Legislation

Most Acts of Parliament have a short formal title that can be used for citation purposes. First references to an Act should always cite this title in italics, exactly and in full, followed by the bracketed abbreviation for the jurisdiction in roman, if this is not obvious from the text.

In subsequent references, this title can be shown in roman type and with the date omitted: Local Government Act 1993 (Qld); the Local Government Act; In Queensland, the Local Government Act 1993 ...

Regulations and other delegated legislation (e.g. laws and bylaws) are treated the same as Acts, but are presented in roman type: Partnership Regulation 2004 (Qld); Parliamentary Service By-law 2002 (Qld)

Bills before parliament are presented in roman type.

Units of division

Cite divisions of Acts as follows:

• Section 4 of the Commonwealth's Copyright Act 1968
• In ss. 4-7 of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cwlth)
• The Copyright Act 1968, s. 4
• The Copyright Act, ss. 4-7.

In some cases, Regulations are divided into sections (in which case the abbreviations are the same as for Acts). In others, the individual regulations are numbered (in which case, use r instead of s for the abbreviation). Check the legislation to see which is appropriate.

• The Commonwealth's Copyright Regulations, r. 18
• The Copyright Regulations, rr. 18-19
• Regulation 18 of the Copyright Regulations (Cwlth).

Format subdivisions of Acts and Regulations (subsections and subregulations, and paragraphs and subparagraphs) as follows (note spacing):

• The Airlines Equipment Amendment Act 1981 (Cwlth), s.19(1)(a)(iii)
• The Public Service Regulations (Cwlth), r. 83(2)(a)(ii).