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The

European Law School

BASIC STYLEBOOK

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INTRODUCTION

LAYOUTFront pageSample front pageFormat and page setupSpelling, grammar and style

SUBMISSIONPaper documentElectronic document

BIBLIOGRAPHYFormatPrimary sources

Legislation, treaties etc.Historical textsCase law

Secondary sourcesBooks, journals etc.Electronic sourcesNon-academic sources

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INTRODUCTIONThe Stylebook was conceived to assist both the students and the staff of the European LawSchool. In the form it is now brought before you, this Stylebook is a first installment. Moreelements will be added in the (near) future, not only on technical subjects such as plagiarism,exams, evaluations and complaints, but also on such diverse topics as referencing and quotations,to finding and evaluating sources.

The guidelines and rules proposed in the Stylebook are meant as a default. Coordinators andplanning groups are free to devise their own guidelines, to be published in the introductions of theindividual course manuals. It is therefore important to always check in a course manual whetherchanges have been implemented. When there are no changes indicated, then the defaultregulations of the Stylebook are applicable.

LAYOUT

There are numerous reasons for requiring a particular layout for assignments. Most have to dowith facilitating and expediting correction and archiving of the assignments. Other considerationshave to do with the necessity of law graduates being able to apply layout requirements set by lawor by a body such as a journal’s Board of Editors.

Students are to adhere strictly to the layout rules. They may be penalized for unauthorizeddeviation from these rules in a number of ways, varying from a deduction from their grade to arefusal of their assignment.

Front page

Every assignment, paper, essay etc., no matter how short, should always have a front pagecontaining the following information:

In the top right corner:• Date of submission• ID-number• Name of student (if requested by assignment giver)• Name of the course• Name of assignment• Number of words• Tutorial group number (if requested by assignment giver)• Name of tutor or supervisor (if requested by assignment giver)

In the center of the page:• Title (+ subtitle)

You may use bold typeface, but no underlining or italics.Note: Do not give fancy titles to assignments where names are set by the assignment giver,e.g. ‘Assignment 3: Further analysis’. In such a case the name of the assignment is its title

• Illustration (optional, and only when expressly allowed by assignment giver)• The front page is always on a separate page and contains no other information or text than the

information specified above.

See the example on the next page:

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[Sample front page] 18 October, 2010ID 123456[Peter Johnston]Skills Training for LawyersAssignment 8: EssayNumber of words: 1453[Practical group 13][Tutor: S. van Leeuwen]

THE ADOPTION OBSTACLE COURSEAdoption by same-sex couples in the USA

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Format and page setup

The basic rules for the layout of every paper are very simple:

• All assignments are typed, never hand-written• All assignments have a front page• All assignments with chapters and/or (sub)sections have a table of contents• All referenced assignments have footnotes• All referenced assignments have a bibliography• Paper size: A4• Use white paper• Use page numbers• Lettering: Times New Roman 12-point• Line spacing: 1,5 throughout• Margins:

top and bottom: 2,54 cm (standard in Word page setup)left margin: 3,17 cm (standard in Word page setup)right margin: 4 cm, justified (has to be adjusted in Word page setup)

• Indention: indent the first line of each paragraph 0,5 inch from the left margin, except for thefirst paragraph of your paper or after a blank line

• Headers and footers: do not use headers and footers unless expressly allowed• Avoid (sub)sectioning in shorter essays• Chapters and sections in longer essays have numbers + headings

Spelling, grammar and style

Spelling:

• Assignments should be free from mistakes in spelling, grammar and style and contain notypo’s.

• The faculty has chosen for the British English language as standard. This means for examplethat you should write colour as opposed to color, favourite as opposed to favorite, aluminiumas opposed to aluminum. However, the endings –ize and –ization are to be preferred asopposed to –ise and –isation.

• Spelling should therefore follow the Oxford English Dictionary or the Concise OxfordEnglish Dictionary.

• All assignments should be checked with a spellchecker, though this does not relieve theassignment’s author of responsibility for mistakes in spelling, grammar or style and forremaining typo’s.

Abbreviations

• In general, every abbreviation should be followed by a full stop – e.g., no., art., dr.• No full stops are required where the abbreviation consists of capital letters – EU, EFTA,

ECHR

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Use of italics

The following terms and phrases should be printed in italics, both in the main text and infootnotes:• Titles of books, journals, newspapers, pamphlets etc. mentioned in the assignment, e.g. the

Oxford English Dictionary or Rawls’A Theory of Justice• Case names, e.g. Levin v. Staatssecretaris van Justitie, the Bettray Case, Blaizot• Foreign words or short phrases, e.g. Bundesamt, kantonrechter, acquis communautaire, ius

commune. However, this does not apply to common Latin abbreviations such as e.g., et seq.,cf., i.e., viz.

• Words or phrases the author wishes to emphasize (to be used sparingly)• Neologisms, but only the first time they are used in a text; at that time, they are accompanied

by a reference to the coiner – e.g. “For this purpose, De Groot coined the phrases sourcelanguage legal system and target language legal system1”, of course accompanied by acorrect reference to - in this case- "Gerard-René de Groot; 'Een nieuw tweetalig juridischwoordenboek', in: Recht en Vertalen [Law and Translation]. Deventer: Kluwer, 1993" in thebibliography and "De Groot, 1993", accompanied by the right page number, in the footnote

Grammar, style and punctuation

European Law School students are expected to have mastered the English language, in bothspeech and writing, at a consummate level of proficiency. This means that they must be able tospeak and write in an articulate and comprehensible manner, using grammatically correct andstylish English, with few mistakes or errors. An initial period of getting used to English as ateaching language will be taken into account, but a steep learning curve should be expected. Thelevel of English will be taken into account when grading assignments, papers and exams.

Reaching a high level of proficiency in the English language is the sole responsibility of thestudent. Students whose English language proficiency is below par, are advised to take languagecourses, for instance at the University’s Language Centre.

• For questions on grammar, style and punctuation, please consult The English Style Book(except chapter 6), to be found at: http://www.litencyc.com/stylebook/stylebook.php

http://www.litencyc.com/stylebook/stylebook.php

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SUBMISSION

Assignments can be submitted in hardcopy or in electronic format. Maastricht university iscommitted to being environmentally friendly, therefore electronic submission is preferred. Giventhat electronic submission is the norm, the assignment giver will specifically state when hardcopysubmission of a paper document is required instead of, or in addition to, electronic submission.

A generally accepted, though often unwritten rule of law is that the responsibility tocommunicate a message of whatever kind to the intended recipient is the sole responsibility of thesender. That includes any academic assignment. Therefore, the responsibility to make surethat a readable version of any student assignment reaches the assignment giver on timerests squarely with the student, whether this be a hardcopy or electronic document.

Nevertheless, the faculty wishes to expedite correct submission as much as is possible.Therefore, there are a number of rules and recommendations, which are listed below.

Paper document

Staple

• Use a single staple in the top left corner to bind the paper document.• Do not use a paper clip of any kind. Paper clips disappear causing the paper to fall apart.• Do not use a binder or folder of any kind. Fancy folders do not make your assignment better,

they only make it more difficult to access the document for grading or to transport andarchive a stack of assignments.

Submission medium

• Best practice is to hand deliver your paper to the appointed destination yourself.• A student may choose to hand in the paper through other means, e.g. the mail or a fellow

student, but any and all mishaps, mistakes and failures regarding the submission that occur asa result are attributable to the student alone.

Electronic documents

Support

Electronic documents are to be uploaded via a computer. This can be a private desktop computeror laptop, or a university computer. There is important information that you should be aware ofregarding private desktop computers and laptops.

Maastricht University has made a number of choices regarding ICTS helpdesk support ofcomputer systems, browsers and applications. One of the most important choices is thatMacintosh products or products adapted for Macintosh are not supported.

This is much more important than students realize! When something goes wrong withuploading assignments and papers, ICTS helpdesk will give their best effort to help you, but onlyif you are working with the material and the programs they support. Otherwise, you arecompletely on your own. This may mean you will be unable to upload an assignment, which inturn could lead you to fail the course. For this reason, the faculty has chosen to requirecompliance with these choices from the students.See what ICTS can and can’t, will and won’t do for you on www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/ICTS.

http://www.maastrichtuniversity.nl/ICTS

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Computer systems

The ICTS helpdesk will help you with certain aspects. Among them: installing wireless and VPNon your laptop and desktop computer, rename accounts and change passwords, setting up anti-virus software and setting up Outlook. However, they only do this for a number of Windowssystems, not for any other system.

• Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 are supported• Apple, Linux and any other computer system are not supported

Browsers

• The only browser recommended and supported by ICTS is Internet Explorer. This browserhas the best compatibility with our EleUM system and our student email accounts.

• All other browsers, such as Safari, Google Chrome or Firefox, are not supported.

Applications

• The ICTS Service desk does not support specific computer applications.• However, they will give their best effort to help out with immediate problems in the

Microsoft Office applications Word, Powerpoint and Excel.• Nevertheless, students who do not know how to work with the finer features of Microsoft

Office programs should educate themselves further as the helpdesk is not a teaching facility.

Submission of electronic documents

Word processor

• All electronic documents are to be in Microsoft Office Word format. Microsoft Office Wordfor Mac, versions 2004 and later are accepted as well, earlier versions are not. Keep in mindthough that Microsoft Office Word for Mac is not supported by the ICTS helpdesk.

• This means that the document has an automatically generated suffix of .doc (Microsoft Office2003 and earlier) or .docx (Microsoft Office 2007 and later, Word for Mac 2004 and later).

• Uploaded documents with other formats frequently cannot be opened. For that same reason,the Word 97-2003 & 6.0/95 – RTF format which also presents the extension .doc cannot beused as it also results in a corrupted file which cannot be opened.

• Files with other extensions, such as “.odt”, “.dot”, “.xml”, “.wps”, “.txt”, “.rtf”, “.docm” etc.also cannot be submitted.

• Consequently any and all mishaps, mistakes and failures regarding the submission andaccessibility of documents with the wrong format are attributable to the student alone.

• Documents in PDF format can be opened, but are not accepted because it is either verydifficult or impossible for staff to grade these documents electronically, should they wish todo so.

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Naming instructions

• Assignment givers can set requirements for the naming of the electronic document to besubmitted. Students are to adhere strictly to such naming instructions. They may be penalizedfor unauthorized deviation from these rules in a number of ways, varying from a deductionfrom their grade to a refusal of their assignment.

• Naming instructions reflect the particular nature of the assignments in a course and willtherefore vary considerably. There will be elements designed to identify the student andelements to identify the specific assignment by that student. Look for the specific naminginstructions in the Introduction section of the course manual.

Submission medium

• Assignment givers can instruct students to submit assignments via EleUM or via e-mail.• In EleUM, assignments can, depending on the instructions of the assignment giver, be

uploaded in Assignment, Safe Assignment or the Discussion board.• Students should submit any and all documents from a university computer.• In case submitting from a university computer does not succeed, students are required to try

submitting from at least one other university computer.• In case submitting turns out to be impossible from at least two university computers, students

are to contact the assignment giver immediately.• In case a student does not try to submit from a second university computer, or does not

immediately contact the assignment giver after uploading from a second computer has failedas well, any and all mishaps, mistakes and failures regarding the submission and accessibilityof documents are attributable to the student alone.

• Students may choose to submit from a non-university computer, but in that case any and allmishaps, mistakes and failures regarding the submission and accessibility of documents areattributable to the student alone.

• The browser to be used is Internet Explorer, whether on a university computer or a non-university computer. The reason for this is that all other browsers are known to be erraticallyproblematical in the connection with EleUM and are not supported by the ICTS Service desk.Students should always check whether the uploading has been successful and whether theuploaded document is accessible by opening the uploaded document again. It is best to dothis from a different computer than the one used for the uploading.

• Students should always make sure to start uploading in time, well before the expiration timeof the uploading window, to allow for troubleshooting and checking.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

The bibliography of an assignment, paper, essay or thesis, lists all sources used in the preparationof the product. The formal requirements for bibliographies differ greatly between publishers,editors of journals and academic institutions. To make sure that Maastricht students will never befazed by whatever requirements they might meet in this regard, the faculty has decided to set thehighest possible standard for bibliographies of student papers.

Many scholars and scientists list in their bibliographies only those sources they utilize morethan once or twice in reference. To those sources used only once or twice, they refer in footnotes,giving the full bibliographical data there. As, however, the bibliography of a student writingproduct also serves to allow the tutor, teacher or supervisor to see at a glance what sources thestudent has used, students are expected to insert all their used sources in the bibliography.

When a source, be it primary or secondary, is listed in the bibliography, this indicates that it hasbeen consulted from the first page to the last. This means that all material relating to the subjectof the writing product is retrieved from the source.

Not doing so could be seen as a form of inversed fraud: suppressing available information.Suppose a source is used to bring an argument, or to corroborate an argument from anothersource. If the student fails to see, because they did not read that far, that a few pages further downinformation is presented that is relevant to the topic as well, then this could be quite serious. Ifthis information refutes earlier propositions or arguments brought from the same source, orrefutes arguments brought from another source, the student should have seen this: it is, after all,assumed that the whole source was consulted.

The student will thus be seen as having suppressed these arguments, perhaps because they didnot fit the theories and conclusions of the paper. That is a (serious!) form of academic dishonesty.The two most important points regarding a bibliography are therefore:

• All used sources are presented in the bibliography, including those used only once• Presenting a source in the bibliography affirms that the source was consulted in its entirety

Format

Divisions

Nowadays, it becomes more and more customary to group together the different types of sourcesunder separate headings. The first division is between primary and secondary sources. These arethen further divided. A usable subdivision of sources and one that we will take as starting point is:

Primary sourcesLegislation, treaties etc.Historical sourcesCase-law

Secondary sourcesBooks, articles in journals etc.Electronic sourcesNon-academic sources

Primary sourcesLegislation, treaties etc.Historical sourcesCase-law

Secondary sourcesBooks, articles in journals etc.Electronic sourcesNon-academic sources

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Primary sources provide original facts and data: the contents of a rule of law (legislationand treaties), the application of a rule of law (case-law), the way a rule of law came to be(parliamentary proceedings, NGO reports etc.), the facts of a case (case law).

Secondary sources provide an explanation of the contents, application and history ofprimary sources, an opinion on the contents, application and future of primary sourcesand/or the theoretical background to any of these.

Note: all original facts and data must be referenced from primary sources, not secondaryones!

Elements of bibliographical entries

Each bibliographical entry consists of certain mandatory elements. Which elements are required,differs from source type to source type. One important element of these entries is the heading.This is written in bold typeface and contains the surname of the author and the year of publication:Rammelloo 2001, Beekhuis 1990. This element is used in two ways:

• To alphabetize the (chapter or section of the) bibliography• To expedite referencing in footnotes

When the headings are used for referencing purposes, two possible confusing situations can occur:one author or set of authors can have multiple publications to their name in the bibliography; orthere are multiple authors, not necessarily all represented in the bibliography, with exactly thesame name.

Multiple publications from the same author(s):• When the publications stem from different years, they are differentiated by that year. This is

the reason why the year is always mentioned in the heading.• When the publications stem from the same year, they receive an additional letter code in the

heading, immediately after the publication year: Hartlief 2008a, Hartlief 2008b, Hartlief2008c.

Multiple authors with the same name:Sometimes an author will coincidentally have the same surname as another author. For thatreason, it has been common practice for a very long time to add the initials of authors in abibliography. However, sometimes even the initials coincide. Therefore many academic journalsnowadays require registration of the full given names of authors in bibliographies.

It is immaterial whether the homonymous authors are both (or all) represented in thebibliography. The goal of a bibliography is to inform the reader without ambiguity about theidentity of the author and distinguish them from other existing authors. Most of those ambiguitieswill be solved by taking up the first names of authors in the bibliography.

Sometimes, the similarity of names is no coincidence. Already in Rome there were families whoproduced generation after generation of jurists and lawyers, but families who seem to have thelaw running in their veins do occur in all times. A problem with families is that they often havenaming traditions. A good example is the Scaevola family in Rome who had multiple members ofdifferent generations named Quintus Mucius Scaevola. Another example is the Asser family, awell known Dutch family of lawyers that counts Tobias Michael Carel Asser, co-laureate of the

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1911 Nobel Peace Prize, as one of its prominent members. In that family several generations havethe first name Carel (including his grandfather Carel and his father Carel Daniel), although oftenthey can be distinguished through their other given names.

When even registering the given names in full does not help, there are two possibilities. Whenit concerns a father/grandfather and son/grandson, sr. (senior, the elder) and jr. (junior, theyounger) can be added. A good example of this are Oliver Wendell Holmes sr. and OliverWendell Holmes jr. When there is a different relationship, or when there are more than twoauthors with the exact same name, the years of birth and demise are mentioned between bracketsbehind the name.

If that is not possible because these dates are not known, then a distinguishing feature can beused. In these cases such addenda are often already established in literature. For instance, the fourRoman jurists named Quintus Mucius Scaevola which were mentioned earlier are respectivelyreferred to as Quintus Mucius Scaevola (praetor), who lived in the latter half of the third centuryBC and who was father to Quintus Mucius Scaevola (consul), who lived in the first half of thesecond century BC, who was grandfather to Quintus Mucius Scaevola Augur (through his sonQuintus) who died in 88 BC and Quintus Mucius Scaevola Pontifex (through his son Lucius) whodied in 82 BC.

To sum up:• In a bibliographic entry the names of the author are given in full• When this is not enough to distinguish the author from other authors with the same name,

then the name is followed byo Sr. or jr. when there are only two authors of that name and they are (grand)father and

(grand)sono The years of birth and demise between brackets when the relationship is not that of

(grand)father / (grand)son or when there are more than two authors with the samename

o A distinguishing feature, when the (approximate) years of birth and demise are notknown

Additional informationSometimes some additional information needs to be given to apprise the reader of the nature orrecording method of a source. For instance, the source could be a work in progress, or a speechby person A which was put to paper by person B. Or the source is an audio- or videotape of aspeech, lecture or even book or article. Or the source consisted of material archived onmicrochips or CD-ROM. In that case, the information is put in square brackets directly after thetitle: [working paper], [audiotape], [speech by X at Y on date Z], [CD-ROM] etc.

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Primary sources

Legislation

Current legislation is not normally entered into the bibliography.There is only one exception to this rule: when it is for whatever reason important to know

which text has been used. This occurs when editions of a piece of legislation• differ with respect to content between the different legal languages of a particular legal

system,• differ textually between the publishers of that legislation, or• when a translation is consulted instead of the original text.

Note, however, that in case a translation is used legislation should always be consulted in itsoriginal form as well; translations can only be used as sole source in exceptional circumstances.

Even when a bibliographical entry is necessary, though, the references in the text are only to thearticles of law themselves, not to the edition used. A good example of this is the MaastrichtCollection which provides, inter alia, translations of legal rules from the French, German andDutch legal systems for educational purposes in Maastricht's European Law School. Referencesto legal rules taken from the Collection should be to the law itself, not to the Collection.

The elements of the bibliographical template for legislation are:

• Legislation is alphabetized under the citation title of the law, therefore:• Heading with the citation title of the law and year of promulgation (in bold)• Full title of the law (in italics), followed by a full stop• When necessary, the official medium of promulgation, followed by a comma• The year of promulgation• In case of differing legal languages: [the consulted language] between square brackets• In case of differing editors: the consulted edition

See on how to enter translated sources below under books, in pre-modern works.

See for non-current legislation below, under historical sources.

Parliamentary proceedings

Most parliamentary proceedings of European countries can be found electronically on the officialwebsite of that country’s government. These proceedings include, among others, the minutes ofparliamentary sessions, draft bills and parliamentary reports.

Minutes or documents pertaining to current legislation are entered under this section, minutesor documents pertaining to legislation no longer in force belong under historical sources.

For entries on parliamentary proceedings use the local style of the jurisdiction involved.

Examples:

UK:HC Debs., vol. 989, col. 287, 25 Apr. 1980 [for House of Commons Debates].

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HC Debs., vol. 24, WA, col. 215, 12 Mar. 1976 [for Written Answers (WA)].HL Debs., vol. 158, col. 198, 23 Jan. 1993 [for House of Lords Debates].Cong. Rec., 77th Cong., 1st Sess, vol. 87, pt. 6, 2687 (27 Mar. 1941).

Treaties

Treaties are officially published in different locations. Generally, multilateral treaties will bepublished in a series like the United Nations Treaty Series (UNTS) or the Council of EuropeTreaty Series (CETS). European Union Treaties are published in the Official Journal of theEuropean Union

Examples:Lisbon Recognition Convention (CETS no. 165)

Consolidated version of the Treaty of the European Union of 30 March 2010, [2010] OJ C 83/01Verdrag betreffende de werking van de Europese Unie (Treaty on the functioning of the EuropeanUnion), Trb. 2008, 51 (Trb. Stands for Tractatenblad the official publication for Treaties in theKingdom of the Netherlands, so this is the official publication of the TFEU in the Netherlands).

Current treaties are not normally entered into the bibliography for the same reasons as currentlegislation (see above).

International legal instruments

General Assembly Resolution: GA Res. 41/133, 4 December 1986Security Council Resolution: SC Res. 181, 7 August 1963 or SC Res. 181 (1963)

European Regulation: Regulation (EC) 764/2008, 9 July 2008, [2008] OJ L 218/21European Directive: Directive 98/5/EC, 16 February 1998, as lastly amended [2006] OJ L363/141

NB: Both in Regulation and Directives the relevant international organisation is defined. Inthe two examples included above, both post-Maastricht but pre-Lisobon, the designation is“EC” (European Community). In pre-Maastricht situation the designation was “EEC” (fe.Directive 77/249/EEC). In post-Lisbon situations it may be readily assumed that thedesignation changes to the format of “Directive year/number/EU” for Directives and“Regulation (EU) number/year” for Regulations.

Historical sources

With historical sources it can be quite difficult to decide whether they belong under primary orsecondary sources.

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When a source is primarily referred to for facts and data, it belongs under primary sources inthe section historical sources. The bibliographical entry is of the same format as a book, seebelow, under secondary sources, section books.

When a source is primarily referred to for background, explanations, theories and opinions, itbelongs under secondary sources. See for entry into the bibliography of those sources below,under secondary sources, section books, subsection pre-modern works.

A special case concerns a historical source that has been commented on extensively in amodern edition, or is consulted via an annotated translation. These sources are entered twice:once in the primary sources section historical sources under the name of the original author, oncein the secondary sources section books under the name of the translator/editor. See for entry intothe bibliography of those sources again below, under secondary sources, section books,subsection pre-modern works. References in footnotes can then be differenced according to theirreferencing aim.

There are also conventions for entries on historical archive material in bibliographies. Thenumber of students consulting historical archives for their papers is, however, very small. Thesestudents are referred to their supervisor for his or her wishes on the way of entering the materialinto their bibliographies.

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Case law

Case law is a primary source, although it can sometimes carry secondary source elements inaffixed commentaries by noted jurists and lawyers. Case law is classified by jurisdiction. Withineach national grouping further subdivisioning occurs. First, come judicial decisions from thehighest court(s), arranged by date from the oldest decision to the newest. Then, the judicialdecisions of appeal courts, followed by the judicial decisions in first instance, both also arrangedby date.

Conventions for the bibliographical presentation of case law differ from jurisdiction tojurisdiction. The rule is that a jurisdiction’s own conventions in this regard are applied to thatjurisdiction’s case law. For some European jurisdictions which feature significantly in theEuropean Law School teaching materials examples will be given below of that jurisdiction’s stylein case law references. For other jurisdiction, check other publications on how these judicialdecisions are referenced.

Examples:

NetherlandsHR 19-5-1967, NJ 1967, 261 (Saladin-HBU)

FranceCass. 21 November 1955, J.C.P. 1955. II. 9004Cass. 8 July 1969, J.C.P. 1970, II, 16182Cass 19 December 2000, Bull. Civ. I, No. 333, p. 215

GermanyBGH 17 January 1968, NJW 1968, 499 = BGHZ 49, 250BGH 20 September 2000, BGHZ 145, 158 = NJW 2000, 3500

United KingdomIn case law-oriented common law systems such as the system of England and Wales the rules onpresenting case law are very specific.Cite UK cases as follows:• Names of the parties, in italics, separated by ‘v’• Year of law report in square brackets

Note: Use rounded brackets if the year is not needed to identify the correct volume• Volume number in which the case is reported• Abbreviation for the law report title• Page number or case number• Court in brackets

Examples:

Taylor v Caldwell (1863) 3 B & S 826Brinkibon Ltd v Stahag Stahl [1983] 2 AC 34Investors Compensation Scheme Ltd v West Bromwich Building Society [1998] 1 All ER 98 (HL)

Since 2001 most key judgments have a “neutral citation” which helps identify the case on theinternet even when it has not been published in a series of law reports. You do not need to notethe court as this is indicated in the neutral citation.

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Examples:

Star Energy Weald Basin Limited and another v Bocardo SA [2010] UKSC 35Birmingham City Council v Ali & Ors [2009] UKHL 36Akzo Nobel UK Ltd v Arista Tubes Ltd [2010] EWCA Civ 28R v Sheppard & Anor [2010] EWCA Crim 65

If a case has a neutral citation and also has been published in a law report, you should add theneutral citation immediately after the names of the parties and before the law report citation.

Example:

Taylor v Heal [1591] EWHC QB J100, 78 ER 478, Cro. Eliz. 222

Both in International and European Law there are specific ways to refer to case law of the courtsthat are active in these fields.

EUThe case law of the European Court of Justice is officially published by the European Union itselfin the European Court Reports. References to cases include:• Case number• Official name of the case• Year of publication in the ECR and reference to the page in the ECR where the case starts

Example:Case C-330/03 Colegio de Ingenieros de Caminos, Canales y Puertos, [2006] ECR I-00801Case C-193/05, Commission of the European Communities v. Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg,[2006] ECR I-08673

InternationalReferencing to cases of other international courts differ from court to court. It is best toinvestigate how, for that specific court, references should be construed.

Some examples:

International Court of Justice:Nicaragua Case (Merits) I.C.J. Rep. 1986, p. 14

European Court of Human Rights:Soering v. UK A 161 (1989)

https://webmail.maastrichtuniversity.nl/owa/redir.aspx?C=d9e1169543b14206bbfe32032727034d&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.bailii.org%2few%2fcases%2fEWCA%2fCiv%2f2010%2f28.htmlhttps://webmail.maastrichtuniversity.nl/owa/redir.aspx?C=d9e1169543b14206bbfe32032727034d&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.bailii.org%2few%2fcases%2fEWCA%2fCiv%2f2010%2f28.htmlhttps://webmail.maastrichtuniversity.nl/owa/redir.aspx?C=d9e1169543b14206bbfe32032727034d&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.bailii.org%2few%2fcases%2fEWCA%2fCrim%2f2010%2f65.htmlhttps://webmail.maastrichtuniversity.nl/owa/redir.aspx?C=d9e1169543b14206bbfe32032727034d&URL=http%3a%2f%2fwww.bailii.org%2few%2fcases%2fEWCA%2fCrim%2f2010%2f65.html

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Secondary sources

Books

The elements of the bibliographical template for books are:

• Heading with author(s) surname and year of publication (bold)• First name(s) of the author(s) in full

If not available: their initials (check thoroughly first!)• Last name of the author(s), followed by a semi-colon• Full title of the book (in italics), followed by a full stop• [Used edition, followed by a comma]• Place of publishing, followed by a colon

If not available: s.l. (= sine loco, without place) (check thoroughly first!)• Publishing house, followed by a comma• Year of publishing

If not available: s.d. (= sine dato, without date) (check thoroughly first!)

Examples:

Books with one or two authors:

Rammeloo 2001Stephan Rammeloo; Corporations in private international law: a European perspective. Oxford[etc.]: Oxford University Press, 2001

Heringa & Kiiver 2009Aalt Willem Heringa & Philipp Kiiver; Constitutions compared; an introduction to comparativeconstitutional law. 2nd edition, Antwerp [etc.]: Intersentia, 2009

Books with three or more authors:

Gerards et al. 2005Janneke Gerards et al.; Genetic discrimination and genetic privacy in a comparative perspective.Antwerp [etc.]: Intersentia, 2005

Books reworked by subsequent authors

Longstanding handbooks and series of handbooks often retain a reference to the original author intheir title, both out of reverence for the author and because of the reputation the work or seriesenjoys in academic or professional circles. The work is referenced in the bibliography under thename of the present author / reviser.

Examples:

Beekhuis 1990Jacob Houdijn Beekhuis; Zakenrecht, Algemeen deel. Mr. C Assers’s Handleiding tot deBeoefening van het Nederlands Burgerlijk Recht. 11e editie, Zwolle: W.E.J. Tjeenk Willink, 1980

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Tucker 1803St George Tucker; Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England. [Follows the 9th edition(1783) of the original work by William Blackstone.] Philadelphia: Birch and Small, 1803

Malanczuk 1997Peter Malanczuk; Akehurst’s Modern Introduction to International Law. 7th, revised edition,London [etc.]: Routledge, 1997

Edited books

Sometimes a book consists of related articles or chapters written by several authors. In that case,the book is treated as a stand-alone periodical, with the contribution in question treated as anarticle. The rules for multiple editors are the same as with ‘normal’ books: one or two editors areboth mentioned in full, with three or more editors only the first one is mentioned and et al.isadded.

The elements of the bibliographical template for edited books are:

• Heading with editor(s) surname and year of publication (bold)• First name(s) of the editor(s) in full• Last name of the editor(s), followed by a comma and then• (Ed(s).), followed by a semi-colon• Full title of the book (in italics), followed by a full stop• [Used edition, followed by a comma]• Place of publishing, followed by a colon• Publishing house, followed by a comma• Year of publishing

The elements of the bibliographical template for an article or chapter in edited books are:

• Heading with author(s) surname and year of publication (bold)• First name(s) of the author(s) in full• Last name of the author(s), followed by a semi-colon• Full title of the article/chapter, bracketed between inverted commas, followed by a comma

and then• In, followed by a colon• First name of the editor(s) in full• Last name of the editor(s), followed by a comma• (Ed(s).) followed by a semi-colon• Full title of the book (in italics), followed by a full stop• [Used edition, followed by a comma]• Place of publishing, followed by a colon• Publishing house, followed by a comma• Year of publishing

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Examples:

Edited book

Hartkamp et al. 2004Arthur Hartkamp et al., (Eds.); Towards a European Civil Code. 3rd edition, Nijmegen: Ars AequiLibri, 2004

Contribution in an edited book

Van Erp 1998Sjef van Erp, ‘The pre-contractual stage’, in: Arthur Hartkamp et al., (Eds.); Towards a EuropeanCivil Code. 2nd edition, Nijmegen: Ars Aequi Libri, 1998

Books with corporations, organizations or institutions as author or publisher

The elements of the bibliographical template for books with bodies as author or publisher are:

• Heading with organization name and year of publication (bold)• Organization name, followed by a semi-colon• Full title of the book (in italics), followed by a full stop• [Used edition, followed by a comma]• Place of publishing, followed by a colon• Publishing house, followed by a comma• Year of publishing

Examples:

Author and publisher

International Monetary Fund 2007International Monetary Fund; World Economic Outlook: Globalization and Inequality.Washington D.C.: IMF, 2007

Publisher

Giovannini and Mourre 2009Theresa Giovannini and Alexis Mourre (Eds.); Written evidence and discovery in internationalarbitration: new issues and tendencies. Paris: International Chamber of Commerce, 2009

Translated books

The elements of the bibliographical template for translated books are:

• Heading with author(s) surname and year of publication (bold)• First name of the author(s) in full• Last name of the author(s), followed by a semi-colon

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• Full title of the book (in italics), followed by a full stop• [Used edition, followed by a comma]• Place of publishing, followed by a colon• Publishing house, followed by a comma• Year of publishing• Translator• Full bibliographic data on original title

Lesaffer 2009Randall Lesaffer; European legal history: a cultural and political perspective. Cambridge [etc.]:Cambridge University Press, 2009. Revised by the author and translated by Jan Arriëns from:Randall Lesaffer; Inleiding tot de Europese Rechtsgeschiedenis. Leuven: Universitaire PersLeuven, 2004

Smits - Kornet 2002Jan Martien Smits and Nicole Kornet; The making of European private law: toward a IusCommune Europaeum as a mixed legal system. Antwerp: Intersentia, 2002. Translated by NicoleKornet from: Jan Martien Smits; Europees privaatrecht in wording. Antwerpen: Intersentia, 1999

Modern editions of a classical work

A modern edition of a classical work can be a (photomechanical) reprint of an existing edition ora re-edition by a new editor. The elements of the bibliographical template for modern editions ofclassical works are:

• Heading with author(s) surname and year of publication (bold)• First name of the author(s) in full• Last name of the author(s), followed by a semi-colon• Full title of the book (in italics), followed by a full stop• [Used edition, followed by a comma]• Place of publishing, followed by a colon• Publishing house, followed by a comma• Year of publishing• Manner of reproduction• Full bibliographic data on original title

Examples:

Mommsen 1854-1856 / 1984Theodor Mommsen; Römische Geschichte, 3 volumes. Darmstadt: WissenschaftlichteBuchgesellschaft, 1984. Photomechanic reprint of the 1932 edition. Original edition: 1854-1856

Jörs 1882 / 1985Paul Jörs; Über das Verhältnis der Lex Iulia de maritandis ordinibus zur Lex Papia Poppaea.Bonn: 1882. Photomechanic reprint in:Paul Jörs; ’Iuliae rogationes’, due studi sulla legislazione matrimoniale augustea, in: Antiqua 36,Napoli: Jovene, 1985

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Savigny 1850 / 1820Friedrich Carl von Savigny; Über die Lex Voconia, in: Vermischte Schriften von Friedrich Carlvon Savigny. Band I, Berlin: Veit, 1850. Reprint of:Friedrich Carl von Savigny; Über die Lex Voconia, Abhandlung gelesen in der Akademie derWissenschaften zu Berlin am 2. November 1820. Berlin: Akademie der Wissenschaften,1820/1821

Pre-modern works

Pre-modern works written in a language not everyone knows these days, such as Latin or OldFrench can often be found in translation. These translations often encompass more than a simpletranslation from one language into another, which in effect makes them more like interpretations.These works have to be presented twice in the bibliography: once in the category primary sources(see above) under the name of the original author, once in the category secondary sources (seehere) under the name of the interpreting translator.

When a reference is made to the original source, then only the original work is mentioned inthe footnote (primary source). When a comment on the original text by the translator is referenced,or information on the background of the original text is given by the translator, then the referenceis to the translator (secondary source).

A word of caution: all translation carries an element of interpretation. Relying on translatedprimary sources without truly being able to understand the primary source in its original languageis very dangerous. Any mistakes made by a student due to their reliance on a translation isattributable to that student, and that student alone!

Examples:

Watson 1998Alan Watson (Ed.); The Digest of Justinian [translation]. Revised edition, Philadelphia:University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998

Beinart & Ormonde 1941Ben-Zion Beinart and M.E.P. Ormonde; Johannes Voet, Commentarius ad Pandectas Book 19,Title 2, Locatio, conductio [translation]. Translated edition: 1689, Cape Town [etc.]: Juta, 1941

Rackham 1977Harris Rackham; Aristotle, Politics [translation]. Cambridge (Mass.): Harvard University Press,1977

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Reports

Reports are presented in the same manner as books, though it is advisable to insert [Report] afterthe title, should that title not include this information. If authors of the report are indicated, thenthe heading will show their name. If no authors are indicated, then the heading consists of a shortversion of the title.

Examples:

Fight against Fraud 2006Protection of the European Communities' financial interests: fight against fraud: annual report2003. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2006

Kyriakou 2010Nikolas Kyriakou; ‘The National Judicial Treatment of the ECHR and EU Laws: Report onCyprus’, in: Giuseppe Martinico and Oresto Pollicino (Eds.); The National Judicial Treatment ofthe ECHR and the EU Laws: a Comparative Constitutional Perspective. Groningen: Europa LawPublishing, 2010

Economic Adjustment Programme Greece 2010The economic adjustment programme for Greece [Report]. Brussels: European Commission,Directorate-General for Economic and financial Affairs. 2010

Journals

Articles in journals do not need a separate category, they can be taken up in the bibliography withthe books under ‘secondary sources’. There are, however, some differences in the bibliographicalelements.The elements of the bibliographical template for articles in journals are:

• Heading with author(s) surname and year of publication (bold)• First name(s) in full of the author(s), or, if not available their initials (check thoroughly first!)• Last name of the author(s), followed by a semi-colon• Full title of the article bracketed between inverted commas, followed by a full stop• Full title of the periodical (in italics), immediately followed by• Volume number of the periodical (also in italics) (if present), followed by a comma• Which issue of that year, if available and relevant, in the format used by the journal itself• Year of publishing followed by a comma• Begin- and end page of the article

Examples:

Wasmeier 1999Martin Wasmeier; ‘Aktuelle Fragen im Zusammenhang mit der Anerkennung vonBerufsabschlüssen’. Europäische Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsrecht 10 (24), 1999, p. 746-750

Reid 2003Kenneth G.C. Reid; ‘Vassals No More: Feudalism and Post-Feudalism in Scotland’. EuropeanReview of Private Law 3, 2003 p. 282-300

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Jarndyl 2009Seth Jarndyl; ‘The 374-Word Oath’. Annals of Improbable Research 15/2, 2009 p. 14-15

Book reviews

Most academic journals contain a section with reviews by scholars of name, of newly publishedbooks. These reviews are often extremely helpful and can even be authoritative sources in theirown right. These reviews are referenced in a bibliography as an article, with the fullbibliographical data on the reviewed book between brackets following the review title.

Example:

Rubin 2009Gerry Rubin; ‘Anne Logan: Feminism and criminal justice’ (Review of: Anne Logan; Feminismand criminal justice: A historical perspective. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008. FeministLegal Studies 17/3, 2009

Encyclopaedias and dictionaries

Most encyclopaedias and dictionaries belong to the so-called popular or non-academic sources (asopposed to academic sources). Students and academics alike have to be very careful when usingthese sources in academic writing. They can be used to ascertain simple facts, however they canonly be advanced as an extra, additional or corroborating source, never as sole source, for anyacademic argument, theory or opinion. An ever-present example of a definite academic no-no assole or even secondary source is Wikipedia.

The reason for this caution is that neither encyclopaedias nor dictionaries give much referenceto their sources, making it impossible for us to check their assertions. Wikipedia does (sometimes)give reference, but here the problem is that the contents of the lemmata can be changed too easily,and often is, by casual pranksters called ‘Wikibashers’.

Experienced professionals, who can (and do!) check the veracity of assertions even whenreferences are lacking, may in their teaching material occasionally refer to (internet)encyclopaedias or dictionaries, even Wikipedia, for further information on a topic. As students,quite logically, do not have as yet the required experience, they never may do so. This is truly acase of quod licet Iovi …

One exception exists to this rule: legal or otherwise academic encyclopaedias and legaldictionaries of (long-standing) repute can be used and quoted as an academic source, but thenonly under the name of the author of that specific lemma or the editor of the entire encyclopaedia.

Examples:

Smits 2006Jan Smits (Ed.); Elgar Encyclopedia of Comparative Law. Cheltenham [etc.]: Edward ElgarPublishing, 2006

Münzer 1927Friedrich Münzer, ‘P. Licinius Crassus Dives Mucianus’, in: Real Encyclopädie der classischenAlterthumswissenschaft, 13. Band, Stuttgart: Verlag der J.B. Metzler'schen Buchchandlung, 1927

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Lerat & Sourioux 1994Pierre Lerat and Jean-Louis Sourioux; Dictionnaire juridique. Terminologie du contrat avec deséquivalents en anglais et en allemand. Paris : Conseil international de la langue française, 1994

Digital or e-sources

More and more scholars and scientists, including legal scholars, find the larger part of theirscientific information via the internet. In some areas, where developments go particularly fast, itis nowadays even the most important source. As the internet can be rather ephemeral, withinformation being here today, gone tomorrow, using internet sources comes with a specific set ofdo’s and don’ts.

Reference to a source on internet always has to include URL-information that brings theaudience as close to the source itself as is possible. Students must check that the giveninformation does indeed lead to the source used. If that is not possible, give the URL to the mainpage of the site and present the search strategy from that point to the page used. A practical tip:especially with very long URL’s it is advisable to use a smaller letter cast for the URL.

Students must also check, as shortly before paper submission as possible, whether all theinternet sources are still available. The execution of this check must be indicated with theindividual sources by “Last visited on … .”. In case all sources have been checked at thesame time and been found to be still present and accessible, this indication can occur in theumbrella heading for the internet sources (“All sites were last visited on … ”).

If a site has gone missing or has been updated so that the data used in the paper are gone, thenthe disappeared source has to be left out. If it concerns a compact presentation of data which issubject to frequent change, then it could have been downloaded and kept in reserve for just such acase. The download can then be added to the paper in an appendix if and when the site is changedor gone.

e-article/book based on a paper edition

With articles in journals and books that know a paper edition, one can encounter the GoogleBooks Problem. There are many sites and databases, of which Google Books is one of the bestknown, which offer a digital version of books and journals.

As long as the digital version is textually identical to the paper version there is no problem.Then the bibliographical data are the same as those of the paper product and the entry can beinserted in the book section. Sometimes the layout of the paper version and the digital versiondiffers. Therefore the author must add information that he has consulted this source in its digitalform to the bibliographical data, together with the URL where the source can be found.

Example:

Wolff 1758Christian Wolff; Principes du droit de la nature et des gens. Amsterdam : M.M.Rey,1758. Retrieved from Google Books, last visited on 14 August 2010http://books.google.com/books?id=9HQc8uIKpCsC&pg=PA165&dq=subject:%22Law+/+General%22&hl=en&ei=vPtjTK_yK8z-OfXUsfIH&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CEIQ6AEwBjhs#v=onepage&q&f=false;

Most often, however, paper sources are not digitalized in their entirety, due to copyright claims.Sites such as Google Books or JStor offer mostly only certain sections of books or articles, oroffer only abstracts of books or articles with a possibility to download more, but only for payment.

http://books.google.com/books?id=9HQc8uIKpCsC&pg=PA165&dq=subject:%22Law+/+General%22&hl=en&ei=vPtjTK_yK8z-OfXUsfIH&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CEIQ6AEwBjhshttp://books.google.com/books?id=9HQc8uIKpCsC&pg=PA165&dq=subject:%22Law+/+General%22&hl=en&ei=vPtjTK_yK8z-OfXUsfIH&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CEIQ6AEwBjhs

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This means that the student cannot see the entire source. As already indicated in the introductionto the Bibliography section, this is not allowed in sound academic work.

What a student must do in such a case is go and find the paper source. Then the paper sourcecan be entered into the bibliography, with no need for the information to be repeated in theElectronic Sources section.

However: what to do if, even after a diligent search, the paper version of the truncated digitalsource cannot be found? Here, the situation differs with the level of the student. First-years andsecond-years have to check the UB catalogue and the Regional Catalogue Limburg foravailability of the source; Third-years have to check the availability of basic works in the PiCartacatalogue (= the Netherlands academic libraries), the availability of other sources in the UBcatalogue and the Regional catalogue Limburg. Master students have to check the PiCartacatalogue for availability of any source, for basic works they can occasionally even be expectedto undertake an excursion to Liège, Aachen or Köln, if their supervisor so wishes.

If the source is not available in the required libraries, then the digital version of the book orarticle can be used as a source. All bibliographical data of the paper source plus the data on theinternet finding place must be given in the section Electronic Sources of the bibliography, plusthe pages of the work which were available for consultation. (Note: not just the consulted pages!)Once again it will be assumed that all available material has indeed been consulted.

Example:

Zimmermann 2002Reinhard Zimmermann; Comparative Foundations of a European Law of Set-off and Prescription.Cambridge [etc.]: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Retrieved from http://books.google.nl;available pages: 1-10, 13-17. Last visited 14 August, 2010

Electronic article/book without a paper edition (e-books and e-journals)

Electronic articles or books without a paper edition can be inserted once again in the book section.The website where the source has been retrieved has to be referenced and the “last visited” date tobe acknowledged. Once again, it will be assumed that the entire document was consulted.

Example:

Kornet 2010Nicole Kornet; ‘Contracting in China: Comparative Observations on Freedom of Contract,Contract Formation, Battle of Forms and Standard Form Contracts’. Electronic Journal ofComparative Law 14.1, 2010. Retrieved from http://www.ejcl.org; last visited on 14 August,2010

Other internet documents

The elements of the bibliographic template for an academic internet source that is neither a booknor an article are:

• Heading with author(s) surname and year of publication (bold)• First name of the author(s) in full• Last name of the author(s), followed by a semi-colon

http://books.google.nl/http://www.ejcl.org/

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• Full title of the site (in italics), followed by a full stop• Name internet site (if available), followed by a comma• Year of publication, followed by a full stop• URL of webpage, followed by a comma• Last visited on … ..

The internet contains many documents; their academic quality is not always (read: almost never)immediately obvious. Only those documents that are indeed of academic quality can be insertedunder the heading of Digital or e-sources, all others must be relegated to the category of Non-academic sources (see below). The reason for this is that the academic sources of a student paperserve as authority for the arguments brought in the paper.

One of the requirements is that the authors are unbiased. This means that they may not bepartisan to any social or religious cause, any institution or country. This does not infer that theseauthors are bigoted, simply that they do not have a neutral outlook on the topic they are writingabout. Note: this holds true as well for all governmental sites of any country!

Rating rules to ascertain the academic quality and, therefore, the academic authority of internetcontributions:

• The author(s) are known AND• The author(s) are of good academic or professional repute (check!)• The authors are unbiased• The subject of the contribution is approached academically (serious research, system of

reference notes and bibliography)• The contribution is dated (so the readers can check whether it is current or out of date)

In all other cases, that is where the author(s) are unknown, where their academic or professionalstature cannot be ascertained, where research is not academically approached or where there is nodate, these internet sources have to be treated as non-academic sources.

Example:

Ramaekers 2009Eveline Ramaekers; The Building Blocks of Property Law: a Model Inspired by the Compositionof Rubik’s Cube; [Working Paper]. The Social Science Research Network, 2009. Retrieved viahttp://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1434926, last visited on 16 August 2010

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1434926

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Non-academic sources

Non-academic sources can never be given as sole source and authority for facts, data, theories,explanations or academic opinions. They can only serve as auxiliary sources to offer confirmationof academic sources. Their main role is to show the impact on and reaction to the topic of thepaper of society in its broadest sense.

Magazines and newspapers

As with journals. The date of publication has to be given exactly in the heading and in the entry..

Examples:

Marcus 26-08-2010Jon Marcus; ‘A straight case of discrimination? Lawsuits come in all shades for US institutions’,in: The Times Higher Education Supplement, 26-08-2010. Retrieved viahttp://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=413172&c=1, lastvisited on 1 September 2010

The Economist 396/8697‘Reform in China. Change you can believe in?’, in: The Economist vol. 396 nr. 8697, 28-08-2010p.42

Encyclopaedias and dictionaries

As with legal or academic encyclopaedias or dictionaries (see above).

Internet documents

• Non-academic internet documents sometimes have no known author. In that case, thebibliographical entry starts with the title. The heading consists then either of the title, or anabbreviated version of the title, and the year of publication on the internet.

• Non-academic internet documents sometimes have no title. In that case the opening words of(part of) the first sentence are used as title.

• Non-academic internet documents often are not published on a website with a name. In thatcase the indication s.l. (sine loco, without place) must be used in analogy with a book wherethe place of residence of the publisher is unknown.

• Non-academic internet documents often do not indicate when they were published. In thatcase the indication s.d. (sine dato, without date) must be used.

Examples:

CIA Factbookhttps://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/, last visited on 9 september 2010

Site Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkelhttp://www.bundeskanzlerin.de/Webs/BK/DE/Homepage/home.html

Wikileakshttp://wikileaks.org/

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=413172&c=1