1.2.1 Numbered and bulleted lists
Separate items in lists by semicolons, except if paragraphs in the list are more than one sentence long. Where this is the case, the paragraphs should end with full stops.
Conclude all lists with a full stop.
Lists within articles may be labelled either by (a) (b) (c) ... or (1) (2) (3) ..., depending on what is most appropriate in the context and what causes least confusion with nearby headings. Bullet points may also be used.
Eg There are four major standards of patentability:
(1) the invention must be novel;
(2) the invention must be non-obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the subject matter pertains;
(3) the invention must be capable of producing a useful, concrete and tangible result; and
(4) the invention must be of patentable subject matter.
Eg Proponents of the need for a right to a healthy environment cited the following data:
(a) More than 13 million deaths (23 per cent of all deaths) could be prevented each year by making our environment healthier.
(b) For children under 14, 36 per cent of all disease is caused by environmental factors such as unsafe water or air pollution. There are more than four million environmentally caused deaths of children each year.
(c) The economic benefit of halving the number of people without access to safe drinking water would outweigh the investment costs by a ratio of eight to one.
Quotations should generally reproduce the original exactly, except when minor alterations are necessary in accordance with the rules that follow.
(a) Style
The format of the quotation depends on its length.
(i) Short quotations (those with fewer than 30 words)
Short quotations are not indented and remain part of the text, within double quotation marks.
The closing double quotation mark should come after any quoted punctuation. Place non-quoted full stops and commas outside the quotation marks.
The footnote reference should come after punctuation, including the quotation mark. Only include a full stop, question mark or exclamation mark at the end of a sentence if the entire sentence is being quoted.
Eg There is no privilege if the involvement is no more than to "wave one's hand over the file".1
Eg Nicholls J said: "It is trite law that trustees cannot fetter the exercise by them at a future date of a discretion possessed by them as trustees." 2
Eg It has been argued that the "purpose of these exclusions is to prevent the patenting of inventions likely to induce public disorder or riot".3
(ii) Long quotations (those with 30 or more words)
Inset quotations from both the left and right margins in a smaller font and not enclosed within double quotation marks.
Insert a colon at the end of the text immediately preceding the quotation.
Place the footnote number immediately after the colon, preceding the quotation.
Include a blank line between the preceding text and the quotation and between the end of the quotation and any following text.
Begin the quotation with a capital letter where the quoted passage begins with a new sentence. Where part of the sentence is omitted from the quoted passage, indicate this by an ellipsis. See 1.2.2(b)(v) for information regarding the use of ellipses.
Eg The Court of Appeal held that:1
The copyrights of other literary works can be infringed even when there is no substantial similarity between the works, it would thus appear that the copyrights of computer programs can be infringed even absent copying of the literal elements of the program.
Eg The test for the implication of terms is that set out by the majority in BP Refinery (Westernport) Pty Ltd v Shire of Hastings:2
... for a term to be implied, the following conditions (which may overlap) must be satisfied: (1) it must be reasonable and equitable; (2) it must be necessary to give business efficacy to the contract so that no term will be implied if the contract is effective without it; (3) it must be so obvious that "it goes without saying"; (4) it must be capable of clear expression; (5) it must not contradict any express term of the contract.
(b) General rules
(i) Quotations within quotations
Quotations within short quotations are enclosed within single quotation marks.
Eg The defendant had told the plaintiff that "there was no need ... to be concerned because he had 'five years on the contract and it [was] very difficult ... to have that clause altered'."2
If the quotation is within a long quotation, enclose it within double quotation marks.
(ii) Footnotes and citations within quotations
If there are footnotes or citations in the material being quoted, omit these where possible.
Where inline citations (citations in the body of the text) are omitted, note this after the quotation by inserting "citations omitted" in round brackets following the quotation.
When the quoted text includes footnotes which are omitted, note this after the quotation by inserting "footnotes omitted" in round brackets following the quotation.
When footnotes or citations within quotations are being retained, the following rules apply depending on whether footnotes or inline citations are being used.
If footnotes are being used
When the quoted text includes footnotes which are retained and you are using footnotes for citation information, include the content of the original footnotes in a footnote. Such footnotes form part of the sequentially numbered footnotes being used in the rest of your work and appear at the end of the page as per usual. Make the footnotes as compliant as possible with this guide, even if that requires altering the format of that footnote.
Eg Section 55 of Queensland's Property Law Act 1955 requires the third parties' acceptance of changes to an insurance contract. However, where there has been no acceptance the insurer's duties have been described as follows:2
... the insurer is under no duty to inform the third party of cancellation of the policy. It has been held that to impose a duty on the insurer to give notice to a third party would have the effect of rewriting the policy, which the courts are reluctant to do.3 However, it is arguable that a third party beneficiary has a right to expect notification from the insurer of cancellation of the policy in accordance with the duty of utmost good faith.4
2 Samantha Hardy "Third Party Beneficiaries to Insurance Contracts" (1997) ILJ 15 at 21-22.
3 Cooper Henderson Finance Ltd v Colonial Mutual General Insurance Co Ltd (1989) 5 ANZ Insurance Cases ¶60-924 (CA).
4 This issue was not raised in Cooper Henderson, above, which was decided solely on the basis of a duty of care in negligence.
If inline citations are being used
When the quoted text includes footnotes which you wish to retain, and you are using inline citations, include the material in the original footnotes inline inside square brackets. Make the inline citations as compliant as possible with this guide, even if that means altering the format of the original citation.
Eg The policy of equitable remedies in relation to breach of confidence claims is considered in John Glover Equity, Restitution & Fraud (LexisNexis, Chatswood (NSW), 2004) at [7.13]:
Insolvency rearranges the usual structure of relations between the parties to an unjust enrichment claim. Moral or legal justifications may not exist for giving restitutionary claimants priority over third parties. Defendants may not have not been enriched, in a real sense, at the claimant's expense. Claimants and defendants may not have had prior dealings [Westdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale v Islington London Borough Council [1996] AC 669 (HL) at 704 per Lord Browne-Wilkinson].
(iii) Alterations
Enclose any alteration of the original, except the insertion of an ellipsis, in square brackets.
Generally, quotations should not be altered. The following are exceptions:
Mistakes and errors
If there is a minor syntactical or typographical error in the original, simply correct it in the quotation by inserting the correct word or words in square brackets and removing the erroneous word or words.
Do not use the Latin "sic" except where it is important to record that this particular expression or mistake was used by the original author.
If "sic" is used it should be contained in square brackets and placed after the mistake or error.
Eg Original: The judge have decided that ... .
Quotation: "The judge [has] decided that ... ."
Eg Original: The judge have decided that ... .
Quotation: "The judge have [sic] decided that ... ."
Quotations forming part of a sentence in the text
If the quotation completes or is part of a sentence in the text, the complete sentence must be grammatically correct.
It may be necessary to alter the quotation to achieve this.
Eg Original: The ground on which the grant of an option to purchase some time in the future is treated as improper on the part of trustees is because it precludes them from exercising their judgement according to the circumstances as they exist at the time of sale.
Quotation: The option to purchase was regarded as improper because "it preclude[d] [the trustees] from exercising their judgement according to the circumstances as they [existed] at the time of sale".
(iv) Emphasis
Indicate the addition of emphasis by writing "(emphasis added)" in the relevant footnote after the citation or following the quote in the text if using inline citations.
Emphasis should be used sparingly.
For further information on the use of emphasis see rule 1.1.4.
Eg Emphasis added:
The Court held that "[t]he upbringing of children extends to making decisions for them as to health and medical treatment."1
1 Re J (An Infant): B and B v Director-General of Social Welfare [1996] 2 NZLR 134 (CA) at 145 (emphasis added).
(v) Omissions
Where any part of the original text has been deliberately omitted in a quotation, indicate this by an ellipsis "...". Do not enclose the ellipsis in brackets or quotation marks. Rather the ellipsis should be preceded and followed by a space.
Use the ellipsis symbol and not three full stops. The keyboard shortcut for ellipsis is "Ctrl + Alt + ."
Where a paragraph has been omitted, place the ellipsis in the line break between the quoted paragraphs and aligned to the left margin.
Where a sentence has been omitted, place the ellipsis one space after the full stop and one space before the beginning of the next sentence.
Retain the punctuation in the original text.
Eg Original: "I find, having regard to his experience and the evidence which I have heard of the circumstances, that the risk must have been clear to him and it is not a defence for him to claim that his attention was taken up by the banner."
Quotation: The judge held that "having regard to his experience and the evidence which I have heard of the circumstances, ... the risk must have been clear to him".
(a) Numbers
Use numerals as opposed to writing numbers out in words wherever possible, except that:
(a) Write out whole numbers under 10 (except footnote numbers, numbers in dates and numbers relating to legislative provisions) in words.
(b) Where a number begins a sentence, write it in words. Where possible, however, it may be better to rewrite the sentence to avoid beginning with a number.
Express percentages in the format "75 per cent" or "nine per cent", with "per cent" written as two words.
Eg The section refers to 0.25 of one per cent.
Write page and paragraph number ranges out in full: 360-365 (not 360-65); and [32]-[38].
Use commas to indicate thousands from the number 1,000 and upwards: hence "4,500" and "12,300".
(b) Dates
Always write dates in the format 28 October 1965.
(c) Decades
Give references to decades in full. For example, do not abbreviate "1990s" to "the nineties" or "90s".
Do not put an apostrophe between the year and the "s".
Spans of years are separated by an en dash, not a hyphen. An en dash is longer than a hyphen and shorter than an em dash. The keyboard shortcut for an en dash is "Ctrl + - " (where "-" is the minus symbol).
When spans of years are written give both years in full: 1985-1987 (not 1985-87).
(d) Centuries
Write centuries up to and including the ninth in full, in the format "eighth century".
Write all other centuries in figures with the "th" in lowercase letters, not superscript, in the format "19th century".
(e) Ordinal numbers
Write ordinal numbers out in full. Do not use numerals.
Eg The first time the Court considered ... .