Micronational Standard for Legal Citations

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The Micronational Standard for Legal Citations (MSLC) is an academic standard for citing micronational legal cases and instruments developed by Anthony Clark. It was first devised for a report on intermicronational law, and was first released publicly in a proposal document submitted to the Grand Unified Micronational. In accordance with PR016 GUM P 2017, it is used as the official citation standard of the GUM.

It is now generally regarded as poorly designed[By whom?].

MSLC Citations

This page is the most up to date source for the MSLC.

Legal Cases

First should be the names of the parties (with any appropriate references to appellants and respondents if required) with the appropriate conjunction (v, in rem, etc.). National or organisational standards should be used in this case. Next, in brackets, should be the ruling number. This progresses up in the case of appeals - don't include it if there is only one judgement, or for citing court orders. Court orders should be cited without judgement number.

The country or organisation of hearing should be stated second. For this purposes tri-codes, preferably those adopted by the Grand Unified Micronational, should be used. If one is not available, a commonly recognised abbreviation should be used, or failing that the name of the country or organisation should be stated in full. A commonly accepted abbreviation for the court may also be added here.

Following that should be the year of filing - if such a distinction is not readily available, the year in which the case entered the judicial system. If the case has not yet concluded, a hyphen should be inserted after the year of first hearing.

When citing a particular Judge, their surname should be added last. If a reference number or law report citation is available, this may optionally be added.

Commas should never be used. Separate citations with semicolons. Do not use full stops for abbreviations, except in the case of styling conjunctions (v, v., etc.).

Example: Ava Neasa v. John Houston, first judgement, heard in the Supreme Court of the Republic of Mcarthia.

Neasa v. Houston (1) MCA SC 2016- Eden 0001

Legal Instruments

First should be the full or accepted short title (or other appropriate reference) of the relevant instrument (note: years should be omitted), and any references to specific sections or lines. If this is not appropriate for the instrument in question, any suitable reference to it may be made.

Next, the appropriate code for jurisdiction (INT for international or universal jurisdictions), followed by an abbreviation to specify the type of citation. Various different abbreviations may be appropriate; whichever seems most suitable should be used.

Legal Instrument Abbreviation Notes
Proviso P Includes acts, resolutions, constitutions, charters, other legislative writs, etc.
Treaty T
Regulation R
Judicial Writ W

Other recognisable abbreviations may be added. In some cases, it may be appropriate to add the letter ‘I’ before the abbreviation to specify an international context when that may otherwise be unclear. The ‘I’ prefix should not be used when INT was already specified as the jurisdiction code.

The year of enactment or edition number should be added after. Years require no brackets, but edition numbers should be placed in square brackets.

Finally, if the instrument has been revoked, or has otherwise been formally declared to hold no effect, a hash symbol should be added.

Commas should never be used. Separate citations with semicolons. Do not use full stops for abbreviations.

Example: Section 49, subsection (b) of the Mcarthian 2016 General Judicial Act.

General Judicial Act 49b MCA P 2016

Official users

Please add your state or organisation's name.