Tools 

MLZ Client

Multilingual Zotero (MLZ) is an unofficial variant of the official Zotero client. It offers two extended facilities: (1) language variants of individual fields; and (2) item types suitable for legal writing. The legal styles listed below in this page are designed to take advantage of the MLZ extended legal item types.

You should install MLZ only if you require its special features: if that is not the case, you are recommended to use an official Zotero client instead. The (local) database format of MLZ is not compatible with official Zotero for Firefox or Zotero Standalone, but MLZ is sync-compatible with official Zotero, and your Zotero account can be synced to both clients without ill effects.

When this client is installed on an existing MLZ database, records containing multilingual data or “right-click Extra field hack” records will be pushed to the sync server. To avoid conflicts, perform a sync before the upgrade. As with any other experimental software, you should be careful about backing up your data before installing this version of the client.

(Note: MLZ became database-incompatible with official Zotero from the MLZ release issued on January 26, 2013. The previous database-compatible version is available for download under this link, but it is no longer maintained.) 

Abbreviation Filter

The Abbreviation Filter for Zotero provides the Zotero word processor plugins with flexible, style-specific abbreviation lists, enabling correct and consistent abbreviation of titles, journal names, institution names, publishers and publisher locations. Use of the Abbreviation Filter will be documented in Citations, Out of the Box, a forthcoming guide to the use of MLZ in legal and multilingual research. Short guidance notes on installing and testing the Abbreviation Filter are available here. 

RTF/ODF Scan for Zotero

The RTF/ODF Scan plugin extends the RTF Scan wizard in Zotero (or MLZ) with the ability to convert plain text “scannable cites” to live Zotero/MLZ citations in an ODF document. Open Document Format (ODF) is the native file format of LibreOffice. Google Docs, Scrivener and many other programs can export documents as ODF: the RTF/ODF Scan utility brings Zotero/MLZ support to all of them.

Plain text scannable cites can be generated in Zotero or in MLZ by setting the “Scannable Cite” export translator as the Default Export Format in the Export Preference panel, and cites can be copied to the clipboard using Ctl-Alt-C (Shift-Cmd-C on the Mac).

In MLZ only, “scannable cites” can also be produced by enabling “link wrappers”, also from the Export Preference panel. With the link wrappers option, cites are copied with Ctl-Alt-A (Shift-Cmd-A on the Mac).
 

Styles

MLZ American Law Style

The style mandated by statute for use in the Wisconsin Court of Appeals and elsewhere within the United States. Courts, legal publishers and other institutions in the United States each have particular citation requirements, this generic style can be adapted to local rules. The Hints list provided here can be removed by installing the Empty Phrases hint list.

MLZ Chicago Manual of Style, 16th ed.

The Chicago Manual of Style (fullnote with bibliography). CMS is a leading mainstream citation style manual maintained by the Chicago University Press that covers several referencing formats. Access to the guide is available by subscription. This MLZ version of the style adds support for legal referencing to the full-note version of CMS.

MLZ McGill Guide (English), 7th ed.

The Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation (McGill Law Journal, 7th ed. 2010). The English version of the leading citation style for legal publication in Canada, based on work by Liam McHugh-Russell. The “McGill Guide”, as it is known for short, is bilingual (English and French) and runs to 650 pages. See below for the French version.

MLZ McGill Guide (French), 7th ed.

The Manuel Canadien de la Reference Juridique (la Revue de droit de McGill, 7ème ed. 2010). The French version of the leading citation style for legal publication in Canada, based on work by Philippe Tousignant. See above for the English version.

MLZ New Zealand Law, 2nd ed.

Properly named Victoria University of Wellington Law Style, the CSL for this style was composed by Julia Caldwell and John Prebble in 2011-2012. It follows the New Zealand Law Style Guide, 2nd edition (2011) published by the New Zealand Law Foundation for use in all scholarly, official and judicial legal writing. The text of the style guide can be viewed free of charge on the website of the New Zealand Law Foundation. A set of abbreviations for use with this style is available for download, and can be installed in the Abbreviations Plugin in the usual way.

MLZ OSCOLA, 4th ed.

The Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities by the Oxford Law Faculty is available for free download. An abbreviation list is available for use with this style, and can be installed in the Abbreviations Plugin in the usual way.

Handy Bits

Empty Phrases

The “Hints” abbreviation lists above provide suggested abbreviations for titles. The words and phrases that control suggestions cannot be edited via the word processor plugin once installed. Installing the empty list provided to the right will turn off the suggestion mechanism by replacing the installed list with one that contains no words or phrases.