Bills

Introduction

Note: The APA style guide focuses on legal sources from the United States and United Nations, and refers readers to The Bluebook: A uniform system of citation (Bluebook, 2015), which does not cover Australian legal sources. In Australia, the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (AGLC) is widely used by the legal community as a standard for legal citation.  AGLC (4th ed) 2018 is published by the Melbourne University Law Review Association Inc in collaboration with the Melbourne Journal of International Law Inc.

Some of the following examples are taken from the AGLC. Please check with your school or course description for any specific requirements regarding referencing.

In-text citations

Paraphrasing

…as detailed in the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill 2009 (Cth) cl 83 . . .

According to the Transport Accident Further Amendment Bill 2013 (Vic) . . .

Notes on style

  • The title and year of a Bill should not be italicised (unlike Acts).
  • The year of the Bill is considered to be part of the title and therefore should be included following the title. Following the title and year, include the abbreviated form of the jurisdiction of the legislation enclosed in brackets e.g. (Cth) for Commonwealth, and (Vic) for Victoria.
  • To pinpoint a clause or sub-clause of a Bill, use the abbreviation cl or sub-cl followed by a space and the number. Other abbreviations including multiple pinpoints are detailed in AGLC 4 sections 3.1.4 and 3.1.5.

Direct quote

Place direct quotes between double quotation marks " " and provide the title of the Bill, year, jurisdiction, and clause number(s) (if applicable) enclosed in brackets.

" If a person (the supplier) supplies an amount of eligible 20 upstream fuel to another person (the recipient) who quotes the 21 recipient’s Obligation Transfer Number (OTN) in relation to 22 the supply, the supply will not count towards the supplier’s 23 liability for the financial year" (Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill 2009 (Cth) cl 16).

Reference list

Template

Title of Bill Year (jurisdiction) cl xxx. URL

Examples

Corporations Amendment Bill (No 1) 2005 (Cth). http://www.aph.gov.au

Environment Legislation Amendment Bill 2013 (Cth). http://www.aph.gov.au

Notes on style

  • The formatting of Bills appears the same in the reference list as in your text.
  • Start with the name of the Bill, followed by the year. Then in brackets, state the abbreviation for the jurisdiction, e.g. (Cth) for Commonwealth, or the State abbreviation. Finally, the clause number and sub-clause number if you are referring to a particular section of the Bill.
  • Include the URL from which you retrieved the material. (optional; this is not strictly required for legal citations but may aid readers in retrieval).
  • It is prudent to note that bills are not law and are rather proposals for law or to change a law. It is usually better to cite the relevant section of legislation in the place of a bill if it is available.