Template:Cite act
Purpose
This template is designed for citing legislative acts, legal documents, laws, and other governmental codes.
Usage
This is a wrapper template of Citation Style 1 (CS1)'s {{Cite report}} template. It supports nearly all standard CS1 parameters with exceptions as noted below.
As the resources cited in this template will generally be primary sources, editors are advised to be familiar with Wikipedia's citation guidelines. A common usage is indirect citation, in which a secondary source references a primary source:
- United States Constitution (1st Amendment)., cited in James Roark. The American Promise. p. 2.
Syntax
Basic usage
{{Cite act | italics = | firstpage = | at = | pinpoint = | parallel = | id = | mode = | title = | script-title = | trans-title = | act-type = | type = | index = | docket = | number = | orig-section = | article = | prefix = | articletype = | article-type = }}
{{cite act |title= |type= |date= |institution= |at= |url= |access-date=}}
{{cite act
| title =
| type =
| date =
|institution=
| at =
| url =
| access-date =
}}
More parameters
{{cite act |author= |article= |title= |script-title= |trans-title= |type= |prefix= |index= |date= |periodical= |institution= |location= |at= |url= |access-date= |archive-url |archive-date=}}
{{cite act
| title =
| type =
| date =
|institution=
| at =
| url =
| access-date =
}}
{{cite act |type= |index= |date= |article= |article-type= |legislature= |title= |script-title= |trans-title= |page= |url= |access-date= |via= |language=}}
Parameter common usage notes
|title=
– Outputs in upright roman case (not italics or quotes). Will strip any outside formatting.|script-title=
– Can also meet the requirement for atitle
field. Requires an appropriate ISO language prefix, such as|script-title=el:Ελληνικά
.|trans-title=
– Requirestitle
orscript-title
, and outputs after in brackets.|orig-section=
– Passes directly to CS1. Will output in quotation marks, and strip any outside formatting. (alias:|orig-sec=
)|reporter=
– alias of CS1|series=
, and implicitly should be what|volume=
applies to; planned in later implementation to map to|journal=
(not feasible with current wrapper).|volume=
– For the|reporter=
field, the volume is whatever information is needed to find the correct issue of the periodical in which the act/law/document is published. (So for a periodical indexed by month-year, this can be a date.) In legal citations (US and UK), this precedes thereporter
, and will do so in a future version of this template. IndigoBook (US) suggests to enclose the entirevolume
field in [brackets] if it is wordy. Do not do this yourself, as it corrupts the metadata – when the base template implementation is changed this will be done automatically.|date=
– Alternatively:|year=
; passes directly to CS1|type=
– Fills the corresponding CS1 parameter, which outputs after thetitle
in parentheses. But if no|title=
fields are specified (includingscript-title
andtrans-title
), then case|title=
is set to thetype prefix index
field, and CS1's|type=none
. (alias|act-type=
)|prefix=
– Indicates how the act index/number is represented, such as= no.
,= #
, etc. Followed by a non-breaking space, then theindex
/number
.|index=
– now has (consistent with CS1 report-type templates) the aliases|docket=
and|number=
, but appends this to thetype
string.|firstpage=
– If the reporter/journal indexes its citations by their first page, then list it here (the first number after the reporter name). This is prepended to theat
/pinpoint
field.|pinpoint=
– section, page, ch. numbers in the published source being cited. Include the "s." "pp." or "ch." (with or without stops depending on consistent style); alias to CS1's|at=
.|parallel=
– for a parallel citation (typically in a requirement for both a neutral/government and commercial publisher); input the reporter with volume and pinpoint as it appears in the original citation (including brackets); for now prepends toid
field.|id=
– CS1 parameter. This is typically a unique identifier for linking to digital catalogs. (Suggested uses:{{CELEX}}
and{{ECLI}}
.) (It is not, unlike in CS1 report-type templates, an alias with|docket=
and|number=
.)
Planned deprecation (use alternatives)
|article=
– The<article-type> <article>
pair is now appended to thetype
string above. Because|article=
,|section=
, etc. are aliases for|chapter=
in CS1, it is recommended to use|orig-section=
, as this is the source-neutral reference to the original act/document. Sections/articles within the published text are cited using the|at=
parameter, using abbreviations like "art.", "para.", "§" (with full stops omitted only if consistent with the Wikipedia article's citation style).|legislature=
– now an alias of CS1|institution=
and|publisher=
.|article-type=
– Appends string to|article=
(alias:|articletype=
) (deprecation planned)
Deprecation or significant change from previous version
|df=
– Called from CS1 (or controlled by user settings); previous template usage deprecated|odf=
– DEPRECATED
Note on translation parameters: For citing acts in non-Anglophone jurisdictions, it is suggested to include all details, including the abbreviations for "article" and "section", in the translation.
CoiNS metadata
The following fields pass metadata via the CS1 base parameter:
Parameter field | Metadata key |
---|---|
<default> | rft.type = report |
title type |
rft.title |
jurisdiction location |
rft.place |
{{Cite act | italics = | firstpage = | at = | pinpoint = | parallel = | id = | mode = | title = | script-title = | trans-title = | act-type = | type = | index = | docket = | number = | orig-section = | article = | prefix = | articletype = | article-type = }}
Examples
Major legal citation style comparison
See larger list of citation style comparisons in Template:Cite act/testcases § Major legal citation style comparison
IndigoBook (US Bluebook CC0 clone) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Note for April 2024 comparisons to sandbox: series=reporter; firstpage->firstpage+at; authority=author; year->date
IndigoBook comparison test: US regulation republished
IndigoBook: US Code historical
IndigoBook: US constitutions
IndigoBook: US Congress session law
IndigoBook: US Congress hearing
IndigoBook: US Congress report
|
OSCOLA UK/Commonwealth style | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
OSCOLA has no copyright claims that I can tell
OSCOLA: Statutory instruments, etc
OOSCOLA: Bills
OSCOLA: Command papers/treaties
OSCOLA: Hansard
OSCOLA: Committee reports:
|
Australia style (AGLC) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
See e.g. Murdoch Univ Library AGLC Referencing Guide: Legislation: AGLC Acts: Jaywalking Act 1990 (NSW).
AGLC Bills: Elections Amendment (Grassroots Funding) Bill 2011 (Cth).
AGLC Orders :
AGLC Policy :
AGLC Explanatory Memorandum/Notes/Statement :
AGLC Parliamentary Papers -- Hansard :
AGLC Second Reading Speech (in Hansard) :
AGLC Treaty:
|
TemplateData
TemplateData for Cite act
Legal subtemplate wrapping cite_report; see CS1 for details
Parameter | Description | Type | Status | |
---|---|---|---|---|
article | article chapter | For words like "Annex III", "Article IV", "Subsection 2(a)", to separate from article= field, which would be numerical. (Now the entire article-section pinpoint should go in the orig-section= field.) | Unknown | deprecated |
article-type | article-type articletype | For words like "Annex", "Article", "Subsection", to separate from article= field, which would be numerical. (Now the entire article-section pinpoint should go in the orig-section= field.) | String | deprecated |
title | title | If title, script-title, and/or trans-title are set, title is passed directly to the CS1 template. If not set, it is instead populated as described in the type parameter. CS1 cite_report sets rft.title metadata | String | optional |
type | type act-type | Populates the CS1 type parameter, unless title fields are empty, in which case we set title->type and type->none. Followed by prefix and index number, but specifying these fields may be unnecessary in many cases. No metadata.
| String | optional |
index | index number docket | The identifier number of the legislation. (This is separate from the id parameter, which is used particularly for directly linking to digital catalog identifiers.)
| String | optional |
prefix | prefix | Followed by a non-breaking-space, then the index number.
| String | optional |
italics | italics | If set to any non-empty value, will output the title= CS1 field in italics. (Implemented by changing base template from cite_report to cite_tech_report.)
| Boolean | optional |
firstpage | firstpage | The first page at which the cited document is found in the reporter publication. Do not include more than one number. This is prepended before the pinpoint pages in the at= parameter. | Number | optional |
at | at | no description | Unknown | optional |
pinpoint | pinpoint at | Sections and paragraphs (neutral) or pages (non-neutral) in the published source that are being cited by the body text.
| String | optional |
authority | authority author authority1 author1 | The administrative body responsible for producing the act/law/document, that is not otherwise directly an author (use author=) or indirectly a publisher (use publisher= or institution=).
| String | optional |
orig-date | orig-date | Passed as CS1 parameter and output in brackets next to date= field. May freely carry extra information related to date of debate, enactment, revision, etc. The date= field is for the date of publication in which the source can be found.
| String | optional |
parallel | parallel | Parallel citation to a published source (reporter/journal), typically when a style requires citing both a neutral/government and commercial publication. Include volume/year and pinpoint of parallel citation, including brackets. Prepended to id= field.
| String | optional |
id | id | As CS1 field, includes any number of digital catalog or other identifiers, including templates.
| String | optional |
mode | mode | As CS1 field. If set to mode=cs2, the sepator between fields is a comma "," and there is no postfix. (Default cs1 separator and full stop is a period ".").
| Content | optional |
docket | docket | no description | Unknown | optional |
orig-section | orig-section | Reference/pinpoint article/chapter/section numbers in the original act/law/document. This is typically a source-neutral format, and is separate from the page= at= pinpoint= fields of the published version of the document. If the section has a text title, put the text in the chapter= field
| String | optional |
script-title | script-title | no description | Unknown | optional |
trans-title | trans-title | no description | Unknown | optional |