Skip to Main Content

APA 7th Referencing Style Guide

Law and APA

APA is not designed for referencing New Zealand legal materials.

Law students

Law students at AUT should use the New Zealand Law Style Guide for referencing law materials.

Use the AUT Library Law subject guide, which contains Legal Referencing & Citation Tools and the New Zealand Law Style Guide,

Non-law students

  • Students studying other disciplines can use APA to cite the occasional Act or Court Case
  • This APA Referencing Style Guide gives AUT interpretations on APA for New Zealand legal resources
  • You may include a URL in your reference, but it is not advised to link to a Library database such as Lexis Advance.  A URL is not necessary if the legal information is easy for your reader to find online.

Acts (Statutes)

  • An Act (also called a Statute) is a law passed by a legislative body
  • The date is part of the title of the Act
  • New Zealand Acts do not require the country to be added 

If citing overseas legislation, place an abbreviated form of the jurisdiction in which the Act was passed in round brackets following the year. If there is no commonly used abbreviation for that jurisdiction, or where it will add clarity, write the jurisdiction out in full. (Adapted from the NZ Law Style Guide 3rd ed.)

Reference format

Title of the Act.

Title of the Act (Country abbreviation if not NZ).

Reference examples

Gaming Duties Act 1971.

Counter-Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019 (UK).

In-text citation

Recent legislation (Gaming Duties Act 1971) has seen significant changes in .....

In text citation with sections in  Acts

There shall be paid to the Crown a duty (Gaming Duties Act 1971, s 9) ...
In section 9 (Gaming Duties Act 1971) a duty shall be paid to the Crown ..
A lottery duty shall be paid to the Commissioner (Gaming Duties Act 1971, ss 9–11) ...
... sections 9 to 11 (Gaming Duties Act 1971) says a duty is to be paid ...
  • Use s for a section or ss for sections
  • Section numbers are not included in the reference list

Bills

  • A Bill is a draft of a new law or an amendment to a current law, presented to Parliament for discussion
  • The date is part of the title of the Bill 
  • Include the Bill number for information on the stage of the bill in Parliament

Reference format

Title of the Bill (Bill number).

Reference examples

Arms (Firearms Prohibition Orders) Amendment Bill 2019 (58–1).
Resource Management Amendment Bill 2019 (180–1).
Referendums Framework Bill 2019 (161–2).

In-text citation

If more than one referendum is to be held all referendums may be included in a single voting paper (Referendums Framework Bill 2019 (161–2), cl 14).

Bills have clauses rather than sections:

  • Use the abbreviation cl for a clause or cls for clauses
  • Clause numbers are not included in the reference list

Legislative Instruments (Regulations)

Most regulations and rules, and many notices, orders, determinations, and warrants, are Legislative Instruments, previously known as Statutory Regulations. 

Reference format

Title of the Legislative Instrument.

Reference examples

Accident Compensation (Definitions) Regulations 2019.

Auditor Regulations 2012.

Corrections (Mount Eden Corrections Facility) Notice 2017.

Citing clauses in in-text citation

The meaning of counsellor in this Instrument is a person who is entitled to payment (Accident Compensation (Definitions) Regulations 2019, cl 5) ...
  • Use the abbreviation cl for a clause or cls for clauses
  • Clause numbers are not included in the reference list

Court cases

Reported cases

  • Reported cases are court and tribunal decisions that have been reported or published in a report series such as the New Zealand Law Reports

Unreported cases

  • Unreported cases are court or tribunal decisions that have not been published in a law report series
  • Use the official neutral citation if available. Neutral citations are taken from the original copy of the case
  • If a neutral citation is not provided, use the case file number

Reported

Reference format

Party Name v Party Name [Year] Volume number Report abbreviation

Start page.

Reference example 

Speirs v New Zealand Police [2019] 3 NZLR 256.

 

Unreported with neutral citation

Neutral citations identify judgments independently of any report series, and cite only parties, year of judgment, court and judgment number.

Reference format

Party v Party [Year] Court abbreviation Decision number.

Reference example

Blue Reach Services Ltd v Spark New Zealand Trading Ltd [2019] NZSC 65.

 

Unreported without official neutral citation

Reference format

Party v Party Court abbreviation and Location File number Date - DD Month Year.
  • If there is no official neutral citation and the case is unreported, cite using the file number citation format.

Reference example

Marlborough Lines Ltd v Takeovers Panel HC Wellington CIV-2010-485-1150, 12 October 2010.
  • Parties (people or organisations involved) are sometimes substituted by a letter eg. X if a name is suppressed.
  • Abbreviations for a law report or court where the case was heard can be found in Legal Citations of Aotearoa New Zealand.

Commentary

Legal commentaries provide up-to-date information on subject areas or law.  These include online texts, journal articles and legal encyclopedias. Treat as an e-book, print book or article.

Reference format (for online updating commentary)

Author, A.  (Date). Title of section. In Title of publication. Location. Publisher.

Reference example 

Davenport, G. (2011). Bargaining in good faith. In Mazengarb's Employment Law (NZ). Lexis Advance.
 

Spiller, P. (n.d.) Stare decisis [Definition]. In Dictionary of New Zealand Law.  LexisNexis NZ. Retrieved March 25, 2021, from https://advance.lexis.com/api/permalink/cbae21d3-717b-4c1b-b250-765c238d5110/?context=1230042&federationidp=C3P5FR51209

Parliamentary debates (Hansard)

Reference format

Online

Speaker, Initials. (Year). Title. New Zealand Parliamentary Debates, Volume number, Start page. URL                                     

Print

Speaker, Initials.  (Year, Month, Day). Title. New Zealand Parliamentary Debates, Volume number, Page.

Reference example from the New Zealand Parliament website

Bayly, A. (2018, December 12). Arbitration Amendment Bill: Second reading. New Zealand Parliamentary Debates, 735, 8885. https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/document/HansDeb_20181212_20181212_40/arbitration-amendment-bill-second-reading

  • Click the Metadata link on the top right corner of the webpage to find the page number  

 

Reference example from the print copy

Harre, L. (2002). Parental Leave and Employment Protection (Paid Parental Leave) Amendment Bill: Second reading. New Zealand Parliamentary Debates, 599, 15242-15244.

Waitangi Tribunal reports

Print report

Waitangi Tribunal. (2015). He Whiritaunoka: The Whanganui land report (Report No. Wai 903). Legislation Direct.

Online report   

Waitangi Tribunal. (2015). He Whiritaunoka: The Whanganui land report (Report No. Wai 903). https://waitangitribunal.govt.nz/assets/Documents/Publications/WT-Whanganui-land-report.pdf