Major Changes in the Third Edition

The major changes in the third edition are of three types.

First, the third edition provides clarification of the existing rules where there may previously have been uncertainty:

• Rule 1.2.2(b)(iii) requires that where a quotation uses full stops to indicate abbreviation these should be removed.
• Rule 2.2.4(a) clarifies that “and” should precede the final source in a list of two or more sources in a footnote.
• Rule 2.3.1(a) states that ibid should not be used. Rule 2.3.1(a)(v) illustrates how “, above n x,” may be used in situations where ibid might previously have been relied upon.
• Rule 5.4 states that this rule may also be used for non-governmental papers and reports.

Second, the third edition includes new, updated or expanded rules for the following:

• punctuation (rule 1.1.2);
• English and Welsh judges (rule 1.1.6(d)(ii));
• ending a long quote mid-sentence (rule 1.2.2(a)(ii));
• numbers (rule 1.2.3(a) and (f));
• footnote placement mid-sentence (rule 2.2.2);
• signals in footnotes (rule 2.2.4(b));
• repetition of date of enactment and jurisdiction identifiers for legislation (rule 2.3.1(a)(ii));
• the District Court Reports (rule 3.2.3(b)(iv));
• court identifiers where a law report contains multiple judgments (rule 3.2.7(a));
• neutral citations for New Zealand courts and tribunals (rule 3.3.3);
• decisions of the Māori Land Court and Māori Appellate Court (rule 3.5);
• provisions within schedules (rule 4.1.1(d));
• the Treaty of Waitangi (rule 4.1.1(e));
• secondary legislation (rule 4.3);
• online Hansard (rule 5.1.1);
• submissions to select committees (rule 5.1.3);
• departmental disclosure statements (rule 5.4(f));
• Government Bill exposure drafts (rule 5.4(f));
• United Kingdom Command Papers (rule 5.4(f));
• New Zealand Law Society seminars and webinars (rule 6.7.2);
• Twitter (rule 7.1.10);
• edited or translated versions of historical texts (rule 7.7.1);
• archived materials (rule 7.7.2);
• European Court of Human Rights cases (rule 10.5.3);
• identifiers for New Zealand tribunals (Appendix 1);
• official reports and neutral citations for Australian courts (Appendix 2);
• official reports and neutral citations for Canadian courts (Appendix 3);
• neutral citations for English and Welsh courts (Appendix 4); and
• order of sources in a bibliography (Appendix 7).

Third, this edition includes a number of substantive changes to the previously existing rules:

• Capitalisation of “common law”, “civil law” and “equity” is no longer required (rule 1.1.5).
• In accordance with English practice the judicial abbreviations for the Justices of the Supreme Court should be used (rule 1.1.6(d)(ii)).
• For omissions in quotations a full stop should no longer be included immediately following an ellipsis (rule 1.2.2(b)(v)).
• The rule requiring “, above n x,” to be used when a case is removed from its citation by more than five pages no longer applies; instead the context should guide the decision whether to use “, above n x,” (rule 2.3.1(a)).
• Regarding multiple judgments within one law report, for ease of locating the report the first page of the report should be given rather than the page on which an individual judgment begins (rule 3.2.6(a)).
• One standard method for citing definitions in legislation should be used (rule 4.1.1(d)).
• Online commentaries should be identified as “online ed” rather than as “online looseleaf ed” (rule 6.3).
• An author should be provided where appropriate when citing the Laws of New Zealand (rule 6.6).
• The rules relating to the citation of United Nations documents have been revised and simplified (rules 10.4.2–10.4.3).
• Following the digitisation of the European Court Reports in 2012, European Union cases from 2012 onwards should be cited according to their European Case Law Identifier (rule 10.5.1(c)).