GNLU SRDC A D R

M A G A Z I N E
S T Y L E G U I D E

To All Prospective Authors,

Formatting and adherence to standards is an immensely important step in the publication process.
It is the duty of the Editorial Board to ensure high quality legal scholarship and content, along
with appropriate structure, style, and layout. Through this Style Guide, we request authors to kindly
adhere to the standards set therein, which would enable a faster turnaround and review procedure.

We thank you for your interest in publishing with us!

Please direct any questions to the Editorial Board at: [email protected].

GENERAL GUIDELINES
S. NO. PARTICULARS FORMAT
A. Document Layout
1. Page Size A4
2. Margins 2.54 cm all sides
3. Layout Portrait
4. Language English (U.K.)
5. Page Number No/Remove page number
B. Title
1. Font Garamond
2. Size 17
3. Alignment Centre Aligned
4. Typeface Bold, Small Caps
5. Spacing 1.15 between lines & 10 pt. after paragraph
C. Sub Heading 1
1. Font Garamond
2. Size 12
3. Alignment Justified
4. Typeface Bold, sentence case
5. Line Spacing 1.5 between lines
6. Spacing add space before & after paragraphs (auto)
7. Numbering No numbering
D. Sub Heading 2
1. Font Garamond
2. Size 12
3. Alignment Justified
4. Typeface Italicized, sentence case
5. Line Spacing 1.5 between lines
6. Spacing add space before (auto), no space after para
7. Numbering If prescribed by author, numbering will follow i., ii., etc.
E. Text
1. Font Garamond
2. Size 12
3. Alignment Justified
4. Spacing 1.5 between lines
F. Quotes
1. Text Italic
For a quote in a separate paragraph: italics and use the “Quote”
style with 0.6 left and right indentation.
2. Footnotes Regular, not italicized
G. Abbreviations
1. Text For e.g., United States of America [“USA”]. The USA would be
in bolds but the square brackets and double quote marks will be
regular
2. Footnotes See OSCOLA
H. Footnotes
1. Font Garamond
2. Size 10
3. Alignment Justified
4. Line Spacing Single
5. Spacing No space before or after
6. Citation style OSCOLA
 7. Indent No indent. Eg:
1. Footnote
Not:
1. Footnote

STANDARDIZATION GUIDELINES
a. Case Names In the body: Italics
Abbreviate the case name to the name of the first party. Common
abbreviations like BALCO can be used as well.
For e.g., A v. B [“A”].
In footnotes: Refer to OSCOLA
Abbreviate terms such as
Company- Co.
Corporation- Corp.
Private Limited- Pvt. Ltd.
Another- Anr.
Others- Ors.
and other such abbreviations must be used
b. Hyperlink Remove the underline and change the font colour from blue to
black.
c. Numbering Arabic Numbering only- 1, 2, 3…
If sub numbering is required then- i, ii, iii…
Do not number subheadings
d. Bullets • Round black bullets only
No bullets in the subheading
Preferably use bullets for lists instead of numbers. Number only
where the context requires so.
e. Numbers Main Text:
• For numbers ranging from one to ten in main text: spell out.
eg: seven years (not 7 years)
• Larger numbers (i.e., above ten) in main text: numerals. Use
commas with figures of five or more digits in main text. For
e.g., 27,049.
 • Numbers used in combination with hundred, thousand,
million, billion, etc.: spelled out. (For e.g., two hundred;
twenty-eight thousand; three hundred thousand; one million).
• Spell out all numbers appearing at the beginning of a
sentence. (For e.g., “Seven awards have been annulled”).
• Hyphenate all written-out fractions. (For e.g., one-third)
f. Capitalization Capitalize:
Respondent and Claimant
Names of all Courts (Supreme Court/High Court)
‘State’
Any other words depending on the context and requirement.
g. Italicisation • foreign words/phrases/ legal maxims such as Ignorantia legis
neminem excusat (“ignorance of the law does not excuse”),
kompetenz-kompetenz, l’exception française, travaux preparatoires

• Avoid words that have been assimilated or anglicized such as

a priori, carte blanche, certiorari, de facto, de jure, de novo,
dicta, en banc, et al., passim, per se, prima facie, stare decisis,
names of writs.
h. Abbreviation In the first reference of the word, expand the term and abbreviate
it in square brackets. Subsequently, only the abbreviation should
be used throughout the main text. For e.g., United States of
America
[“USA”].
Format- Bold, Quotes, Square brackets
i. Symbol Paragraph (¶) symbol should be used throughout.
Section should be used in words and not the symbol (§)
throughout the text.

STANDARDIZATION OF COMMON SOURCES

a. Arbitration & (Refer to abbreviation format above)
Conciliation First reference in text: full name
 Act, 1996 If only one Arbitration act is referred to then abbreviate as:
[“Arbitration Act”]
Where more than one is being referred to abbreviate as: “1996
Act”, “1940 Act” etc.
b. New York First reference in text: Convention on the Recognition and
Convention Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards

Abbreviation: New York Convention

c. IBA IBA Guidelines on Conflict of Interest is abbreviated to IBA
Guidelines

IBA Rules on Taking of Evidence is abbreviated to IBA Rules

d. Law Abbreviate as : LCI Report
Commission
If many reports are referred to abbreviate as: 1999 LCI Report,
Report
2007 LCI Report etc.
e. Countries United Kingdom: UK
United States of America: USA
If any other country is mentioned with a common abbreviation
then abbreviate accordingly.

For Countries with longer official names, you may refer to them
with the common name throughout the text: eg: Republic of India
should be India throughout; Peoples Republic of China should be
China throughout the text.

IMPORTANT POINTS
• Make sure there are no extra spaces between the words.
• Serial number of footnotes should not have numbers missing.
• Check hyperlink to see if the source is accurate and if it works.
• Abbreviations should be abbreviated in the first instance.
• Space between ¶ and the number eg. ¶ 7.
• No page numbers on document
• No speaking footnotes