. The Macquarie Dictionary sets all words and phrases in roman, irrespective of their origin; thus any foreign word or phrase not listed there would probably require italics.

Footnotes, wherever possible, should only be used for citations. If it is necessary to include commentary in footnotes it should be kept to an absolute minimum.

Running headings are not to be in italic and are to contain full punctuation; they are in full caps.

No full stops are to be used in citations or abbreviations of any kind. This includes full points between initials of a forename(s). In this case, one space is left between initials.

The suffix "ise" is to be used rather than "ize". Similarly, all American spellings are to be avoided e.g. "color" "labor" (except in "Australian Labor Party").

Dates

1 January 1998

1990s (no apostrophe)

1990-1

1997-98

21st century

Numbers

Spell out numbers from one to nine, after which figures are to be used. The exception to this is percentages which are always in figures, eg, 8 per cent, measurements and currency amounts.

200-1 $1000

313-24 $60 000

196-204 $1.01

$1 million, $200 million

Abbreviations

app - appendix
art - article
c - approximately, about (Latin circa)
cf - compare (Latin confer)
ch, chs, c - chapter(s), (c for litigation)
cl - clause
comp, comps - compiler(s)
div - division
ed, eds - editor(s)
edn, edns - edition(s)
eg - for example (spell out in text)
et al - and others (Latin et alii)
et seq - and following (Latin et sequentes)
fn, fns - footnote(s)
ibid - in the same book, chapter, page (latin ibidem)
id - in the same work (Latin idem)
infra - below (Latin), a word, not an abbreviation (use "below" in preference to infra)
loc cit - in the place cited (latin loco citato)
n, nn - note(s)
nd - no date
no, nos - number(s)
op cit - in the work cited (Latin opere citato)
p, pp - page(s)
par, pars - paragraph(s)
passim - here and there, throughout (Latin), a word, not an abbreviation
reg, regs - regulation(s)
rev - revise, reviser
s - section(s), subsection(s)
supra - above (Latin), a word, not an abbreviation (use "above" in preference to supra)
supp(s) - supplement, supplements
trans - translated, translators(s)
v - versus
vol, vols - volume(s)

All words are to be written full out in the body text of a piece; abbreviations are to be used in footnotes, except where that word is at the opening of a sentence.

All the preceding abbreviations (and any others), including those of Latin terms, are presented in roman type, NOT italics, and always start with a lower-case letter. When an abbreviation is used, there should be no space between it and the following number, eg, s34 or par(b).Other common abbreviations to be used:

Cth - Commonwealth
NSW - New South Wales
Qld - Queensland
SA - South Australia
Tas - Tasmania
Vic - Victoria
WA - Western Australia
NT - Northern Territory
ACT - Australian Capital Territory
Pty Ltd - Proprietary Limited
Co - Company

Headings and Lists

Headings and lists should be organised consistently in the following style:

   1.

   2. A.

      B. i.

        ii.

All words except prepositions should be capitalised.

A. Cases

Parties' names are to be italicised,

eg R v Smith
Mabo and Others v. Queensland (No. 2) (1992) 175 CLR 1

Mabo

Initials of law reports are NOT italicised (cf periodicals)

American cases are cited differently from Australian cases with a comma after the case name and the date appearing after the reference.

B. Periodicals

The title of an article in a journal is put in quotation marks, it is NOT italicised (cf books):

Howard, C, "Two Problems in Excessive Defence" (1968) 84 LQR 343.

Smith, A B, "The Doctrine of Forum Non Conveniens" (1965) 81 LQR 380.

However, initials of journals ARE italicised (cf law reports):

(1968) 84 LQR 343

(1976) 50 ALJ 389

[1975] Crim LR 570

Full stops must NOT be included in citations:

[1977] 2 All ER 449 [not All E.R.]

[1977] CCH CLC 29, 305 [not C.C.H. CLC]

C. Books

Titles are printed in italics. If italics are not available they should be underlined. Titles are NOT put in quotation marks:

Dalziel, A, Evatt the Enigma (1967)

Ford, H A J, Principles of Company Law (2nd edn, 1978).

Heuston, R F V, Salmond on Torts (17th edn, 1977).

Meagher, R P,  Gummow, W M C, and Lehane, J R F, Equity Doctrines & Remedies (3rd edn, 1992).

Chapters in Books

Pearson, N, "204 Years of Invisible Title--From the Most Vehement Denial" in Stephen, M A and Ratnapala, S (eds), Mabo: A Judicial Revolution (1993) at 75
 

D. Newspaper and magazine citations

[NAME OF AUTHOR (if available)] "[TITLE OF ARTICLE (if available)]" [MAGAZINE OR NEWSPAPER TITLE] [DAY] [MONTH] [YEAR] [AT (PAGE NO). e. g.:

Sheng, F, "Open up to the world and utilise capitalism" People's Daily 12 March 1992 at 5.

Cite the full proper name of the newspaper the first time it is used, then abbreviate subsequent references in the footnotes:

The Sydney Morning Herald SMH

The Australian Financial Review AFR

E. Reports
 

Titles of reports are printed in italics (i.e. basically the same procedure is followed as for books). For further information on citing reports, including examples, see section 3.D. below.

For cases, articles and books, the initial citation MUST appear in full (in the body of the text or in the footnotes, or in a combination of both).

Footnote symbols:

footnote to the article title is represented by Ý
note of author is represented by *

Be sure to take this into account when writing or editing cross-referencing footnotes.

A. Cases

Case citations give the year, the relevant volume number (if there is more than one for the year), the report series and the page number. In general, square brackets are used where there is no volume number and the year is an integral part of the title, and the date must be used to identify the particular volume.

Mabo and Others v. Queensland (No. 2) (1992) 175 CLR 1
(hereinafter Mabo)

In the citation of criminal cases, in which the Crown is the prosecutor, the form R (standing for Rex or Regina) is used to avoid the ambiguity of King and Queen, for example:

R v Hoddock

Similarly, if the Crown is the respondent in a criminal appeal, R is used.

B. Articles

As a general rule, and to maintain consistency, the following abbreviations should be used when citing periodicals by title. When abbreviating, eliminate articles and prepositions such as "a", "the", "at", "in", and "of":

Adelaide - Adel
American - Am
American Bar Association - ABA
Bar - B
British - Brit
Bulletin - Bull
Conference - Conf
Congressional - Cong
Constitution(al) - Const
Contemporary - Contemp
Contract(s) - Cont
Corporate - Corp
Criminal - Crim
Department - Dept
Development - Dev
Economic(s), Economy - Econ
Education(al) - Educ
English - Eng
Federal - Fed
Federation - Fedn
Forensic - For
Government - Govt
Harvard - Harv
Historical, History - Hist
Institute - Inst
International - Int'l
Journal - J
Juridical, Jurist - Jur
Jurisprudence - Juris
Justice - Just
Law - L
Legal - Leg
Library - Lib
Melbourne - Melb
Modern - Mod
National - Nat'l
New Series - ns
Northern Territory - NT
Psychology, Psychological - Psych
Quarterly - Q
Queensland - Qld
Record - Rec
Reporter, Reports - Rep
Review - R
South Australia - SA
School - Sch
Series - Ser
Society - Soc
Studies - Studies
Tasmania - Tas
Technical, Technology - Tech
Transnational - Transnat'l
University(ies) - U
Victoria - Vic
Western Australia - WA

Commonly used periodical titles should be abbreviated as follows:

Law Quarterly Review - LQR
Australian Law Journal - ALJ
Sydney Law Review - Syd LR
Melbourne University Law Review - MULR
Criminal Law Review - Crim LR
Harvard Law Review - Harv LR
Yale Law Journal - Yale LJ

Authors should refer to A Uniform System of Citation (15th edn, rev, 1991) by Alan L Dworsky and commonly referred to as the "Harvard System of Citation", for abbreviations (in particular for American journals and place names) not listed above.  Note, however, that the Harvard method itself (which involves citations in the body of the text rather than as footnotes) is not to be used.

Articles should be cited using the following general format:

[AUTHOR SURNAME], [AUTHOR INITIALS], "[TITLE]" ([DATE]) [VOL][TITLE OF PERIODICAL] [FIRST PAGE NO]

For example:

Howard, C, "Two Problems in Excessive Defence" (1968) 84 LQR 343.

Where the citation is to a specific page number within the article, the following formula should be used:

Howard, C, "Two Problems in Excessive Defence" (1968) 84 LQR 343 at 346.

where 346 refers to the page number within the article.
 

C. Books
 

For initial citation, cite initials of authors or editors, as well as edition (if later than the first) and year. Do NOT include publisher or place of publication for books, but DO include them for reports.

Example:

Meagher, R P, Gummow, W M C and Lehane, J R, Equity: Doctrines and Remedies 3rd edn (1992).

(Hereinafter, Meagher, Gummow and Lehane).

Where the citation is to a specific page number within the book, the following formula should be used:

Meagher, R P, Gummow, W M C and Lehane, J R, Equity: Doctrines and Remedies 3rd edn (1992) at 246. [not "p246"]

D. Reports
 

Unlike books, reports -- Government publications in particular -- often appear quite complex, sometimes without an author, sometimes with both an author and a sponsoring organisation, sometimes with a report number (if part of a series), etc. The question becomes one of "how much information should be included?".

In citing reports, basically the same principles are followed as for books, but to facilitate searches, both publisher and place of publication are cited as well. The format should adopt the following general structure:

[AUTHOR SURNAME], [AUTHOR INITIALS], [TITLE] ([DATE]) [SERIES NO], [PUBLISHER], [PLACE].

Examples:

Price, C, Ethnic Groups in Australia (1989) Australian Immigration Research Centre, Canberra.

Australian Bureau of Statistics, Overseas Born Australians 1988: A Statistical Profile (1989) Australian Bureau of Statistics, Canberra.

Office of Multicultural Affairs, National Agenda for a Multicultural Australia (1989) Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra.

Australian Institute of Criminology, Deaths in Custody Australia (No 7) June 1994, Australian Institute of Criminology, Canberra.

ibid signifies that the footnote should be read exactly the same as that immediately preceding it, eg:

1 Mabo and Others v. Queensland (No. 2) (1992) 175 CLR 1 at 27.

2 Ibid. (reference exactly the same as footnote 1)

id is used to signify the same work as the first cited, but a different page, eg:

1 Mabo and Others v. Queensland (No. 2) (1992) 175 CLR 1 at 27.

2 Id at 32.

For footnotes with no similarity to immediately preceding citation, use the following methods of citation:

Where the first footnote gives full citation of case, periodical or book and is followed by one or more unrelated footnotes before a further footnote reference to the same publication:

1 Mabo and Others v. Queensland (No. 2) (1992) 175 CLR 1 at 27.

2 Footnote text.

3 Footnote text.

4 Footnote text.

5 Above nl at 35.

and, if the very next reference is to the same publication and same page number:

6 Ibid.

or, if to the same publication but different page:

6 Id at 37.

The surname of the author or the short name of the case is to be included when: (1) it is not clear in the body of the text what source is being cited; and (2) there are several citations within the one footnote being referred back to.

Examples of footnotes citing periodicals:

12 Howard, C, "Two Problems in Excessive Defence" (1968) 84 LQR 343.

13 . . .

14 . . .

15 . . [[Sigma]]

16 Above nl2 at 345.

or

16 Howard, above nl2 at 345.

Examples of footnotes citing books:

3 Heuston, R F V, Salmond on Torts (17th edn, 1977) 25.

4 . . .

4 . . .

5 . . .

6 . . .

7 Above n3 at 12. [not "p12" or "at p12"]

NOTE: In both the text and footnote citations, the word "above" should always be used in preference to the Latin word "supra". Similarly, the word "below" should always be used in preference to the Latin word "infra".

Full stops should appear at the end of the footnote only, or at the end of a sentence within the footnote.

Short title (as found in section 1 of each statute) is sufficient.

Include calendar year and origin of legislation. For example:

 
Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth)

Firearms Act 1936 (NSW)

Statute Law Revision Act 1937 (VIC)

Airlines Equipment Amendment Act 1981 (Cth), sl9(1)(a)(ii)

The number of an act is not included unless it is part of the title. For example:

Family Law Amendment Act (No 2) 1979

Air Navigation Act 1920 (Cth), not

Air Navigation Act 1920 (No 50) (Cth)

NOTE: No comma is used between title and year.

The year and origin of legislation should appear in roman type, NOT italics.

Bills before the Parliament are presented in roman type (i.e. not italicised), eg:

Book Bounty Bill 1969

Reference to sections and subsections:

In body text: section 51; sections 51 and 53; subsection 51(2)

In footnotes: s51: lower case `s', no space
s51A: small capital

ss51 & 53

sub51(1)

subs51(1) & (2)

When quoting from any source, the extract should appear exactly as it appears in the original document. Quoted extracts should NOT be altered to conform to the APL E-Journal house style.

When quoting passages from any source, and the quotation exceeds three lines in length, INDENT, and do not use quotation marks.

If a quotation is short, (less than three lines), double quotation marks should always be used and the quotation should NOT be indented.

Full stops should only be included within quote marks if actually part of the quote, NOT where simply ending the author's sentence, for example:

". . . binding on State courts for the present". [NOT "the present."]

THREE dots (ellipses) are used to indicate an omission of a word(s) from a quotation; FOUR dots are used if this happens at the conclusion of a sentence being quoted.

When a capital letter opening a quote needs to be added or removed to suit the sense of the sentence where the quote is being used, indicate any change with brackets around the letter: Barwick CJ accepted that it was necessary "[t]o take into account the mode and extent of retaliation ...". Brackets (as opposed to parentheses) always indicate editorial intervention.

Traditional, deferential forms such as:

His Honour; Their Honours; His Lordship; The Learned President; I respectfully disagree

should be avoided. For example, instead of "His Honour stated", "he stated" should be used.

References to more than one judge should adopt the following style:

Barwick CJ; Gibbs, Stephen and Murphy JJ [not J.J.] Lord Denning MR; Buckley and Goff LJJ [not L.J.J.] Street J and Hutley JA

The tendency is to reduce the overall number of capitalised words in the text. A good comprehensive guide to when to capitalise can be found in the current edition of the Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers, published by the Australian Government Printing Service.

Some common words where rules are applied to determine capitalisation:

Capitalise:

Court, as in "The Court decided ...": capitalise when refering to a specific court; lower case when refering to courts in general

Constitution

Title of a convention, covenant, treaty, declaration or regulation: ie Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees; Treaty of Maastricht -- do not italicise.

Government and Parliament: when referring to a specific entity, capitalise (eg, the Federal Government, the New South Wales Parliament). When not referring to a specific entity or when used adjectivally, use lower case (eg, local government, government control).

Geographical and political designations should be capitalised (eg, Western Europe), but purely descriptive designations of a particular area should be lower case (eg, northern France).

Do not capitalise c in chapter: (ch7) or chapter 7.

States & Territories: State is capitalised when used to mean one of the territorial divisions of Australia (eg, the State of Victoria, the State Governments). When referring to a nation or to an abstract entity, use lower case (eg, the European states, state control). Territory is always capitalised when used in Australian contexts (eg, the Northern Territory, the Territory, the Australian States and Territories). In all other uses it is in lower case.