Upgrade StorageBluebook - Statutes
I just started working on the Bluebook style, and have some questions that tread on both styling and data modeling.
With a statute example like "28 U.S.C. § 1291 (1994)."
First, is it fair to type this in the RDF as "Legislation"?
Second, the "28 U.S.C." refers to the code title and number respectively, but is it fair for us to treat it all as the title, both WRT to the internal data storage, and the CSL fields? So if you want to enter such a statute in Zotero, you're going to be putting that complete string in a "title" field?
Third, the "§ 1291" bit is analgous to citing a specific page number, correct? E.g. if I'm using APA style and I have (Doe, 1999: 23) in text, the "§ 1291" serves the same purpose as the ": 23"?
So is Bluebook, then, a note style citation? E.g. you add a citation marker to a document, and the citation marker is "1" and the formatted reference goes in the footnote? If yes, then that helps explain the above.
With a statute example like "28 U.S.C. § 1291 (1994)."
First, is it fair to type this in the RDF as "Legislation"?
Second, the "28 U.S.C." refers to the code title and number respectively, but is it fair for us to treat it all as the title, both WRT to the internal data storage, and the CSL fields? So if you want to enter such a statute in Zotero, you're going to be putting that complete string in a "title" field?
Third, the "§ 1291" bit is analgous to citing a specific page number, correct? E.g. if I'm using APA style and I have (Doe, 1999: 23) in text, the "§ 1291" serves the same purpose as the ": 23"?
So is Bluebook, then, a note style citation? E.g. you add a citation marker to a document, and the citation marker is "1" and the formatted reference goes in the footnote? If yes, then that helps explain the above.
2) I wouldn't. For example, I'd rather put "Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)" in my Zotero title field instead of "42 U.S.C. §§ 12101-12213 (2000)."
3) I think that is a valid analogy.
4) No. Footnotes are common for law reviews and other academic publications. However, when I practiced appellate law in Wisconsin, my briefs looked like this one: http://libcd.law.wisc.edu:81/~wb/will0089/48772f9e.pdf. Statutory and case law citations appear within the body of the text ("citation clauses").
For the complete answer, see "Structure and Use of Citations" in the Bluebook (18th Ed.).
1) I have "Law" as a subclass of "Legislation". That may well be wrong (I don't actually recall why I did that), and the more recent draft has just "Legislation" as a subclass of "Document." Feel to give me suggestions.
I may want some more detail about the difference between "administrative codes" and "regulations." Might there be a more generic category that encompasses both?
2) OK, so then how would you expect to enter the "42 U.S.C." part, and the section stuff?
4) I don't have the BB, which is why I'm asking. But looking at your example (thanks!), it strikes me that these conventions work quite differently than what I've come across. A Table of Authorities is almost like a grouped bibliography, but put at the front of the document, for example. And I'm a little confused what happens when you deal with things like articles and book. Does the in-text marker just become the author and date and/or title?
2) Well, that is something I've been thinking about recently. I would like to see an extensible Zotero container to hold multiple fields. It would act and look something like the creators data type (creator container holds lastName and firstName fields). So, the statutory law container could hold three fields: number, code, section. In the context of case law, I think the field container will really become necessary for anyone who requires parallel citations.
For now, I would use existing fields under the Statute itemType:
Code = "U.S.C."
Code Number = 42
Section = 1291
3) Luis already offered to buy and ship a Bluebook in the first discussion - please take him up on it! Otherwise, I'll buy you one.
You will really need one since it answers the questions you are asking directly: "A citation may be inserted into the text in one of two ways: as a stand-alone citation sentence or as a citation clause."
Citation sentences begin with a capital letter and end with a period.
Citation clauses are set off from the text by commas and immediately follow the proposition to which they relate.
Citation sentence for a book:
CHARLES DICKENS, BLEAK HOUSE 49-50 (Norman Page ed., Penguin Books 1971) (1853).
Short form citations are allowed only after a full citation and only when certain criteria are met (See Short Form Citation, B5.2). For purposes of Zotero citation export, I don't see a real need or use case for them.
On 2, I'm just trying to figure out how these data fields fit within my more abstract model. In some ways, a "code" seems sort of similar to a series or periodical, and the code number like a volume number. So a "code" in fact is an "abbreviated code title", and so analogous to an abbreviated journal title.
Does that seem right?
The abstraction is important because it makes things simpler and more robust.
I *think* what you're saying about #2 is correct, Bruce, but I'm not completely sure I understand the question- can you sketch a line diagram of your mapping, maybe?
The CSL model has mostly general fields like date and title. Each of those can have an optional "relation" attribute. So, for example, if you want to signal a periodical title, you give it a relation of "container."
By extension, then, I'm suggesting that this is how one would indicate the code, since it's structurally similar.
From a data perspective (say in the RDF), then, you'd have:
Legislation --- partOf --> Code
Bruce
From a formatting perspective, general is better, unless it doesn't work. So the question is, is there something fundamentally different about a statute? If there is, can we call it a subclass of legislation? E.g. the former is more specific than the latter?
Wikipedia's discussion of the USC is fairly decent and might help explain the compilation/codification process a bit, and make this more clear for you.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Code
HTH.