Upgrade StorageLegislation references have changed to display an unneeded symbol and extra information
Hello,
References to legislation in Zotero have begun displaying an unnecessary symbol and unneeded information.
In the past, where a document saved in Oct. 2015 displayed this (with text in italics):
An Act Concerning Aliens (Alien Friends Act), 1 Stat. 570, 1798, 571.
It now displays this:
“An Act Concerning Aliens (Alien Friends Act),” 1 Stat. 570 § (1798), 571.
The new citations are also adding extra, unneeded information from the Zotero entry. So, this:
An Act To Amend the Immigration and Nationality Act, and for Other Purposes (Hart-Celler Act), 79 Stat. 911, 1965, 913.
Now appears as this:
“An Act To Amend the Immigration and Nationality Act, and for Other Purposes (Hart-Celler Act),” Pub. L. No. 89–236, 79 Stat. 911 (1965), 913.
Why has the section symbol appeared? The shift from italics to quotation marks is acceptable, though perhaps not as elegant, but the symbol isn't needed. The public law number isn't needed. Now, I speak as someone who isn't a legal scholar per se but is looking for good legal references within a larger document.
In both cases, I'm using Chicago 16th edition - full note. I tried switching to another style and back, but the same problem appeared.
Could you help?
References to legislation in Zotero have begun displaying an unnecessary symbol and unneeded information.
In the past, where a document saved in Oct. 2015 displayed this (with text in italics):
An Act Concerning Aliens (Alien Friends Act), 1 Stat. 570, 1798, 571.
It now displays this:
“An Act Concerning Aliens (Alien Friends Act),” 1 Stat. 570 § (1798), 571.
The new citations are also adding extra, unneeded information from the Zotero entry. So, this:
An Act To Amend the Immigration and Nationality Act, and for Other Purposes (Hart-Celler Act), 79 Stat. 911, 1965, 913.
Now appears as this:
“An Act To Amend the Immigration and Nationality Act, and for Other Purposes (Hart-Celler Act),” Pub. L. No. 89–236, 79 Stat. 911 (1965), 913.
Why has the section symbol appeared? The shift from italics to quotation marks is acceptable, though perhaps not as elegant, but the symbol isn't needed. The public law number isn't needed. Now, I speak as someone who isn't a legal scholar per se but is looking for good legal references within a larger document.
In both cases, I'm using Chicago 16th edition - full note. I tried switching to another style and back, but the same problem appeared.
Could you help?
The section sign is for citations of the form:
Homeland Security Act of 2002, 6 U.S.C. § 101 (2002).
That it appears when no section is given is a mistake, though.
That said, my understanding is that you should be citing old laws from U.S.C. (which requires the section) and only recent laws from Stat. (and then _with_ public law number.) The presence/absence of the Public Law number is used to distinguish between the two.
This is based on
http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/16/ch14/ch14_sec294.html
as well as some explanations on law sites.
See also: https://www.zotero.org/support/kb/legal_citations
1. It looks like for historical accounts of legislation that in some cases has been repealed, it's appropriate to cite in terms of Title, Pub. L. No. x-x, x Stat. x (year).
The problem is that older statutes from before the late 1800s don't have Public Law Numbers. If I leave the Public Law Number blank, Zotero inserts a section symbol like this:
“An Act to Regulate Immigration,” 22 Stat. 214 § (1882), 214.
2. The first citation of legislation places the title in quotation marks like in the example above, but these quotation marks shouldn't be there.
In the second citation and following, the quotation marks are gone as they should be, like this:
An act to regulate Immigration, 216.
3. The second citation of legislation and following does not include a year, nor does it respond to information I place in the short title box.
4. Note also that the first citation changes alters capitalization, but the second citation uses the capitalization I entered manually (reflecting the historical document).
Is there a way to fix Zotero on these matters? I could switch to Juris-M, but to me these still look like matters of basic legal citations, and it would be great if Zotero could cope with them.