School of Law

“MASTER IN LEGAL CULTURE”

Instructions for writing

the Masters thesis
2022

“Master in Legal Culture”

Coordinator of Thesis: Fernando Chica
School of Law- Universitat de Girona
 1. Length of Manuscripts - Article manuscripts should not exceed 10000 words including
footnotes.

2. Title Page- Please make sure your title page contains the following information.

3. Title - The title should be concise and informative.

4. Author information

a. The name(s) of the author(s)

b. The affiliation(s) of the author(s), i.e. institution, (department), city, (state),
country
c. A clear indication and an active e-mail address of the corresponding author

5. Abstract -Please provide an abstract of 150 to 250 words. The abstract should not
contain any undefined abbreviations or unspecified references.

6. Keywords- Please provide 4 to 6 keywords which can be used for indexing purposes.

7. Text Formatting- Manuscripts should be submitted in Word.

a. Use a normal, plain font (e.g., 10-point Times Roman) for text.
b. Use italics for emphasis.
c. Use the automatic page numbering function to number the pages.
d. Do not use field functions.
e. Use tab stops or other commands for indents, not the space bar.

8. Headings- Please use the decimal system of headings with no more than three levels.

a. For example:

b. 1. Section

c. 1.1 Subsection

d. 1.1.1 Sub-subsection

9. Abbreviations- Avoid unfamiliar abbreviations, define any abbreviation that you use in
the text at first mention and use it consistently thereafter.

10. Transcriptions- For the transcription of Chinese names etc please follow the pinyin
system.

11. Capitalisation- In general, do not capitalise unless the word is a specific proper name.
For example: the Supreme People’s Court, but: the court(s) (where referring to that
court and to courts generally.

a. For example:

12.

a. 1. Section

_____________________________________________________________________
Instructions for writing the Masters thesis- 2021
“Master in Legal Culture”
Coordinator: Fernando Chica
School of Law- Universitat de Girona
www.udg.edu/en/
1
 b. 1.1 Subsection

c. 1.1.1 Sub-subsection

13. Footnotes- Footnotes can be used to give additional information, which may include
the citation of a reference included in the reference list. Footnotes to the text are
numbered consecutively. Footnotes to the title or the authors of the article are not given
reference symbols. Always use footnotes instead of endnotes. Close footnotes with a
full stop. Where more than one citation is given in a single footnote, separate them with
semi-colons. The footnote marker should appear after the relevant punctuation in the
text and normally at the end of a sentence.

14. Acknowledgments - Acknowledgments of people, grants, funds, etc. should be placed

in a separate section before the reference list. The names of funding organizations
should be written in full.

15. Chinese characters - For Chinese characters please use the encoding system
UNICODE (i.e. Arial Unicode) only.

16. Citation - Citations of books, book chapters, or journal articles in the text or in footnotes
should be given in a shortened form: author name(s), year and page number or
paragraph. Some examples:

a. One author: Miller 1991, p. 17 or Miller 1991, para 30

b. Two authors: Miller and Smith 1991, p. 17 or Miller and Smith 1991, para 30
c. Three authors or more: Miller et al. 1991, p.17 or Miller et al. 1991, para 30
d. Commentaries: Smit 2005, Article 5, para 7

17. Reference list- Please provide a reference list with the bibliographic details of the cited
books, book chapters, or journal articles. The list should only include works that have
been published or accepted for publication. Personal communications and unpublished
works should only be mentioned in the text or the footnotes. Reference list entries
should be alphabetized by the last names of the first author of each work.

18. Citation of Books- Author’s surname Initial(s) of the given name(s) (Year of
Publication) Title of Book, Volume number (if relevant), edition (if relevant). Publisher,
Place of Publication.

For example:

Chen AHY (2004) An Introduction to the Legal System of the People’s

Republic of China, 3rd edn. LexisNexis, Hong Kong

• Edited works should be cited as:

● Peerenboom (ed) (2010) Judicial independence in China: Lessons for

Global Rule of Law Promotion. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

• Where the work cited is a chapter from an edited volume, the work should be
cited as:

_____________________________________________________________________
Instructions for writing the Masters thesis- 2021
“Master in Legal Culture”
Coordinator: Fernando Chica
School of Law- Universitat de Girona
www.udg.edu/en/
2
 ● Zhu S (2010) The Party and the Courts. In: Peerenboom R (ed) Judicial
independence in China: Lessons for Global Rule of Law Promotion.
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 52-68

• For books in Chinese:

Author’s surname Initial(s) of the given name(s) (in pinyin) (Year of Publication)
Title of Book in Chinese (English translation), Volume number (if relevant),
edition (if relevant). Publisher in Chinese, Place of publication (English
translation)

● 史广全 (Shi G) (2006) 中国古代历法文化研究 (On Ancient Legislative

Culture of China), 北京:法律出版社 (Law Press, Beijing)

19. Citation of Articles

• Author’s surname Initial(s) of the given name(s) (Year of publication) Title of article.
Journal Volume number (and issue number if issues within a volume number are not
consecutively paginated): Number of first and last page of article

● For example,

Clarke D (2003) Economic Development and the Rights Hypothesis: The China
Problem. American Journal of Comparative Law 51:89-111

• For articles in Chinese:

Author’s surname Initial(s) of the given name(s) in Chinese characters (in pinyin) (Year
of publication) Title of article in Chinese (English translation). Journal in Chinese
(English translation) Volume number (and/or issue number): Number of first and last
page of article

● For example:

贺欣 (He X) (2007) 我国近期经济案件数量下降的考察 (Analysis of the Recent

Decline in Chinese Economic Caseload). 现代法学 (Modern Law Science) No.1: 3-16

20. Citation of Websites

• Author’s surname Initial(s) of the given name(s) (if known) title, type of document (if relevant),
date of issue (if available), web address and date of access, if the document or the website may
be subject to change.

● Chakrabarti S The End of Innocence (Lecture at the Centre for Public Law in
Cambridge 2004) http://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/resources/articles Accessed
20 February 2005
● Verheugen G Future of EU Shipbuilding (Speech at New Year’s Reception of the
Committee of EU-Shipbuilders’ Associations, Speech 05/65 Europa website 2005)
http://europa.eu.int Accessed 15 April 2005

_____________________________________________________________________
Instructions for writing the Masters thesis- 2021
“Master in Legal Culture”
Coordinator: Fernando Chica
School of Law- Universitat de Girona
www.udg.edu/en/
3
 21. Citation of Legislation

• For Chinese legislation:

Full name of the legislation in Chinese (English translation), date of promulgation; in the case of
older or rarely used legislation, reference to a printed Chinese version of the legislation (official
gazette or newspaper). In addition, the author may refer to an English translation of the Chinese
legislation.

● For example:

中华人民共和国合同法 (Contract Law of the People’s Republic of China) 15 March 1999.

• Cite legislation from other jurisdictions as it is cited in its own jurisdiction.

22. Citation of Cases

• Name of the case in Chinese (English translation), date of decision, Name of the court in
Chinese (English translation), and reference to a printed source in Chinese (English translation),
year, page.

● For example:

齐玉苓诉陈晓琪等以侵犯姓名权的手段侵犯宪法保护的公民受教育的基本权利纠纷案 (Qi
Yuling v. Chen Xiaoqi et al. Dispute over the Infringement of a Citizen’s Fundamental Right to
Receive Education Protected by the Constitution through an Infringement of the Right to a
Name), 23 August 2001, 山东省高级人民法院 (High People’s Court of Shandong Province), in
中华人民共和国最高法院公报 (Gazette of the Supreme People’s Court of the People’s
Republic of China) 2001, No. 5, 158.

• Cite cases from other jurisdictions as they are cited in their own jurisdiction. However, if the
name of the series cited does not itself indicate the jurisdiction and the court of decision, and the
jurisdiction and court are not obvious from the context, you should indicate these in parentheses
at the end of the reference.

● For example:

Waltons Stores (Interstate) Ltd v Maher (1988) 164 CLR 387 (High Court of Australia)

23. Tables

● All tables are to be numbered using Arabic numerals.

● Tables should always be cited in text in consecutive numerical order.
● For each table, please supply a table caption (title) explaining the components of the
table.
● Identify any previously published material by giving the original source in the form of a
reference at the end of the table caption.
● Footnotes to tables should be indicated by superscript lower-case letters (or asterisks
for significance values and other statistical data) and included beneath the table body.

_____________________________________________________________________
Instructions for writing the Masters thesis- 2021
“Master in Legal Culture”
Coordinator: Fernando Chica
School of Law- Universitat de Girona
www.udg.edu/en/
4
 ---------------------

Thanks for observing the rules for a better development

of our Masters program.

For further questions please feel free to contact me at:

fernandochica@masterculturajuridica.com

-----------------------

_____________________________________________________________________
Instructions for writing the Masters thesis- 2021
“Master in Legal Culture”
Coordinator: Fernando Chica
School of Law- Universitat de Girona
www.udg.edu/en/
5