There has been some discussion (between the flames) of the details
of a paragraph citations system, should one emerge from this effort. Some
of the comments were concerned with exectly what was to receive a number,
and in fact whether numbering paragraphs was desirable as it might lead
to citations to only part of an argument, rather than the complete
thought or something along this line.
I think that if the courts are to be asked to take on this
responsibility, that the numbering system be trivial and readly included
in a SIMPLE macro that could be widely disseminated in the court system
and NOT depend on additional work by over-worked court personell. The
only thing that is important here, is that the numbering system be
consistent and AUTHORITATIVE. Its sole purpose is to locate information,
not compartmentalize it into units of thought or some such.
Thus, we should not be concerned with questions about headers, quotations,
units of thought etc. A simple macro that numbers for example hard returns (in
Word-Perfect) or some such simple variant would be most practical. The court
or anyone else could do such a simple robot-like procedure (on an authoritative
version of the opinion). Let the numbers fall where they may. It should be a
purely mechanical system, WITHOUT any semantic meaning.
I should point out the obvious, that the current page citation system lacks
any such semantics, why should a paragraph numbering system be concerned
with any semantics?
Keep it Simple......
Sincerely,
Henry Manaster
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