41 Citing Online Commentaries and Legal Encyclopaedias

The two main legal subscription databases (Westlaw New Zealand and Lexis Advance) include online commentaries and legal encyclopaedias. Each type of source has a specific NZLSG rule.

Citing Online Commentaries

Online commentaries on Westlaw New Zealand and Lexis Advance are cited using rule 6.3 of NZLSG.

Online commentaries are cited differently from websites (even though they are online) as they used to be accessible only in print, but now are integrated into the legal databases. Some firms and courts still subscribe to print editions, so your citation needs to identify that you are using the online edition unless you are using a print edition.

To cite an online commentary, include the following information:

• name of the author or editor if identified by the publisher;
  • as with book citations, the role of editor is indicated with (ed) or (eds).
  • many online commentaries do not have a named author or editor, and for these the citation begins with the title of the commentary.
• title of the online commentary in italics;
• that it is the online edition rather than print edition;
• who the publisher is;
  • the three major legal publishers in Aotearoa New Zealand (and their databases) are: Thomson Reuters (Westlaw New Zealand), LexisNexis (Lexis Advance) and Wolters Kluwer (CCH iKnowConnect).

Citing a Legal Encyclopaedia

Legal encyclopaedias are cited using rule 6.5, and you need to indicate whether you have used the online or print version. Online versions are updated much more frequently than the print, and so at times print and electronic are different – hence the need to identify which version you have used.

The Laws of New Zealand is cited using rule 6.6 as it has a different updating system than other legal encyclopaedias. When citing the Laws of New Zealand, include the following information:

• the author as identified on the page you viewed;
• the title of the legal encyclopaedia;
• the topic (chapter) that you viewed;
  • the easiest way to find this is to look at the file path at the top of the page.