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I am using JabRef to manage my bibliography. I have some laws that I need to cite, but I am unsure how to do this.

In this particular case, I am citing a regulation, which is referenced by the law. The regulation is of a technical nature (specifically it deals with minimum requirements for grid-interconnection of wind energy systems), and I just need to know which specific biblatex styles would be appropriate here.

Here's what I have considered:

  • @article doesn't seem appropriate, because author is a required field, and regulations don't have authors.
  • @misc seemed like the next obvious choice, but it has no field for journal title, at least in JabRef. This regulation is published in a legal gazette, so a serial title would be useful here.
  • @other doesn't include a title field (again, in JabRef at least)
  • @standard also seems like it might be appropriate, but here institution is a required field, and one generally doesn't write "the government"

The regulation being cited is German, in case that bit of information is useful. I know about the biblatex-juradiss package, but I am not writing a legal paper, here, so it's not appropriate. I just need a little guidance.

EDIT: Here is an example which may help. I got it from "Bibliographieren — ... aber wie?" by Jan Wohlgemuth.

[27] Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland vom 23. Mai 1949. (BGBl. S.1) BGBl. III, 100-1. In der Fassung vom 28.6.1993, zuletzt geändert durch das 39.
Gesetz zur Änderung des Grundgesetzes (BGBl. I 1002).

The thing is, I don't want to add a whole additional biblatex package just for this one citation, and I'm thinking there has to be a standard approach using the existing citation styles.

Stephen Bosch
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    May you give us some examples of how it should look like please? – Thorsten Apr 27 '12 at 16:40
  • Just as a remark: @other and @standard don't exist in biblatex. – Thorsten Apr 27 '12 at 16:46
  • Blast. I see now that I didn't have JabRef in biblatex mode. – Stephen Bosch Apr 27 '12 at 18:04
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    Biblatex does have @legislation, but none of the standard styles know how to deal with it, so its treated as @misc. – Mikael Öhman Apr 27 '12 at 18:14
  • Does that mean that I should use @misc in JabRef? It doesn't show @legislation in the list of available styles either. – Stephen Bosch Apr 27 '12 at 19:07
  • Since no one has provided a complete answer yet, it may be helpful to explain more clearly what the particular 'parts' of the example citation are. It seems that BGBl. is being used in at least two different ways (also is S.1 something like 'Seite 1'?). The other thing to consider is what parts of the citation need to be flexible and what parts will be unchanging, fixed strings of text (e.g., the stuff about being amended?). What I would consider doing is using the @misc field to create the bibliography reference, and then a custom command to cite in the document (which includes a \nocite). – jon Apr 28 '12 at 22:02
  • BGBl. is short for "Bundesgesetzblatt" (something like the Canada Gazette, a periodical which informs of changes in law), and yes, "S.1" does indeed mean "Seite 1." or rather "page 1". The rest: "In der Fassung vom 28.6.1993, zuletzt geändert durch das 39. Gesetz zur Änderung des Grundgesetzes (BGBl. I 1002)." means "version of 26.6.1993, last changed through amendment of the Basic Law (BGBl. I 1002)". I'm still not sure where stuff like this should go, and remember this is just an example, not what I am actually citing :) – Stephen Bosch Apr 29 '12 at 15:24
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    Slightly related: http://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/76248/how-to-implement-a-jurisdiction-biblatex-entry-type – Christian Jul 16 '13 at 15:18
  • If you only have a few citations of one type, maybe you can use the @misc type and just put the words and pages reference where appropriate (look at the output). If the formatting is wrong, just put in LaTeX formatting in in the biblatex fields and protect the field with brackets { }. – Sveinung Jul 04 '14 at 19:28
  • Did you ever figure out how to do it? – minseong Dec 04 '20 at 02:50
  • @theonlygusti It has been a while since I looked at this, so I can't exactly remember what I did, but I think I ended up using @misc and tinkering with the fields. – Stephen Bosch Jan 12 '21 at 14:22
  • There is also biblatex-german-legal. – rugk Feb 10 '21 at 21:01

2 Answers2

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In addition to the biblatex package you mention, you may also want to check out the biblatex-jura style.

Thorsten
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Mico
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This is what I did using bibtex while citing an Australian Law in a non-legal paper:

@misc{crimeAct,
  author={{The Parliament of Australia}},
  title={Criminal Proceeds Confiscation Act 2002 - Sect. 104},
  year={2002},
  note={\newline\url{http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/qld/consol_act/cpca2002285/s104.html}},
}
Marti
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