From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This page contains naming conventions for articles related to government offices, elections and legislation.
- Use official names in article titles (
United States Department of the Treasury
instead of
Treasury Department
), unless an agency is almost always known by an acronym or different title (
DARPA
).
- When creating an article with a common title, be sure to
disambiguate
it properly: For example,
Department of Justice (Canada)
,
Minister for Foreign Affairs (Australia)
,
Cabinet Office (Japan)
. Disambiguation is unnecessary if the country or other jurisdiction
is a natural part
of the subject's name (
Statistics New Zealand
,
Royal Australian Navy
), a common method of
disambiguating in common speech
exists (
Cabinet of Germany
,
Prime Minister of Japan
,
Treasurer of Australia
), or if the agency or office name
is unique
or is by far the most common meaning, the
primary topic
(
Ministry of Panchayati Raj
,
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
). Care should be taken to
avoid
convoluted or artificial constructions:
Something of Something of Jurisdictionname
.
- When writing articles on government bodies or offices with native titles not in
English
, an English translation should be favored, except when
reliable sources
in the English language commonly use the native title. For example,
National Assembly of Bulgaria
(not
Narodno sabranie
) but
2003 loya jirga
(not
2003 Grand Assembly
) and
Bundestag
(not
Parliament of Germany
).
- For individual elections and referendums, use the format "
[date] [country name or adjectival form] [type] election/referendum
". For example:
- For an article covering multiple elections to bodies or positions of the same type, use the format "
[date] [country name or adjectival form] [type] elections
". For example:
- For elections to particular bodies or offices, default to the form "
[date] [country name or adjectival form] [body/office] election
". For example:
- For articles relating to the part of an election held in a specific region or country, use the format "
[date] [country name or adjectival form] [type] election in subdivision
". For example:
- For future elections of uncertain date, use the format "
Next [country name or adjectival form] [type] election(s)
", such as
Next Irish general election
. When the year of the election is known, titles like this should redirect to an article title with a year (such as
2016 Irish general election
), because "next" is a moving target.
- Choose the terms "
by-election
" or "special election" according on which term is appropriate to the relevant country:
- For US
initiatives
and similar ballot measures, use the format "
[year] [jurisdiction] [measure identifier]
". For example:
Guidance on naming conventions for
legislation
:
- Prefer titles that reflect the name commonly used in
reliable sources
.
- Generally, use the
short title
instead of the
long title
(for example,
European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999
instead of
An Act to amend the European Parliamentary Elections Act 1978 so as to alter the method used in Great Britain for electing Members of the European Parliament to make other amendments of enactments relating to the election of Members of the European Parliament and for connected purposes
), unless the long title is much better known. However, a
redirect
from long to short titles should be created, and the long title should be included in the article.
- Observe official titles and common use: In the
United States
, the form typically includes "of" with the year (
Judiciary Act of 1789
), while legislation in
Britain
tends to be referred to by the short name form and then the year without any comma or "of" between them (
Judiciary Act 1903
). In Canada, short titles that include a year will have a comma before the year (eg
Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2017
).
[1]
If the official name of the bill includes a year, it should not be omitted in the article title, as it is part of the actual name of the bill and not a disambiguation.
- If several acts have the same common name, the title should:
- Redirect to the
primary topic
, if one exists (the page
Clean Water Act
is about the U.S. federal law, with a link to non-primary topic
Clean Water Act (Ontario)
at the top of the page), or
- Be a
disambiguation page
(for example,
Official Secrets Act
or
Representation of the People Act
), if multiple acts of substantially equal importance exist, or
- Redirect to an article about the series of acts, if a set of acts are related (for example,
Townshend Act
redirects to
Townshend Acts
). This also applies to when two acts are passed with the same name and year in two separate
parliaments
, as in different enactments of the same piece of legislation; a single article should be created, with the singular redirecting to the plural:
Act of Union 1707
redirects to
Acts of Union 1707
- If the two different acts are passed in the same year with the same title, parenthetically disambiguate based on country:
European Communities Act 1972 (UK)
and
European Communities Act 1972 (Ireland)
.