Legal Research and Writing Help

Academic or Scholarly Writing

The School of Law Style Guide

Traditionally in academic or scholarly writing in Law and the other humanities, all sources used are cited in footnotes or endnotes. Footnotes are used in the School of Law at Notre Dame.

To create a footnote, a superscript number is placed at the appropriate reference point within the text of a piece of writing. The same superscript number is placed at the foot of the page containing the reference point and the details of the note are cited there. This constitutes a footnote. An example of a footnote is shown at the foot of the page. ¹

Modern word-processing programs (like Microsoft Word) will generate footnotes automatically. Follow these instructions to generate a footnote in Microsof t Word (XP version):

• Position your cursor at the point in your text you wish the superscript number to appear;
• Click on the 'Insert' button on the top toolbar and from the dropdown menu, click on 'Reference' then 'Footnote';
• Check that the correct boxes are ticked (including continuous numbering) and click on 'Insert';
• A superscript number will appear in the text at your cursor point and you will automatically be taken to the foot of the page where you can type in th e details of your note against the corresponding superscript number.

From the beginning of 2004, the School of Law has adopted the Australian Guide to Legal Citation, 2^nd edition (AGLC) as its standard style guide to all scholarly writing in the College (with a few variations). Paper copies of AGLC are held in the closed reserve section of the Law Library at K114/. K1/AUS/2002 and may also be purchased from the bookshop.

The Melbourne University Law Review Association developed AGLC and it can be downloaded or ordered from the Melbourne University Law Review homepage.

The Law Library has developed a downloadable two page summary of most of the main points of the AGLC as we use it in the School of Law. It consists of examples that illustrate our usage. SOL referencing style guide summary

Legal Resource Finding Aids

The Law Library has prepared a number of lists to help you locate specific types of legal resources. Click on the link to the List you want and an Adobe format [.pdf] document will load on your computer. Some of the resources listed are held in print format in the Law Library and some are available in electro nic format on a variety of websites.

Primary Legal Materials
In most jurisdictions, the print version of legislation held in the Law Library is the authorized version of legislation, not the electronic version.

• Australian legislation available on the internet
• Australian case law available on the internet
• Modern Law Reports Held by the Law Library
• English and Nominate Law Reports Held by the Law Library

Secondary Legal Materials

• Legal Periodicals Held by the Law Library
• Legal Periodicals available on the internet in Abstract & Full text

¹The Australian Guide to Legal Citation (AGLC) requires that the footnote number should follow the portion of the text to which the footnote refers and will ordinarily appear after any relevant punctuation.