Citation Markup

This page describes a set of XML tags for marking up in-line citations in case text.

The goals of this draft specification are:

1. A simple regular-expression processor can insert the correct markup;
2. A simple XML parser can quickly pull out specific data without any additional processing;
3. Removing all markup leaves the original text.

Description

An in-line citation looks like this:

... in the doctrine of Baker v. Selden, 101 U.S. 99, 25 L.Ed. 841 (1879), now codified ...

Each in-line citation has up to 3 main parts:

1. A title, e.g. "Baker v. Selden";
2. A sequence of numeric citations, e.g. "101 U.S. 99";
3. A parenthetical, e.g. "(1879)".

Each numeric citation is sub-divided into:

1. The major number, usually a volume number;
2. The publication abbreviation, e.g. "F.2d";
3. The minor number, usually a starting page;
4. An optional pincite, or page different from the starting page, e.g. "42 U.S. 65 at 67";
5. Optionally, multiple sub-numbers, such as sub-sections within a section of the U.S. Code.

The parenthetical usually has 2 parts, for a case:

1. The court abbreviation, e.g. "4th Cir.";
2. The date, which may be a complete date or, more commonly, just a year.

Markup

The following tags can be used to mark up in-line citations.

The entire citation goes inside an <inlineCite> tag.

The title goes inside a <title> tag.

Each numeric citation goes inside a <numberCite> tag.

Within each <numberCite>, there are tags:

1. <major> around the first number,
2. <pub> around the abbreviation,
3. <minor> around the second number,
4. <pin> around the pincite,
5. <sub> around each sub-section indicator.

A <pin> surrounds only the numbers, but not prepositions like "at". A <pin> may contain ranges like "389-90" or sequences like "33,34".

There may be multiple <sub> tags, each surrounding a sub-section indicator like "(a)".

If there is only one number, as in "Fed. R. App. P. 24", then the number goes in a <minor> tag.

The parenthetical goes inside a <paren> tag, including the ( ) parentheses.

The court abbreviation, if present, is enclosed in a <court> tag.

The date, if present, is enclosed in a <date> tag.

Examples

Example 1: Supreme Court

The citation above,

... in the doctrine of Baker v. Selden, 101 U.S. 99, 25 L.Ed. 841 (1879), now codified ...

would be marked up like this:

... in the doctrine of 
<inlineCite>
    <title>Baker v. Selden</title>,
    <numberCite>
        <major>101</major>
        <pub>U.S.</pub>
        <minor>99</minor>
    </numberCite>,
    <numberCite>
        <major>25</major>
        <pub>L.Ed.</pub>
        <minor>841</minor>
    </numberCite>
    <paren>(<date>1879</date>)</paren>
</inlineCite>, now codified ...

Notice that the original punctuation marks (commas, parentheses) remain in place. This example has been indented for clarity, but the indentations and line breaks are unnecessary.

Example 2: Federal Reporter

This citation:

... Jartech, Inc. v. Clancy, 666 F.2d 403, 407 (9th Cir.1982) ...

Would be marked up like this:

<inlineCite>
    <title>Jartech, Inc. v. Clancy</title>,
    <numberCite>
        <major>666</major>
        <pub>F.2d</pub>
        <minor>403</minor>,
        <pin>407</pin>
    </numberCite>
    <paren>(<court>9th Cir.</court><date>1982</date>)</paren>
</inlineCite>

Example 3: U.S. Code

Original:

... under 28 U.S.C. § 1915(a)(3), which states ...

Markup:

... under 
<inlineCite>
    <numberCite>
        <major>28</major>
        <pub>U.S.C.</pub>
        § <minor>1915</minor>
        <sub>(a)</sub><sub>(3)</sub>
    </numberCite>
</inlineCite>,
which states ...

Notice that the section sign (§) is part of neither the <pub> nor the <minor>.

Example 4: Fed. R. App. P.

Original (Federal Rules of Appelate Procedure):

under Fed. R. App. P. 24(a)(5), grant

Markup:

under
<inlineCite>
  <numberCite>
    <pub>Fed. R. App. P.</pub>
    <minor>24</minor>
    <sub>(a)</sub><sub>(5)</sub>
  </numberCite>
</inlineCite>,
grant

HTML Microformat

As an alternative to XML, this markup may be used in HTML by replacing each XML tag with an HTML <span> tag with a class attribute that matches the name of the XML tag.

So <inlineCite> becomes <span class="inlineCite"> and so on.