Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style (legal)

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This doesn't really seem to be much of a Legal Style guide. It should either be expanded upon, or put back into the main Manual of Style. For my bit, if it's useful, here's the style guide my uni uses for legal citations:

University of Western Australia Law Review Style Guide

I hope this helps. -- Mark Ryan 03:54, 22 Nov 2003 (UTC)

It's something I started when I was corrected. I'll leave it to the lawyers to write more... Jamesday 14:16, 22 Nov 2003 (UTC)

LOL well for what it's worth, it's right at the moment. Except I wouldn't put a fullstop after the 'v', but I think that's just specific to my uni. - Mark Ryan 15:01, 22 Nov 2003 (UTC)

I am going to use the above link and one from the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School to have a good start on this. I will do more when I have access to my Chicago Manual of Style. I am going to put this information in Wikipedia:Legal Citation, and request that this page be removed. - Chris Hagar 01:20, 13 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Style tends to cover things other than citation standards. Things like structure of articles. It may well be better to have this here than in an article suggesting that it's about citations rather than style. Or maybe I'll agree with you. On the legal citation side, you might consider whether that merits an encyclopedia article - there are aspects to legal citations which merit explaining there, if it hasn't been done already. If you do want to go ahead at Legal Citation, no need to delete this one. Just move it there using the move link ont eh left side of the article page. That will leave a link from here to there automatically as well as preserving the history of contributions. Jamesday 11:39, 13 Jan 2004 (UTC)

[edit] The period

There's some discussion about whether case citations should have a period (.) after the "v", or not. I reckon that the sensible thing to do is use the convention of the jurisdiction. In Australia, we don't have it. Though perhaps a redirect page could be created with the verso, so that everyone can reference it easily. Sound ok? An An 04:11, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Yes.—msh210℠ 01:48, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Pronunciation

Copied from Category talk:Latin legal phrases:

==Pronunciation==

In my opinion, each page in this category (and its stub subcategory) should include at its start a pronunciation guide (see WP:MOS-P) that indicates both the true Latin pronunciation and the way the word is pronounced by lawyers today. For the former, I guess the Ecclesiastical pronunciation (see Latin pronunciation) would be most appropriate, depending, though, on when the word came into use, or perhaps the original Latin pronunciation; for the latter, just ask lawyers (knowing, though, that some words have more than one common pronunciation).—msh210℠ 04:44, 20 July 2006 (UTC)

I can't see why one would want the ecclesiastical pronounciation since (1) legal latin has its own rules, which are quite different from the ecclesiastical. Latin as spoken by Romans was different again. Francis Davey 08:44, 20 July 2006 (UTC)
Well, fine: I suppose the Ecclesiastical/original pronunciation is unnecessary, provided that the pronunciation in use in legal circles is preceded by a note like common legal pronunciation:.—msh210℠ 01:35, 25 July 2006 (UTC)

Please continue discussion here.—msh210℠ 01:48, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Boldfacing statute names

Why boldface statute names? (1) It's not standard Stateside (as far as I know). (2) It's confusing on Wikipedia, where boldfacing is used for the title phrase of each article, and for related words. (The statute might not be such, of course.)—msh210℠ 01:54, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

I must admit, I too have reservations about boldfacing statute names. Italicising cases is standard the world over, but I don't know of any precedent for boldfacing statutes. Legis 11:31, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Including this in the MOS

This article neither is listed on nor includes {{style}}. Once it is fairly well finalized and accepted by consensus, it should do both, and also include {{style-guideline}}.—msh210℠ 01:54, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Contra a Universal System

"I reckon that the sensible thing to do is use the convention of the jurisdiction." (re "The Period")

That is exactly what we should be doing in all situations. It's the only way that we can make sure that other references to the work on the web can be located or the work itself. We need to adopt a standard that isn't universal but rather recognizes existing regional standards.

Doug. - DDHME 22:08, 18 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject Law

Shouldn't we make this part of WikiProject Law and link it to Legal citation - maybe even coordinate the two? Doug. - 22:19, 18 August 2007 (UTC)