Referencing Hack #5 – Legal Dictionaries

Legal referencing can be tricky. One question the library sees often is how to cite a legal dictionary. After collaborating with law academics this is what we suggest when referencing an online legal dictionary with QUT Legal –

Your footnote must contain:

1. Name of the publisher, title of the legal dictionary, (date of last update of the defined term or if that is not available then date of retrieval preceded by ‘at’), ‘name of defined term’ (name of related area of law) [pinpoint reference as a paragraph number, if one exists].

Here is our example –

1. LexisNexis, Encyclopaedic Australian Legal Dictionary (at 9 August 2016), ‘Council’ (Environment) [1].

Is this how you cite a printed legal dictionary too, you ask? For paper legal dictionaries cite according to AGLC3 as if it was a book. And remember to always keep an eye on your punctuation.

You can view more referencing hacks from QUT Library and if you need assistance, contact your referencing experts!