It is with some pride that I record the launch last night of New Zealand's very own style guide. The Guide was launch by Justice John McGrath. A uniform guide has been a long time coming!

New Zealand's six law schools, three main legal publishers, major law reviews, and a number of courts, including the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal, have adopted the guide from January 2010.

Law schools, law firms, publishers and courts have, up to this point, all been using their own idiosyncratic style when referring to legal material. This has created confusion and much time consuming work, as it required anyone writing about the law to constantly translate references to legal material from one format to another. The comprehensive new guide, its authors hope, will make that a thing of the past.

The new guide is the result of the combined efforts of many across the profession. Justice Chambers of the Court of Appeal spearheaded the project, leading a working group that included representatives from the six law schools as well as New Zealand's three leading legal publishers, Thomson Reuters, Lexis Nexis, and CCH. The guide was only made possible through generous funding from the New Zealand Law Foundation.

Justice Chambers said that those responsible for the guide hope it will quickly be adopted by everyone working in the law in New Zealand, including lawyers involved with the courts.

A web based version of the guide will be available in due course on the New Zealand law Foundation's website. A hardcopy of the guide is available from Thomson Reuters:

Recommended retail price of $16.80 + GST ($18.90 inc GST).

Orders can be lodged with the Thomson Reuters Customer Care team

0800 10 60 60 or service@thomsonreuters.co.nz

Product code is 0774.

ISBN is 978-0-86472-690-2.