How do I get square brackets around year?

Question

I have a bibliography entry:

@book{rvsheppard,
    title={R v Sheppard and Whittle},
    year={2010},
    publisher={EWCA Crim 65}
}

and I cite:

\textcite{rvsheppard}

These give:

R v Sheppard and Whittle (2010). EWCA Crim 65.

and

R v Sheppard and Whittle (2010)

which is OK for most of my references, but not for these ones (pertaining to legal cases).

I want:

R v Sheppard and Whittle [2010] EWCA Crim 65.

and

R v Sheppard and Whittle [2010] EWCA Crim 65.

Any help is much appreciated.

Code is:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{bibentry} 
\usepackage[style=authoryear-ibid,firstinits,backend=biber,sorting=nyt,natbib=true, maxbibnames=99,maxcitenames=2, uniquelist=false, uniquename=false]{biblatex}
\DeclareNameAlias{sortname}{family-given}
\addbibresource{refs.bib} %Imports bibliography file
\title{min}

\date{November 2017}

\begin{document}

\maketitle

\section{Introduction}
\textcite{rvsheppard}
\addcontentsline{toc}{chapter}{Bibliography}

% % Actually generates your bibliography.
% \bibliography{example}
\printbibliography
\end{document
}

You might want to have a look at biblatex-oscola if you are writing a law-heavy text. — moewe, Nov 27 '17 at 17:47
The bibentry package is incompatible with biblatex so you shouldn't be loading it. — Alan Munn, Jun 01 '18 at 18:43
Also, if you have a lot of these you might want to create a separate .bib entry type for them. See e.g. Creating Entry in Bibtex for Executive Orders — Alan Munn, Jun 01 '18 at 18:46
@AlanMunn There are already dedicated entry types for legal sources, including cases. The problem is that the standard styles don't format them and the dedicated contributed styles are only really suitable for papers in law and legal documents. @jurisdiction would be the suitable choice here (despite the misleading name). At least, I think so. — cfr, Jun 24 '18 at 13:32
@cfr I wasn't aware of that type and it may not have existed 5 years ago when that answer was given. But the basic idea in my linked answer would be the same for that type. — Alan Munn, Jun 24 '18 at 15:26
Since you have some responses below that seem to answer your question, please consider marking one of them as ‘Accepted’ by clicking on the tickmark below their vote count (see How do you accept an answer?). This shows which answer helped you most, and it assigns reputation points to the author of the answer (and to you!). It's part of this site's idea to identify good questions and answers through upvotes and acceptance of answers. — samcarter_is_at_topanswers.xyz, Jul 03 '18 at 15:52

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 27 '18 at 12:03

biblatex's standard styles don't really have a comprehensive support for legal citation. Given the complexities of the matter and the variety of legal systems and legal citation practices around the world it is not too surprising that the standard styles do not support the specifics of the UK (English?) system.

Have a look at the first part of my answer to What is best practice re. handling legal sources with Biblatex/Biber for disciplines other than law? where I list a few styles with proper support for legal citations.

You can use the type @jurisdiction for cases. Using biblatex-ext you can change the brackets around the year for that type only.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[style=ext-authoryear-ibid, giveninits=true, backend=biber,
            maxbibnames=99, maxcitenames=2, uniquelist=false, uniquename=false]{biblatex}
\DeclareNameAlias{sortname}{family-given}

% biblatex-ext feature: Format of the labelyear in the bibliography
\DeclareFieldFormat{biblabeldate}{%
  \ifentrytype{jurisdiction}
    {\mkbibbrackets{#1}\nopunct}
    {\mkbibparens{#1}}}

% biblatex-ext feature: brackets around the year for \textcite
\DeclareInnerCiteDelims{textcite}
  {\ifentrytype{jurisdiction}{\bibopenbracket}{\bibopenparen}}
  {\ifentrytype{jurisdiction}{\bibclosebracket}{\bibcloseparen}}

\usepackage{filecontents}
\begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@jurisdiction{rvsheppard,
  title        = {R v Sheppard and Whittle},
  date         = {2010},
  howpublished = {EWCA Crim 65}
}
\end{filecontents}

\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}
\addbibresource{biblatex-examples.bib}

\begin{document}
\textcite{rvsheppard} but \textcite{sigfridsson}

\printbibliography
\end{document}

Cicada · Answer 2 · 2019-03-29T01:12:47.417

book won't do it, directly.

Without re-programming styles (good to know how, though):

As mentioned in the comments, for a light sprinkle of case material in a text, use the jurisdiction bib entry type in combination with one of the oxnotes biblatex styles.

Put the whole medium neutral citation in the number field.

@jurisdiction{rvsheppard2,
  title        = {R v Sheppard and Whittle},
  number = {[2010] EWCA Crim 65},
  institution = {CCA},
}

Use autocite in the text, so that the case reference goes into the footnote.

If you need to refer to a case name in the text (why?), use citetitle.

To pull a case reference into the text, use fullcite.

Use textcite for books.

And if you're feeling particularly adventurous, you can co-opt the fields of a paper-print report jurisdiction entry to display the MNC correctly, using the date, journaltitle, pages, fields together with the options = {year-essential=true} setting.

date = {2010},
journaltitle = {EWCA},
pages = {65},
options = {year-essential=true}

MWE:

\RequirePackage{filecontents}
    \begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@jurisdiction{rvsheppard,
  title        = {R v Sheppard and Whittle - xxx},
  date         = {2010},
  howpublished = {EWCA Crim 65}
}
@book{av,
  title        = {Aardvarks},
  date         = {2010},
  author = {A Author},
  punlisher ={XYZ Books},
}
@book{zz,
  title        = {Zebras},
  date         = {2016},
  author = {Z Zuthor},
  punlisher ={XYZ Books},
}
@jurisdiction{rvsheppard2,
  title        = {R v Sheppard and Whittle},
  number = {[2010] EWCA Crim 65},
  institution = {CCA},
}
@jurisdiction{rvsheppard3,
  title        = {R v Sheppard and Whittle},
keywords = {en},
date = {2010},
journaltitle = {EWCA},
pages = {65},
institution = {Court of Criminal Appeal},
options = {year-essential=true}
}
\end{filecontents}


\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[
    style=oxnotes-ibid,
    firstinits,
    backend=biber,
    sorting=nyt,
    natbib=true, 
    maxbibnames=99,
    maxcitenames=2, 
    uniquelist=false, 
    uniquename=false
        ]{biblatex}

\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}%refs.bib} %Imports bibliography file

\begin{document}
\section{Introduction}
\textcite{rvsheppard}

textcite: \textcite{rvsheppard2};  autocite\autocite{rvsheppard2}; and fullcite:\fullcite{rvsheppard2}; citetitle: \citetitle{rvsheppard2}.

\textcite{rvsheppard3}

\textcite{av} and \textcite{zz}


\printbibliography
\end{document}

Result:

Edit: Had an idea overnight.

Here's another way, without changing styles or deep coding: just put the entire case reference in the title field, and use \emph{} or \mkbibemph{} to remove the italics.

It makes \textcite{} functionally useless, though, in terms of results.

@book{rvsheppard2,
  title        = {R v Sheppard and Whittle-v2\emph{[2010] EWCA Crim 65}},
}
@book{rvsheppard3,
  title        = {R v Sheppard and Whittle-v3\mkbibemph{[2010] EWCA Crim 65}},

MWE:

\RequirePackage{filecontents}
    \begin{filecontents}{\jobname.bib}
@book{rvsheppard,
  title        = {R v Sheppard and Whittle-xxx},
  date         = {2010},
  howpublished = {EWCA Crim 65}
}
@book{rvsheppard2,
  title        = {R v Sheppard and Whittle-v2\emph{[2010] EWCA Crim 65}},
}
@book{rvsheppard3,
  title        = {R v Sheppard and Whittle-v3\mkbibemph{[2010] EWCA Crim 65}},
}
\end{filecontents}


\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[
    style=oxnotes-ibid,
    firstinits,
    backend=biber,
    sorting=nyt,
    natbib=true, 
    maxbibnames=99,
    maxcitenames=2, 
    uniquelist=false, 
    uniquename=false
        ]{biblatex}

\addbibresource{\jobname.bib}%refs.bib} %Imports bibliography file

\begin{document}
\section{Introduction}
\textbackslash \texttt{Textcite}s: \begin{itemize}\item original entry: \textcite{rvsheppard}; \item with \textbackslash \texttt{emph}: \textcite{rvsheppard2}; \item and with \textbackslash \texttt{mkbibemph}: \textcite{rvsheppard3}.\end{itemize}

As can be seen with \textbackslash \texttt{textcite}, doubling-up occurs, since the same reference is in the text (as title) and also in the footnote (as reference). 
\begin{itemize}
    \item So, for inline use 
        \begin{itemize}
            \item Use \textbackslash \texttt{fullcite}: \fullcite{rvsheppard3} 
            \item or \textbackslash \texttt{citetitle}: \citetitle{rvsheppard3} 
            \end{itemize}
    \item And for footnote use
        \begin{itemize}
            \item Use \textbackslash \texttt{footcite}: some text\footcite{rvsheppard3} 
            \item or \textbackslash \texttt{autocite} if it is set to footnote mode: some text\autocite{rvsheppard3}
        \end{itemize}
\end{itemize}.

\printbibliography
\end{document}

Result:

At some point, as the volume of references scales up, using a dedicated style/entrytype combination will be more efficient. And you may want to do other things too, like indexing and so on.

How do I get square brackets around year?

2 Answers2