Foreign Law
Neutral citations, law reports, codes and translations, cited for a U.S. reader.
A U.S. reader meets a foreign citation as a stranger: unfamiliar courts, unfamiliar reports, a portal in another language. Your citation has to carry that reader to the exact passage and say whose law it is. Below, a judgment of the U.K. Supreme Court and a section of the German Civil Code, each taken apart.
A judgment cited by its neutral citation, paragraph and law report
Prest v. Petrodel Res. Ltd., [2013] UKSC 34, ¶ 35, [2013] 2 A.C. 415 (U.K.).
- 1 case name, shortened as for a U.S. case
- 2 neutral citation: year, court code, judgment number
- 3 paragraph you rely on
- 4 the report the home courts cite first
- 5 country
A code section, under the title its official portal prints
Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch (BGB) [Civil Code] § 823(1) (Ger.).
- 6 title as the portal heads it, abbreviation included
- 7 your English, in brackets
- 8 section, in the code’s own numbering
- 9 subsection the text numbers
- 10 country
25.1Reading a foreign citation
In the print and Kindle editions
25.2Whose form: the home court’s or yours
In the print and Kindle editions
25.3Common-law judgments: neutral citations and law reports
In the print and Kindle editions
25.4Civil-law decisions and the ECLI
In the print and Kindle editions
25.5Statutes, codes and constitutions
In the print and Kindle editions
25.6Original titles and translations
In the print and Kindle editions
25.7Foreign law in U.S. courts
In the print and Kindle editions
25.8Short forms
In the print and Kindle editions
25.9Errors to catch
In the print and Kindle editions