These are the footnote's general rules which are used at my University (Australia). All of these notes are in Australian Guide to Legal Citation Fourth Edition.
When to Footnote
Footnotes should be used to, provide authority for a proposition; acknowledge a source that is relevant; provide information that enables the retrieval of relevant citations and quotations that appear in the text; and provide other (often tangential or extraneous) information that is not appropriate to include in the text.
A footnote should always follow direct quotations unless their source is fully provided in the text.
The first citation of a source should appear in full.
The Position of Footnote Numbers
Footnote numbers should generally appear after the punctuation at the end of a sentence. However, footnote numbers may appear directly after the relevant text (after any punctuation except em-dahses) if this is necessary for the sake of clarity
Multiple Sources in Footnotes
If a series of sources are cited in a single footnote, a semicolon should be used to separate the sources. The word 'and' should not be used to separate the last two sources.
When citing additional sources with a different introductory signal, a new sentence (and not a semicolon) should be used.
Closing Punctuation in Footnotes
A full stop (or other appropriate closing punctuation) should appear at the end of every footnote.
Discursive Text in Footnotes
Footnotes may contain discursive text (ie text that is not a citation). Citations relating to discursive text in footnotes should appear after a colon at the end of the relevant text (unless the full citation appears) within the discursive text, including any relevant pinpoints).
When citing a source that has been cited earlier in the same footnote, or citing a different pinpoint to that cited earlier, 'at' may be used in accordance with rule 1.4.6.
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