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Bohill, Ruth --- "Electronic Citation Guide for Legal Materials" [1997] JlLawInfoSci 12; (1997) 8(2) Journal of Law, Information and Science 210

Electronic Citation Guide for Legal Materials

RUTH BOHILL[*]

Abstract

For financial and other reasons new law schools such as that at the University of New England have much of their library resources in electronic form rather than in hard copy. A disadvantage of this approach is that there is no uniformity in the citation of electronic legal materials. Hence, the University of New England Department of Law has developed its own electronic citation guide for the use of students in their assignments.

The paper begins with a discussion of official attempts in the USA and Australia to develop medium neutral style guides for the citation of material both from electronic and paper sources, before discussing the principles on which the University of New England Guide is based. The paper considers how the style guide deals with some of the problems faced by any system of citation of electronic legal materials, including

• the citation of primary and secondary sources including cases, legislation the reports of government agencies and enquiries and parliamentary debates,

• the citation of quotations from documents which do not have fixed page numbers and which may be modified periodically,

• the difference in citation style imposed by the differences in information available for World Wide Web documents and File Transfer Protocol documents

• the citation of messaging services, email messages, CD-Roms and diskettes.

Introduction

This electronic guide for legal materials has been developed for use by all Department of Law internal and external students for the preparation of assignments and essays. It is an addendum to the Department of Law’s Style Guide and is therefore used in conjunction with the Department’s guide for printed (or non-electronic) material. In this growing electronic age it is imperative that policies are developed to guide students in the accurate use of electronic citation methods rather than a piecemeal, ad hoc approach. To this effect, recommendations have been made in the United States calling for the development of a ‘national legal document citation system that is non-proprietary and is as suited for electronic as paper formats.’[1] Australia’s High Court has also recognised the persuasive advantages in adopting a uniform ‘medium neutral citation system’ which ‘has the potential to significantly enhance the functionality of electronic court decisions’.[2] Legal academics, legal professionals and legal researchers require a universal or national citation format that is simple and consistent and which enables all researches to verify and access the information cited. This guide therefore is merely a starting point in the evolving arena of referencing electronic modes of communication for law.

The reasons for the creation of such a guide are numerous. Some recently founded Law Schools - such as the Law Department at the University of New England - possess library facilities that are mainly orientated towards the dissemination of information in electronic form. Due to funding restrictions these universities have found that an electronic law library has been a viable alternative to housing hard copy legal sources. Though an emphasis has been placed on electronic sources, corresponding citation guides have not been forthcoming - leaving students, legal academics and legal professionals in a quagmire. A quagmire that can result in either the reluctance to use electronic sources, or the citing of material that is inconsistent or incorrect. Some online journals, such as the High Court Review, have provided their own unique citation method.[3] The citation method adopted seems to be no different from a hard copy journal which uses its own unique citation form - except that it is also available as an electronic source. These are what Hart might refer to as ‘easy cases’! Problematic has been the citing of purely electronic sources that are not hard copy based. In particular, it is these sources that require some form of citation method so that researchers can utilise the wealth of information that can now be found on the Internet, Messaging Services, CD-Roms and Disks.

Currently there is an ad hoc approach towards the citation of electronic materials for legal research. Where Law Faculties or Departments have failed to adopt a standard policy, individual academics have implemented their own policies based on personal experience or preference. Alternatively, where citation guides are available, they are driven by either general referencing methods or by library bibliographic requirements. Citing materials according to these methods are long and complex and are often at odds with the traditional method used for citing legal sources. There are a few general guides currently available such as the Modern Language Association’s (MLA) The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Electronic Styles: A Handbook for Citing Electronic Information[4] to ‘in-house” requirements which draw on these publications.[5] When footnoting a general electronic source the following information is required:

Primary responsibility (eg Author’s surname and given name or initials)

Title of article

Title of complete work

Title of series*

Subordinate responsibility (eg editor, translator)*

Type of medium (eg FTP)

Place of publication

Volume number*

Date of publication

Date of revision

Date of citation

Path

*where applicable

This format tends to follow the Harvard citation method used predominantly in humanities. The following style guide for law aims to be far simpler and as noted below, is based on the assumption that electronic sources may not have a corresponding hard copy version. A presumption that is not reflected in many of the general electronic citation guides currently available.

Various organisations are moving towards set standards for the dissemination of electronic materials. The International Standards Organisation is currently working on a standard for bibliographic references for electronic documents.[6] The draft standard however, is orientated towards library bibliographic requirements and therefore may not directly address the citation of legal materials. In May 1997, the Terms of Reference were finalised for the Australian Government Publishing Service’s (AGPS) Editorial Committee formed to develop a document of standards for Commonwealth information published in electronic formats. The Terms of Reference prescribe a style orientated towards government publishing but not limited to Australian experience. Specifically the document will address the needs of both information creators and users with an expected outcome that results in ‘ensuring that archival and legal aspects of electronic government publishing are addressed’.[7] This document will be a companion document to the AGPS Style Manual which covers printed materials. To this end the responsibilities of the AGPS have been extended to include,

responsibilities for publishing standards to the area of on-line information and hypertext publication, and maintain guidelines for agencies as part of the broader Internet Code of Practice; and to accept “lead agency” status for all publishing standards.[8]

As mentioned above, the United States is currently considering the adoption of a national legal document citation system. A test case before the Supreme Court of Wisconsin[9] petitioned by the State Bar of Wisconsin and the Judicial Council of Wisconsin seeking the implementation of a rule requiring the Court Clerk ‘keep an authoritative electronic archive of judgments’,[10] has been deferred pending such an approach can be tested ‘for at least a year’.[11] The demand for ‘vendor neutral citation systems’ has been partly addressed by the Australia’s High Court. Since 1998, the High Court has implemented a medium neutral citation methodology. The main difference between prior citation methods and the new format currently adopted by the High Court is the inclusion of paragraph numbers. This methodology enables a vendor to pinpoint a citation to a specific location in the document. Such a system partly addresses the United States initiative calling for a national legal document citation system that is suited for electronic as paper formats. The High Court’s citation system ‘applies as easily to an electronic version of a judgment as the traditional paper copy’.[12] Prior to the High Court’s initiative, the Bond University of Law had also adopted a similar methodology in relation to the electronic dissemination of the High Court Review. No doubt, other jurisdictions and publishers of electronic materials will follow suit in the near future. Both methods however do assume apriori knowledge of the location of the source and the corresponding URL. Ironically a papercentric approach seems to have been adopted to circumvent the problems posed by the electronic medium.[13] Such a state of affairs will be potentially circumvented by the greater use of electronic modes of communication.

Law is a unique discipline in the sense that the citation of legal materials is required to follow a particular method. From primary sources such as legislation and case law (both reported to unreported, authorised and unauthorised), to secondary sources such as textbooks, journal articles (refereed to non-refereed) and reports of Law Reform Commissions. At the international level there are also treaties, conventions and draft declarations which require adherence to a legal citation method. Whether these distinctions will be maintained - and how - will remain an important consideration for future legal citation guides.

This particular guide has been prepared using, as general references, the Federal Law Review Style Guide,[14] the AGPS Style Manual [15] and Anita Greenhill’s and Gordon Fletcher’s A Proposal for Referencing Internet Resources.[16] Essentially, it is a mix of these guides which favours a traditional yet simple and accurate approach towards citing legal materials. Many electronic citation guides currently assume that electronic material is based on a printed source requiring that both the printed and the electronic sources are cited. This guide however presumes that in many cases a printed source will not exist and that therefore preference is given generally to citing only the electronic source. The essential difference between citing printed material as opposed to electronic material used by this guide is:

firstly, that the edition of the material is either supplemented or replaced with the date that the material was last modified or revised; and

secondly, the publisher, the place of publication and the page number of the article or case is replaced by the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the WWW page.

The reason the edition of the material is supplemented by the date the material was last modified or revised is to account for possible differences in versions of the electronic text. To access the date when material was last modified or revised on the Internet, go to the icon “view” in the directory buttons and select “document info”. Then go to the heading “last modified” (GMT) and cite this last date given under the second heading. This date is indicated by GMT - Greenwich Meridian Time - and is a uniform international time guide. This will then give you the most recent date as to when the information was last modified. This date can be compared to the version needing verification to see whether it is the same article. To reference the Uniform Resource Locator (URL), merely cite the http:// or ftp:// address given in the “Location” directory. It is important that this information is cited accurately to ensure that anybody reading the cited article can easily access the Internet site.

My general ‘rule of thumb’ is to try and cite the fullest possible bibliographic entry available according to the following guidelines set out below. It is important to note however, that with rapidly changing technology, it is understandable that hard and fast rules are not appropriate. What is important is that citation methods are consistent, allowing the reader to access the materials that have been used for the purposes of research. One important maxim to bear in mind when using electronic mediums for research is caveat lector - let the reader beware. Do not always believe what you see - verify it![17]

The methods I use when citing legal materials are grouped into the following headings:

World Wide Web (WWW);

File Transfer Protocol (FTP);

Messaging Services; and

CD-Rom.

World Wide Web (WWW)

I have found that the simplest way to cite references found on the WWW is by using the following method where all bibliographic information is available:

General Articles

General articles are secondary sources and include examples such as newspaper reports[18] and agency or individual commentary on particular issues. I cite material using the following format:

Author(s)

Title of Article (Italicised)

Editor

Date of modification/revision

Uniform Resource Locator (URL)

Examples:

Anita Greenhill & Gordon Fletcher, A Proposal for Referencing Internet Resources (1 Feb, 1996), http://www.gu.edu.au/gwis.hub.acadref.html

Plain English Guide To The Wik Decision, ATSIC (30 Jan, 1997), http://www.atsic.gov.au/ native/wik.htm

John Short, Scott Emerson & Georgina Windsor, PM’s Wik plan wins States’ support, The Australian (28 April, 1997), http://www.australian.aust.com/

When citing newspaper articles, the full URL is not given because of the temporary nature of the posting. Only some newspaper articles will be archived and others removed permanently which means that only the full address of the source is cited. As in the above example, only the full URL for the Australian is cited, rather than the location of the newspaper article.

Quoting/Paraphrasing

When quoting from an article the same bibliographic information is cited (as above). In addition, if downloaded, the page number should be cited; or if not downloaded, the paragraph or heading from where the quotation or paraphrase was taken should be cited. Both of these should be cited in square brackets and placed at the end of the bibliographic reference.[19] If the file is a PDF file then usually it will correspond exactly to the printed source. However, the same method should be used for these files, as indicated above, firstly, because the source you have used is electronic and secondly, to provide consistency in citation method.

Examples:

Downloaded:

Anita Greenhill & Gordon Fletcher, A Proposal for Referencing Internet Resources (1 Feb, 1996), http://www.gu.edu.au/gwis.hub.acadref.html at [1]

Not downloaded:

Plain English Guide To The Wik Decision, ATSIC (30 Jan, 1997), http://www.atsic.gov.au/ native/wik.htm at [What didn’t the High Court say?]

If both page numbers (downloaded) and paragraph numbers are available, it is preferable to cite the paragraph number. Again, if both headings and paragraphs are available it is preferable to use the numbered paragraphs to indicate where the quote or paraphrase can be located. Often page numbers will vary from printer to printer and therefore a more accurate reference will cite the relevant paragraph from where the quote or paraphrase is taken.[20]

Journal Articles[21]

Author(s)

Title of Article

Date of Journal

Volume of Journal*

Number of Journal*

Journal Title

Order of Publication of the Article*

Page number of Journal*

Date of modification/revision

URL

*Where applicable

Example:

Paul Fairall, Improper use of position by company officers: The Queen v Hopwood & Byrnes’ 1995 HCR 1 (29 Nov, 1996), http://Bond.edu.au/ Bond/Schools/Law/publication/HCR/ 101fairall.html

Explanation: Paul Fairall’s article ‘Improper use of position by company officers:...’ can be found in the 1995 volume of the High Court Reporter and is the first article in the volume. The article was last modified on the 29th of November, 1996 and can be found at the URL, http://...

On accessing the citation guide to the High Court Review (HCR)[22] a researcher will find that the given information accords with the way the editors of the HCR cite materials from the journal. It is advisable that all researchers familiarise themselves with the format required by the particular journal - as would be done for any non- electronic journal. It is also worth noting that the title of the journal is not italicised or underlined as required for non-electronic journal titles.

Quoting/Paraphrasing

If quoting or paraphrasing from journal articles, firstly follow the above journal citation method and then indicate the page number (if downloaded), paragraph number (whether downloaded or not) or heading (if not downloaded and there is no corresponding paragraph number) from where the quote or paraphrase has been taken.

Examples:

Downloaded or not downloaded:

Greg Swensen, Review of “LDL Online: Laying Down the Law. Computer Assisted Legal Research” 3 (4) E Law (27 Jan, 1997), http://www.murdoch.edu.au/elaw.issues/v3n4/ swensen2.txt at para [2].

Not downloaded:

Richard Marlin, The External Affairs Power and Environmental Protection in Australia 24 (1) Fed L Rev (9 Aug, 1996), http://uniserve.edu.au.law/pub/journal/flr/vol24no1/FederalLawReviewRichardMar .html at [Sources of International Law].

Explanation: Richard Marlin’s article “The External Affairs Power and Environmental Protection in Australia” can be found in volume 24, number 1 of the Federal Law Review. The article was last modified on the 9th of August, 1996 and can be located at the following URL...The quote/paraphrase is found under the heading ‘Sources of International Law’.

As indicated above (under the general article heading) if both page numbers (downloaded) and paragraph numbers are available, it is preferable to cite the paragraph number. Again, if both headings and paragraphs are available it is preferable to use the numbered paragraphs to indicate where the quote or paraphrase can be located.

Cases

When citing cases, the non-electronic citation - if available - should be given, then the electronic information. Care needs to be taken however to identify whether particular jurisdictions – such as the High Court – have adopted a new citation style specific to the dissemination of cases electronically. Like the High Court Review (mentioned above) which has adopted a journal specific citation method, jurisdictional specific citations are now being adopted for the citation of cases. Medium neutral citation requirements in the future may make the former citation method suggested below, obsolete. The following examples exemplify both methods:

Non Medium Neutral Citation

Reported Cases

Case Name (Italicised)

Date of Report

Volume Number

Name of Report

Page Number

Date Modified

URL

Example:

A’Beckett v Federal Commissioner of Taxation [1959] HCA 57; (1959) 104 CLR 508 (5 Jan, 1997), http://www. austlii.edu.au/au/cases/high-ct/104clr508.html

Unreported Cases

Case Name (Italicised)

Date of Report

Date Modified

URL

Example:

Rodney Croome Anor v The State of Tasmania (26 Feb 1997, unreported), (26 Feb, 1997), http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/high-ct/unrep304.html

Quoting/Paraphrasing

Quoting or paraphrasing follows the same citation method as above for cases and, in addition, places either the page number (if downloaded), paragraph number (downloaded or not downloaded) or heading (not downloaded) in square brackets after the case citation.

Example:

A’Beckett v Federal Commissioner of Taxation [1959] HCA 57; (1959) 104 CLR 508 at 511 (5 Jan, 1997),

http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/high-ct/104clr508.html at para [2].

When citing unreported decisions, I have found it unnecessary to also cite the relevant court and whether the decision is one of a single justice or the full court and the court file number. This is because the URL provides the most accurate reference. If however it is relevant that the this information should be cited, the court and details on whether the case resulted from a decision of a single justice or the full court can be placed in brackets after the name of the case, followed by the modification date and URL - as it would be provided when citing a non-electronic unreported decision.

Medium Neutral Citation

Case Name

Year of Judgment

Court Abbreviation

Sequential Number of Judgement

Example: Palmer v The Queen [1988] HCA 2

Explanation: The case of Palmer v The Queen was decided in the year [1988] in the High Court of Australia [HCA] and is the 2nd decision for that year.

In keeping with my original ‘rule of thumb’ - that the fullest reference possible is cited - additional information may be included such as the date of judgment in the following format:

Example: Palmer v The Queen [1988] HCA 2 (20 Jan, 1998), http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/high_ct/1998/2.html

Whether this is necessary in the future will depend on subsequent courts’ adoption of medium neutral citation techniques and the vendor’s ability to identify the relevant electronic source. For legal professionals, it will also depend on the relevant requirements set down by individual courts for the submission of legal documentation.

Quoting/Paraphrasing

Quoting or paraphrasing follows the same citation method as above for cases and, in addition, places the paragraph number in brackets after the case citation. Square brackets are unnecessary due the precision of the pinpoint location within the text of the judgment.

Example: Palmer v The Queen [1988] HCA 2 at 5

An interesting point to flag is that on the 17th of April, 1997, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, the Hon. Murray Gleeson AC, approved the use, in that Court, of printouts of unreported electronic judgments from three sources: the Supreme Courts of the Australian States and Territories; the Federal Court of Australia; and the High Court of Australia.[23] Though the approval is limited to printouts of unreported decisions and not those that are reported, it is at least a step towards accepting the submission of electronic modes of legal information by courts. With the adoption of a medium neutral citation system – an ‘approved’ method of citing documents - more courts may be willing to accept electronic legal documentation as an authoritative source. The benefits of doing so have been acknowledged by the High Court: reduction in the costs of bringing matters to court; reductions in the time taken to publish a judgment; increased public access to court decisions and the ability to place hypertext links into the body of the document.[24]

Legislation

Generally, legislation (italicised) can be cited in the same way as non-electronic legislation.

Example:

Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1975 (Cth)

However, if you have referred to sections from the relevant Act/Regulations/Rules or to memorandums, reading speeches or any Digest references then the same format should be followed, as already outlined above, in relation to general electronic sources.[25]

Examples:

s 5(1) ACT Self-Government (Consequential Provisions) Act 1988 (modification unknown) http://law.agps.gov.au/html/comact/6/331410/CM000100.htm

Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Amendment Bill 1996 (1996-1997) No 31 Bills Digest, (23 April, 1996),[26] http://library.aph. gov.au/ prs/ pubs/bd/bd31-97.htm

Reports

The Internet has become a budding source on which to place various Commission Reports such as the Australian Law Reform Commission Reports. The following is an example of an electronic citation method used for citing these reports.

Example:

Australian Law Reform Commission, Equality Before the law: Justice for Women (Report 69 Pt 1, 1994), (24 Oct, 1996), http://online.anu.edu.au/alrc/report69/vol1/ALRC69.html at para [2.31]

Parliamentary Debates

Parliamentary Debates are often offered in a PDF format which means that they are based on a hard copy version which is merely presented and accessible in an electronic form. The presumption therefore favours citing these sources as if they are hard copy versions and in addition, at the end of the reference, citing the modification date and URL. The same methods as previously outlined are applied when quoting or paraphrasing from these sources.

As briefly mentioned above, there is some debate in information technology circles as to whether files available in a format such as PDF format could potentially breach anti-discrimination principles. The argument is that a product - such as the Internet - that is available freely,[27] should be available to everybody - freely. The implications are that because PDF format requires fairly expensive technology to download the relevant file it provides a barrier to peoples from lower socio-economic means. Current debate surrounding access to the Internet and discrimination law argues that Web pages should be readable in text only format rather than, for example, image format, which again requires fairly advanced computer equipment to access the Web site.[28] There is no doubt that new anti-discrimination principles relevant to accessing electronic information will be a new area of the law. The interesting point to note is that many legal sources are becoming more readily available in formats such as PDF format. Given that most legal reports and legislative sources originate from government departments it will be interesting to observe the legal ramifications for these departments. For citation purposes it may mean that such sources will only be temporary in nature.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

Exactly the same method is used for ftp:// as for http:// (above), except the URL shows ftp:// instead of http://. In addition, because no revision or modification date is available under the ‘view/document info’ it is not indicated in the citation and is instead replaced by the version or date of the document (if available).

Example:

Adam Gaffin, Eff’s Guide to the Internet, Electronic Frontier Foundation (v2.3, 1994), ftp://nysernet.org/pub/resources/guides/bigdummy.txt

As pointed out by Greenhill and Fletcher, ftp:// files are the earliest form of Internet publishing, being a digitised version of conventionally published material (and usually in ascii text format).[29] With the increasing tendency to use http:// files, ftp:// sources are a rarity and probably will not be used as often as http:// files.

Messaging Services

There are a number of different messaging services[30] of which - listservers (mailing lists) Usenet News and e.mail - will be covered here. Due to the temporary nature of the postings of Usenet News, and the veracity of the postings, the maxim caveat lector should always be kept prominently in mind! Common sense should therefore prevail in deciding on whether to use or cite such references.[31] In addition, e.mail is considered to be a personal communication and is therefore only cited as a footnote reference and not in the bibliography.[32]

Listservers

There are a number of different types of uses provided by listservers. Some listservers post journal articles to subscribers, whilst others, such as group listservers, provide personal communications from one subscriber to all other subscribers of that listserver. Journal articles provided by a listserver should generally follow the format as outlined above for journal articles and the http:// URL replaced with the listserver subscription e.mail address.[33] Information provided by a group listserver, should be cited using the following format:

reyburn@peg.apc.org Social-justice - shame job, (20 April, 1997), listserver, owner-aboriginal-studies-l@coombs.anu.edu.au

or

Bruce Reyburn, Social-justice - shame job, (20 April, 1997), listserver, owner-aboriginal-studies-l@coombs.anu.edu.au

Explanation: The author, reyburn@... (found in the ‘from’ line) has written information on “Social-justice...” (found in the ‘subject’ line) on this <date> which can be found on the listserver owner-aboriginal......(found in the ‘sender’ or ‘to’ line).

It is important to include the details of the author because listservers can often only be subscribed to subject to the approval of the listowner.

Usenet news

Usenet news (or newsgroups) are characterised as ‘many-to-many communication’[34] and are analogous to a notice-board where news is posted - and can be replied to - by anybody who has access to the Internet. As pointed out by Fletcher and Greenhill, Usenet news does not lend itself to being cited by reference to a URL. This is because of its often temporary and inaccessible nature once the information is dated.[35] Therefore, the name of the News group is used instead of the URL.

Example:

Mark Moraes, What is Usenet?, (12 April, 1997), newsgroup, news.announce.newusers

Explanation: Mark Moraes’ article ‘What is Usenet?’ was posted on this <date> on the newsgroup, news.announce.newusers.

E.mail

As pointed out above, e.mail is a form of personal communication and therefore the maxim caveat lector should be borne in mind. The following format should be used when citing e.mail:

Kumar.Amirthalingam@anu.edu.au (28 March, 1997), e.mail

If a student number is the source of the relevant information, then the following format accommodates this mode of allocating an e.mail address:

s9106753@anu.edu.au (1st Jan, 1997) e.mail

By providing the exact e.mail address, any information provided by the author can be immediately verified. If however, the author may not wish her or his e.mail address to be public knowledge then only the author’s name without the actual e.mail address is cited, as well as the date and mode of communication.

Example:

Nova Inkpen (28 March, 1997), e.mail

CD-Rom

A very similar format to that used for the above, can be used for CD-Rom citations. Take for example the Computer Law Services (CLS) Family Law Disc. At the start of the Disc, information is provided on the contents of the Disc and in particular the currency of the data. In looking at the currency of the data you will see that different currency dates are listed for different jurisdictions, for example:

Commonwealth Legislation 1st March, 1997

New South Wales Legislation 20 February, 1997

Queensland Legislation 20 January, 1997

Victorian Legislation 1 April, 1997

In addition to these dates, a general date is given as to the currency of the actual disc. When citing CD-Rom information I find it preferable that the relevant jurisdictional date is cited rather than the general date. This will then indicate the most recent update of the legislation and whether any research should be undertaken for additional amendments. In relation to case law, the reported citation is often included in the headnote of the case on the CD-Rom, so this should be cited in addition to the CD-Rom reference. If no reported citation (non-electronic) is given, the electronic citation listed by the CD-Rom publishers should be cited as in the example below*. When quoting or para-phrasing, the section of the legislation, or page number given by the CD-Rom publisher, should be cited. The page number is then placed in square brackets, if quoting or para-phrasing from a case, at the end of the citation.

The following examples illustrate CD-Rom citations:

Legislation

Child Care Act 1972 (Cth)

s 7 Children (Care & Protection) Act 1987 (NSW) (20th February, 1997), CLS Family Law Disc

Explanation: s7 of the <Act> updated to the 20th of February, 1995, available on the Computer Law Services Disc (Diskrom).

Cases

Perlman v Perlman [1984] HCA 4; (1984) 155 CLR 474, CLS Family Law Disc

Deputy Child Support v Harrsion CLS 1995 Fam 137*

Perlman v Perlman [1984] HCA 4; (1984) 155 CLR 474, CLS Family Law Disc at [3]

Diskettes

Diskettes are often used for Conference Proceedings where the information can be bought or borrowed in floppy disk format. To cite Conference Proceedings on disk I use the following format:

Author

Title of Article (italicised)

Name of Conference

Date of Disk

Type of Medium (ie Disk)

Name of Disk

Page Number/Paragraph

Example:

JD Davies, The Federal Administrative Law Package, Law Society of South Australia Seminar, (9 May, 1986) Disk, Softlaw at [30]

Conclusion

The methods used for citing electronic materials are very similar to citing those used for non-electronic materials - it is just that another format is required to cite information accurately so that the reader can verify or research the footnoted or bibliographic references. I have found that any sources, whether they are electronic or not, should always be verified in a way that is consistent and accurate. The adoption of medium neutral citation techniques has partially begun to address this concern. One should however, always bear in mind the maxim - caveat lector !


[*] BA.LLB (ANU) Associate Lecturer, University of New England. This paper is an extended version of a paper presented to the Australian National University’s Graduate Workshop on Legal Research, May 1-2, Canberra, 1997.

[1] Graham Greenleaf, Andrew Mowbray, Geoffrey King and Peter van Dijk, Public access to law via internet: the Australiasian Legal Information Institute, (3 October, 1995), at [3].

[2] Paragraph Numbers and Medium Neutral Citation System, facsimile dated 2 March 1998 from Rosemary Nicholson, Senior Reference Librarian, High Court of Australia. An advantage that had been previously acknowledged and implemented by publishers of the High Court Review produced by the Bond University Law School.

[3] For instance, the High Court Review uses the following format: Paul Fairall, Improper Use of position by company officers: The Queen v Hopwood v Byrnes’ 1995 HCR 1 at [2]. If downloaded to hard copy format and a quote needs to be cited then the paragraph number is referred to in brackets. This denotes that the nominated quote falls in paragraph 2. This allows for differences in pagination, font and printer variations between downloaded copies. For further elaboration on the style used by the HCR, see Anita Greenhill and Gordon Fletcher, below. The High Court has followed suite in adopting a medium neutral citation system based on the same principles as the HCR. See Paragraph Numbers and Medium Neutral Citation System, above.

[4] Xia Li and Nancy B Crane, (2nd ed), Information Today Inc, Medfor NJ, 1996.

[5] For example, the University of New England’s Distance Education Unit provides an electronic guide for referencing electronic sources for external students. It merely draws on the MLA Handbook Style Guide without taking into account differences in citation styles relevant to a particular discipline.

[6] (1997) 2 Stylewise 3.

[7] (1997) 1 Electronic Publishing Standards, (a bulletin on Standards for Commonwealth information published in Electronic Formats) 1 at 3.

[8] Ibid at 1.

[9] In the Matter of the Amendment of Supreme Court Rules: Electronic Archive of Appellate Opinions, Rules and Orders; Citation of Wisconsin Appellate Opinions, Order #95-01, 24 May 1995.

[10] Graham Greenleaf et al, above.

[11] Ibid.

[12] See Paragraph Numbers and Medium Neutral Citation System, above.

[13] Such an approach is based on the assumption that the vendor knows that a particular citation is a citation to an electronic source and a source which is located at a particular URL.

[14] Produced by the Australian National University. For the full style guide see the back of any Federal Law Review.

[15] Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers ( 5th ed ) AGPS, Canberra, 1994.

[16] Anita Greenhill & Gordon Fletcher, A Proposal for Referencing Internet Resources (1 Feb, 1996), http://www.gu.edu.au/gwis/hub/hub.acadref.html

[17] See Electronic Style-Caveat Lector, Electronic References & Scholarly Citations of Internet Sources, (16 April, 1996), http://funnelweb.utcc.utk.edu/~hoemann/caveat.html

[18] In particular, the Australian, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age. References made to these sources are different to Newsgroups.

[19] Placing the page number in square brackets indicates to the reader that the page number may differ between printed versions due to the type of printer and/or format used to download the document. See Greenhill and Fletcher above at [Page Numbering]. To be consistent, headings should also be placed in square brackets (as for paragraphs) indicating that the relevant quote or paraphrase is found therein.

[20] See Greenhill and Fletcher above at [Page Numbering].

[21] A very similar method is utilised by the High Court Reporter (HCR). See above. It confirmed many of the difficulties I had been encountering, in particular, in relation to citing quotes/paraphrases where page numbers do not correspond to the actual journal article, or where the information was not downloaded. However, the citation method utilised by the HCR focuses on citing the date of electronic access (which is placed after the URL) rather than the date the article was last modified (which I have placed before the URL). The reason why I ask students to indicate the date the article/case/legislation is last modified is to ensure the relevant accuracy of the material found in these sources. Date of access bears no relation to the accuracy of the material cited and the relevant time frame the author is working within.

[22] http://Bond.edu.au/Bond/Schools/Law/publication/HCR/

citation.html

[23] Supreme Court of New South Wales, Use of unreported judgments available electronically, (28 April, 1997), http://www.fl.asn.au/news/authorised/html

[24] See Paragraph Numbers and Medium Neutral Citation System, above.

[25] The reason I ask students to verify the electronic source, if quoting or paraphrasing, is so that the relevant author of the electronic materials is made apparent. Sometimes (and not always) cases, legislation, delegated legislation or rules are not electronically reproduced in full. This can lead to circumstances whereby the knowledge engineer, with assistance from a legal expert, chooses the relevant text to be included. This can possibly lead to a misinterpretation of the materials being considered or inaccurate information being cited.

[26] No modification date appeared in the ‘view - document info’ search. However the date had been included on the file data.

[27] It is arguable that Internet access is not a ‘freely’ available commodity.

[28] See World Wide Web Access: Disability Discrimination Act Advisory Notes, Graphic Images Should Have Meaningful Associated Text, (modification unknown), http://www.austlii.edu.au/do2/disp.pl/au/other/hreoc /disabil/webguide.htm#2.1

[29] Greenhill and Fletcher above.

[30] See Surendra Dayal, LDL Online 1997: Laying Down the Law, Butterworths, Australia, 1997, Chapter 11.

[31] See Anita Greenhill & Gordon Fletcher, Academic Referencing of Internet-based Resources, (8 April, 1997), http://www.gu.edu.au/gwis/hub/qu/hub.acadref.html at [Usenet News].

[32] Greenhill and Fletcher above at [Email].

[33] Ibid at [Listservers].

[34] Surendra Dayal above at 165.

[35] Greenhill and Fletcher, Academic Referencing of Internet-based Resources, above at [Usenet News].


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