Sweet & Maxwell Group House Style

This is not intended to be a comprehensive guide to our House Style, but it does offer a
few key points that the House Editor would typically look out for when the manuscript is
first received in-house.

It is undeniably helpful when new material is delivered in House Style as this saves time
during the early stages of the publishing process. It also means a higher level of
accuracy when material is being typeset as fewer changes will have been applied by the
House Editor to the manuscript. However, it is not expected that authors will be aware of
all the minutiae of our House Style, and the text will be edited thoroughly for House Style
points by the House Editor.

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1. Cases

Citing Cases:
e.g. Henry v London General Transport Services Ltd [2001] I.R.L.R. 132, EAT
R. v Brown Ex p. Smith

Key points
 Italicised case name.
 No full point after v.
 Square brackets around the year if it is essential to the reference (if the report can
be located by volume number alone, then use round brackets for the year).
 Full pointed law report or journal. Note that if citation includes a page number, this
should be preceded by "p." so that it can easily be distinguished from a paragraph
number.
 No full points in EAT (the court is never full pointed e.g. CA, QB, CCA, DC, HL, and
so on, see (e) for other abbreviations).
 Abbreviated party names are not to be full-pointed with the exception of R. for
Regina, e.g. A v B not A. v B.
 For cases pre-2000 use “Ex p. Smith”; for cases post-2000 use “R. (on the
application of Smith).
 No preceding comma, e.g. R. v Brown Ex p. Smith.
 Paragraph numbers/case numbers should be added in accordance with the rules on
neutral citations.

In Tables of Cases:
 Both affirming and affirmed are spelt out in full and set in roman.
 sub nom. is set in roman.
 Attorney-General should be spelt out in full but will be abbreviated in tables if
necessary to Att-Gen (not Att.-Gen.).

Case Names:
 For civil cases full names to be supplied when the surname is a common one (e.g.
R. v Smith (Terry), R. v Roberts (John)).
 For criminal cases first and second name to be provided.
 Plc and Ltd to be spelt with first letter in upper case only.
 For cyfyngedig use cyf, for cwmni cyfyngedig cyhoeddus use ccc (note no full points
and all lower case).

Admiralty Cases:
 Should be cited by the name of the parties and the name of the ship in parentheses,
e.g. Ellis Shipping Corp v Voest Alpine (The Mermaid). Where the parties are cargo
owners and ship owners the case should be cited as Owners of the Titanic v
Owners of the Cargo Lately Laden on Board The Titanic (The Titanic).

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2. Legislation

Citing Statutes:
e.g. s.1 of the Law of Property Act 1925; the Law of Property Act 1925, s.1; Sch.1 to the
Law of Property Act 1925.

Key points
 Section abbreviated to s. both preceding and following an Act, Schedule to Sch.,
paragraph to para., etc. in main text and footnotes. The same rule is applied to
regulations, rules, schedules, etc.

Citing Statutory Instruments:

e.g. Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 1981 (SI
1981/1794)

Citing Scottish Statutory Instruments:

e.g. Mull Salmon Fishery District Designation (Scotland) Order 2002 (SSI 2002/138)

Citing Regnal Years and Chapter Number for Pre-1963 Acts:

e.g. (1&2 Geo. 5 c.6)

Key Points
 The regnal years and chapter number should be enclosed in brackets, e.g.
Road Traffic Act 1960 (8 & 9 Eliz. 2 c. 16), s.16.
 The numbers are arabic not roman, on grounds of space and readability but
numerals should be roman for a local Act.
 The regnal years are connected by an ampersand.
 "Chapter" is abbreviated to "c." not "cap." and is preceded by a comma when the
sovereign’s designation is a complete word or ends in a numeral, but not when it
ends in a full point, e.g. 13 Anne c.13; 5 Geo. 1 c.11; 49 & 50 Vict. c.31.

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3. General
I. Layout:

Footnotes
 In books are numbered from 1 onwards from the beginning of each chapter. In
looseleafs, are numbered from 1 on each new page.
 Footnote indicators are inserted in the text after all punctuation EXCEPT colons,
semi-colons and mdashes.

Quotation marks and quoted and statutory material

 Quotation marks to be inserted at the beginning and end of every quotation.
 Double quotation marks are always used. For quoted material inside quotations use
single quotation marks. Double and single quotation marks should then be used
alternately for further levels of quotation.
 When the quoted extract is 22 words or over it should be typed as a separate
paragraph and indented. The text following the indented extract should be full out if
it is not a new paragraph.
 Statutory material and case reports should be reproduced in the exact form of the
source material. Under no circumstances should it be put into house style. Whole
legislative sections do not need quotation marks.
 The typographical representation of quoted and statutory material (e.g. font type and
size) may be changed to match output style. Typographical representation does not
include amending date style or anything else style based.
 Where material is omitted from a quotation, this should be indicated by ellipses.
 Any interpolations or alterations to the quotation (other than omission) should be
indicated by being placed in square brackets.
 Correct any obvious spelling errors in quotations silently. However this should only
be done where there is no doubt at all. Alternatively, flag the change using square
brackets, or simply allow the quoted text to stand but flag it with “[sic]”.
 Square brackets should be used if words are amended to help the sense of the
quotation (for instance, amending “it was of the opinion…” to “[the Court] was of the
opinion…”.

Italicisation in headings
 The style of the heading level should be followed at all times, case names, latin
terms and foreign words and phrases should only be italicised if it is an italic
heading level, even if they are italicised in the text directly below the heading.

II. Use of Terms:

Spelling and hyphenation

 judgment, acknowledgment, lodgment and abridgment (no "e" between the g and
the m),
 American spelling is anglicised unless it is quoted directly from source (i.e. s not z)
 case law (not case-law).
 first, secondly, thirdly (not firstly, secondly, thirdly).
 up to date (adverb: brought up to date to January 1, 1993), up-to-date (adjective: an
up-to-date book).
 newspapers: The Times, The Sunday Times and The Economist BUT Daily
Telegraph, Guardian, Independent and Financial Times.

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Abbreviations and terminology
 Ibid. and op. cit. should not be used as they require the reader to refer back to see
what is being cited. Use eg the author’s surname and abbreviated title, or an
abbreviated case name instead.
 et seq should be avoided if possible. Page spans should be used instead e.g.
pp.101–103 rather than pp.101 et seq.
 supra and ante are replaced by above; infra and post are replaced by below.
 United Kingdom is written in full when being used as a noun. UK can however be
used as an attributive adjective.
 Do not begin a footnote with an abbreviation (e.g. 1 s.15 of the Sale of Goods Act),
reword so the footnote starts with the Act name (e.g. 1 Sale of Goods Act, s.15). If a
footnote simply says “s.15” then this is permitted.

Latin and foreign terms

 Avoid the use of Latin terms, they should only be used where there is a specific
legal term to describe a subject.
 Latin/French phrases and other non-English expressions are italicised (unless
they have been absorbed into everyday language).
 The words in Appendix 2 are judged to have passed into everyday legal usage
and so do not require italicisation.

i.e., e,g, and etc

 These are never italicised.
 , i.e. and , e.g. are always preceded by a comma, but NEVER followed by one and
are also full pointed. They are always in lower case even at the start of footnotes.
 , etc. is always full-pointed, preceded by a comma, but never followed by one.

Gender neutral noun usage

 Use the plural or “the applicant”,”the claimant”, do not use “he”, “she” unless talking
about a named person.

Figures
 One to nine is spelt out; 10 onwards is cited in numerals. Spell out age for one to
nine. Ranges of numbers in close proximity should be in numerals, for example,
“they were 6 and 14 years” not “six and 14”.
 21–24 not 21–4.
 Per cent is always written in full (10 per cent) in text, % symbol in tabular material
and footnotes.
 A comma is used for four or more figures (e.g. 1,234), not a space.
 Ordinal numbers: 1st, 2nd, 3rd not 1st, 2nd, 3rd.

Dates and times

 Cited using the formula sequence: Month (in full) Date, Year (e.g. August 7, 1972,
August 7 or August 1972).
 Also, 1984–88 or 1984–1988 not 1984–8. The 1970s (not 1970's).
 Century to be referred to using figures in text and footnotes (e.g. 20th century).
Avoid starting a sentence with a figure, make it “In the 20th century” not just “20th
century” for instance.
 AD should precede the date (e.g. AD 50) and BC should follow the date (e.g. 50 BC)
with no full points for either.
 Seasons to be written in lower case (e.g. autumn) unless referring to a specific issue
of a newsletter or journal, where the first letter should be capitalised (e.g. Issue 1,
Autumn).
 24-hour clock preferable. Note a full point separates the digits: 08.00, 23.45.
 am and pm do not have full points.
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 As with all numbers, sentences should not start with a figure (e.g. “At 4pm” not
“4pm”).

Weights, measures and currency

 Measurements do not follow the rule of taking a full point to represent the
abbreviated letters: 23m; 42km; 18kg; 5g; 75ml; 1,500l; 111mm; 112cm; 16yds; 2ft
3in; 300fl oz; 2oz; 5lb; 10cwt.
 Number is always a numeral.
 Do not mix imperial and metric measurements.
 Use abbreviations in tables, footnotes, etc. but spell out in isolated cases, e.g. "it
landed three inches away".
 Within commentary pound, dollar and euro symbols may be used. For other
currencies which use dollars, the dollar symbol and appropriate acronym may be
used, e.g. AUS $100. Note the space between the mnemonic and amount.

Capitalisation of Member States, Contracting States and Contracting Parties

 Member States, Contracting States and Contracting Parties are always capitalised.
 Only the second word of “signatory States” is capitalised.

Full points, abbreviations and spacing

 Spacing is removed wherever possible (e.g. s.4 is preferred to s. 4). As a general
rule, space is only required where abbreviated words and their figure are not
separated by a full point, e.g. r.4, s.12(1), but Pt 1, etc.
 Generally, no full point is needed where the abbreviation is a contraction of the word
(i.e. the last letter of the abbreviation is the same as the last letter of the word, e.g.
Mr, Ltd, St, Mrs).
 EC, EEC, EU, UK, UN, US, USA are not full-pointed.
See Appendix 1 for a list of abbreviations and contractions which Sweet & Maxwell use
regularly.

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Appendix 1

App. Application
Apps Applications
art. article (UK, foreign domestic, international and EU legislation)
arts articles (UK, foreign domestic, international and EU legislation)
Asp Act of the Scottish Parliament
c. chapter (when referring to the chapter number of an Act)
CC County Council
Ch. Chapter (when referring to chapters of a book)
Chs Chapters (when referring to chapters of a book)
Ch. Chapter as part of Act or SI
Chs as above plural
cl. clause
cll clauses
Corp Corporation
CPR Pt/Pts CPR Part/Parts
Dir. Direction
Dr Doctor
ed. editor
edn edition
fig. figure
figs figures
fn. footnote (not n.)
fnn. footnotes/notes
Form Form – as part of Act or SI
Forms as above plural
Hr hour
Ltd Limited (not LTD or ltd)
Messrs
Mme
Mr Mister
Mrs
no. number
nos numbers
ord. order
ords orders
p. page
pp. pages
para. paragraph
paras paragraphs
Plc Public limited company (not PLC or plc)
Pt Part
Pts Parts
r. rule
rr. rules (except when referring to the title of an entire piece of legislation)

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reg. regulation
regs regulations (except when referring to the title of an entire piece of legislation)
RSC/CCR Ords RSC/CCR Orders
s. section
ss. sections
Sch. Schedule (not Sched.)
Schs Schedules (not Scheds)
Sch.nn para.nn Schedule paragraph – sublevels of Acts and SIs
Sch.nn Pt nn As above Schedule Part
SI Statutory Instrument
SSI Scottish Statutory Instrument
St Street or Saint (not St.)
subs. subsection
subss. subsections
Table Table – sublevels of Acts and SIs
Tables as above plural
Vol. Volume
Vols Volumes

Where the reference is to a specific office, organisation or body then a capital letter is
used; but where the reference is a general one or is non-specific then the lower case
letter is be used. This rule can also be applied to "Appendix", "Chapter", "Part",
"Volume", etc.

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Appendix 2

a fortiori ibid. pro tanto

a prendre i.e. profit a prendre
a priori in loco parentis qua
ab initio in personam quaere, sed
acte clair in rem quaere
actus reus indicia quantum
ad hoc insitu quantum meruit
ad valorem infra quasi
amicus curiae inter alia, alios quid pro quo
ante inter partes quorum
autrefois acquit inter vivos raison d'être
bona fide intra vires ratio decidendi
bona vacantia ipso facto res gestae
caveat lacuna res ipsa loquitur
caveat emptor laissez-faire res judicata
certiorari locus in quo restitutio in
integrum
cestui que trust locus standi
semble
cf. mandamus
seriatim
chose in action mens rea
simpliciter
cy-près mutatis mutandis
sine die
de facto nisi; nisi prius
sine qua non
de jure non compos
mentis stare decisis
de minimis (non
curat lex) non est factum status quo (ante)
dictum, dicta non sequitur sub judice
e.g. novus actus sub nom.
ejusdem generis interveniens subpoena
etc obiter sui generis
et al obiter dictum, dicta sui juris
et seq. pari passu supra
ex gratia passim terra nullius
ex parte per uberrimae fidei
ex post facto per annum ultra vires
ex relatione per capita; per verbatim
caput via
ex tempore
per curiam vice versa
ex turpi causa
(non oritur action) per incuriam vis-à-vis
ferae naturae per se viz
fieri facias post voir dire
force majeure post mortem volenti non fit
functus officio prima facie injuria
habeas corpus pro forma
pro rata

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