Within the Bynkershoek Research Center for Legal Education, it is observed that existing citation standards are not covering all possible legal and non-legal sources. This leads to confusion in drafting legal products in a non-national legal practice setting. To address this confusion and to offer the legal professionals an alternative for citation, the research center has started a project to develop a new standard that can be used by jurists and non-jurists alike, and that is focused on the essence of citation, interpreted as (1) supporting an argument with authority and (2) allowing the reader to locate the source.
So far, the project identified the following six items that should be included by the new citation standard:
1. Author of the source: as in name of the scholar, legal person, state, administrative officer, judicial entity etc.
2. Name of the source: as in book title, article title, legislative act, policy document, judgment etc.
3. Carrier of the source: as in edited book, scholarly journal, official state gazette, case law collection, but also in the 21st century all ssrn.com, open access libraries and other electronic publication channels
4. Publisher of the source: as in the name and location of the legal person responsible for the dissemination to the wider audience, for ordering and further information purposes etc.
5. Date of the source: as in year
6. Specific location in the source: as in page number
Moreover, so far the project identified six principles that should be leading in the design and use of the citation standard:
1. Alphabetization of names: as in the desire that literature lists can be made in a logical order etc.
2. Identification of main title in library systems: as in the name of the source as it appears in databases of libraries; this name is in italics; although in modern days also article names in article collections are easy accessible in search engines.
3. Identification of technical origin: as in the need to make a distinction between peer reviewed quality high profile research origins as opposed to essayist private initiatives, to foster the appreciation of the source in terms of authority, with a special attention for country names, now that city names are not always self-explanatory for an international audience. This name is underlined.
4. Identification of right holder or potential liable publisher: as in disclosing who is ultimate responsible for the technical distribution, entitled to copyright royalties, and unlawful acts actions, depending on local liability rules and regulations, obviously. This person or legal person is underlined.
5. Avoidance of local abbreviation habits: as in not using any abbreviation in order to make the universal use possible, much in line with the critique on for instance the 352 pages citation “bible” of the USA legal industry.
6. Not changing all existing citation traditions: as in following citation traditions in the international law field around treaties etc.
This leads to the following examples:
Johnson, P.L., The Art of Making Contracts, Oxford (GBR), Oxford University Press, 2012, page 3.
Johnson, P.L., The Conflict of Law Clause in International Contracts, in: G.D. Bentley, International Contracting, Berlin (GER), Ruhm Publishing, 2003, edition 2, pages 15-29.
Johnson, P.L. and R.H. Rumpoy, State Responsibility of Rebellious Groups, in: Journal of International Law Studies (Volume 95, edition 12), Boston (USA), Tripod Journal Publishers, 2009, pages 450-610.
Johnson, P.L. and R.H. Rumpoy, State Responsibility of Rebellious Groups, Web Based Source Collection, published by the authors, via ssrn.com, www.ssrn.com/12345/johnson/blablabla, accessed on 12 December 2012.
Republic of France, Criminal Procedural Act 2011, Paris (FRA), State Publishing House, 2011, page 4. or art. 2 Criminal Procedural Act (France), depending on the type of citation.
Dutch Supreme Court, Van Gend vs. Loos Transport Company, in: State Journal of Case Law, The Hague (NLD), Tree Publishers, 1985, page 76.
European Union, Council Regulation (EC) 139/2004 on the control of concentrations between undertakings (EC Merger Regulation), in: Official Journal, 2004, Edition L24/1, Brussels (EU), Publications Office of the European Union, art 5, or art. 5 EC Merger Regulation, depending on the type of citation.
International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), New York (USA), 7 March 1966, in: United Nations Treaty Series (Volume 1234 Number 12), New York (USA), United Nations Office of Legal Affairs Treaty Section, 1996, art. 5, or art. 5