English Style Guide

Loi no. 66-537 du 24 juillet 1966 sur les sociétés commerciales, Commercial Business Associations Act No. 66-537 of 24 July 1966

Loi abrogeant l’article 77 du Code civil, Civil Code (Article 77) Repeal Act

Loi modifiant la loi relative à la protection des animaux, Protection of Animals (Amendment) Act

It will be seen that words such as concernant or sur become superfluous when translated and this helps towards brevity. Note that words which would otherwise sit unhappily in the inverted title are placed in brackets; this is standard practice in the titles of statutes and statutory instruments in the United Kingdom.

If this procedure becomes unmanageable, or if you feel the reader might be confused, you can of course cite the law etc. in the original language and put a literal English translation in brackets:

Ley 19/1985, de 16 de julio, Cambiaria y del Cheque (Law No 19 of 16 July 1985 governing bills of exchange and cheques)

19.18Act vs law. Either is acceptable in translations, provided you are consistent (bearing in mind 19.15).

Note that act is a more natural translation for the title of a law, e.g. la loi sur les sociétés = the Companies Act, while law is better in a description, e.g. la loi sur les sociétés = the French law governing companies.

19.19Bill vs draft act/law. Prefer ‘draft act/law’, bearing in mind 19.15.

20 OFFICIAL LANGUAGES AND CURRENCIES

OFFICIAL LANGUAGES

20.1The official EU languages are listed in English alphabetical order in Annex A8 of the Interinstitutional Style Guide.

List them in this order in all texts other than legislation. For legislative texts and special cases, see section 7.2 of the Interinstitutional Style Guide.

20.2Abbreviations. For abbreviations, follow ISO 639 (as in Annex A8 and section 7.2.1 of the Interinstitutional Style Guide), but use upper case.

20.3For the official languages of each Member State, see the Country Compendium.

20.4For other languages, see the ISO list of languages and codes.