Editing Law Texts
Course name: Editing Law Texts
Facilitator: John Linnegar
Dates: 7, 9 14, 16, 23 July (Tuesdays and Thursdays)
Time: 18:00 to 20:30
Course fee: R7 200: full fee; R6 500: UCT staff and students; R6 500: Professional Editors’ Guild members
Maximum: 20 participants
Platform: Zoom
Book through Webtickets: EDITING LAW TEXTS by John Linnegar
Description of course:
This training course consists of five 2.5-hour sessions delivered twice a week. It introduces participants to the discipline-specific conventions of legal texts, providing essential knowledge for professional editors working on law textbooks, journal articles, theses, and dissertations.
The course covers key areas including legislation, case law, legal terminology (including Latinisms), quoted material, citations and referencing systems (such as short-title formats and cross-referencing), reference lists, and the correct use of abbreviations, acronyms, and contractions. Participants are also introduced to leading law-specific house style guides.
Each session is supported by preparatory exercises designed to reinforce the material covered. The course concludes with a post-training assignment, which is assessed and graded by the facilitator to help participants evaluate their level of proficiency.
Number of sessions: Five 2.5-hour sessions (twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays)
Titles of individual sessions:
Session 1:
Introducing the ‘layers’ of South African law and the components of law texts that require meticulous editing.
The SA legal system and legislative layers, and why reporting on the law and legal developments is important.
Legislation, law reports (of judgments in court cases), law journals, and modes of citation of sources/authorities.
Session 2:
Citing legislation – South Africa, England, USA, Europe.
Conventions followed during different periods, dispensations and jurisdictions.
Citations in text and footnotes, table of statutes.
Session 3:
Citing law reports – South Africa, England, USA.
Conventions followed during different periods, dispensations, provinces.
Citations in text and footnotes, table of cases.
Session 4:
Citing published references/authorities – books, chapters, journal articles.
Conventions followed for different genres, including classic Roman-Dutch authorities.
Citations in footnotes (‘short title’ system).
Session 5:
A miscellany – headings and subheadings, abbreviations and acronyms, Latin/legal terms, using initial uppercase and lowercase letters, cross-referencing in footnotes.
Conventional heading hierarchy and styles in law texts.
Conventions in law texts for abbreviations and acronyms.
Latin/legal terms: spellings, when to italicise, hyphenate, etc.
Using initial uppercase and lowercase letters: the conventions.
Cross-referencing in footnotes: short-title system, treating legislation, law reports and published works.
Recommended texts:
College of Law, Unisa School of Law Referencing Style Guide (Tutorial Letter 302/4/2023)
Faculty of Law, University of Cape Town Writing and Referencing Guide (2016)
Faculty of Law, University of Oxford Oxford University Standard for the Citation of Law Authorities (OSCOLA) 4 ed. www.law.ox.ac.uk/oscola
Bryan A Garner Legal Writing in Plain English (University of Chicago Press, 2013)
Juta & Company Limited House Style for Juta Publications (Juta Law, 2nd revision 2007)
For more information, please email: Bronwyn Geldenhuys at bronwyn.geldenhuys@uct.ac.za.