Skip to Main Content

Holmesglen Harvard Referencing

Legal cases format

Summary

Holmesglen students are expected to locate their legal cases from the AustLII database. The AustLII Style Guide for Citing Legal Materials (1999) was consulted in the making of this section.

 

Reference elements

annotated reference example for a legal case

In-text citation

  Format Example
Paraphrase

Name of Case [Year]

... was used as evidence at the trial McKell v The Queen [2019].
Quote Name of Case [Year], pinpoint xx '...' In the case of McKell v The Queen [2019], s 4, para 2, '... judicial balance...'
Note:
  • If you are quoting or referring to a specific section from the source, you must add the pinpoint (i.e. specific point in the source - section, article etc.) to the end of the citation. See pinpoint abbreviations for more information.  
  • In the examples above, s is the abbreviation for section and para is the abbreviation for paragraph. 

 

Reference

Format Example

Name of Case [Year] Unique Court Identifier Judgement Number.

McKell v The Queen [2019] HCA 5.

Finding the information for referencing

From the AustLII (Australasian Legal Information Institute) database

 

example of a legal case from the AustLii database

Harvard pinpoint abbreviations

A pinpoint is used to refer to a specific point in the source. It is similar to using page numbers to refer to sections of a book. Use the following pinpoint abbreviations (depending on the designations given in the source) when creating your citation:

Designation Abbreviation
Appendix app
Article art
Chapter ch
Clause cl
Division div
Paragraph para
Part pt
Regulation reg
Rule r
Schedule sch
Section s
Sub-clause sub-cl
Subdivision sub-div
Sub-paragraph sub-para
Subsection sub-s