Template talk:Cite BAILII

Bailii template
[Moved here from "User talk:Smuconlaw".] Hi Smuconlaw, I wanted to ask a favour. I'd really like to use the Cite Bailii template, but I wanted to ask if you'd know how to change it a bit - essentially to make it similar to the ussc template. Would the following be possible?
 * allow the template to function with simply {{bailii .... etc - instead of {{CITE BAILII ... etc ? - I made an attempt with this: Template:Bailii and have completely messed up! This page could probably be deleted/replaced!
 * eliminate the need for the text "case=" and so on - so that I could simply enter, for example, "{bailii|1900|UKHL|1}"
 * give one link for the Case citation page under the text of the court type: UKHL or UKSC or EWCA Civ, etc (or possibly the subsection Case_citation - with the following number linking to the relevant bailii page? (Again this would be more like the USSC - a number of people have made the point that information is lacking for non-lawyers about what this means.)

Thanks very much for your time - I'd greatly appreciate any help!  Wik idea  18:15, 27 December 2014 (UTC)


 * Hi. My responses are as follows:
 * The easiest way to deal with your first point is to make {{tl|Bailii}} into a shortcut to {{tl|Cite BAILII}} (i.e., turn it into a redirect) rather than to create a whole new template. I've done this already.
 * Yes, I can add positional parameters so that you don't have to use the parameter names if you wish. However, this can only be done for a couple of the most commonly used parameters, otherwise the template will probably become too complicated to use. Let me know which parameters you are likely to use most frequently.
 * I think we need consensus before making the template link permanently to "Case citation". Alternatively, I can add a parameter to allow you to turn on the feature if you wish to. I don't think it should be made the default, though I will follow whatever is the consensus on the point.
 * — SMUconlaw (talk) 09:16, 28 December 2014 (UTC)

Victorian Scottish House of Lords cases (Paterson)
Recently, BAILII has put up a lot of Victorian House of Lords cases from Scotland, with URLs of the form http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKHL/1864/2_Paterson_1235.html (Sutor v Pitt, an important case on domicile). Can the template currently deal with these, or does it require modification? Tevildo (talk) 17:43, 3 January 2016 (UTC)
 * The template will require modification. Are all the cases decided by the House of Lords? — SMUconlaw (talk) 21:15, 4 January 2016 (UTC)
 * I've not really looked at any of the Scottish municipal cases, but the template currently seems to allow enough flexibility in this area. Paterson isn't the only reporter used - see, for example, the indexes for 1820, 1840, and  1850. Tevildo (talk) 19:22, 7 January 2016 (UTC)
 * Thanks, Actually, I've realized it doesn't matter because the court is indicated by "UKHL" in the URL. Let me look into updating the template when I'm less busy. — SMUconlaw (talk) 10:34, 8 January 2016 (UTC)

Template doesn't seem to work for 1940 UKPC case
Howdy - Canadian lawyer here, without much experience with BAILII. I've used this template in the "External Links" section of John Edward Brownlee sex scandal, in an attempt to link to http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKPC/1940/1940_36.html. However, the template seems to generate a link to http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKPC/1940/36.html instead; am I doing something wrong, or is this exposing some limitation in the template? Any help appreciated. Steve Smith (talk) 01:13, 23 February 2016 (UTC)
 * You have to add " ". As the documentation states: 'type "format=1" if the URL is in the form " http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKPC/[year]/[year]_[num].html "'. — SMUconlaw (talk) 11:02, 23 February 2016 (UTC)
 * Much obliged - I should learn to read. Steve Smith (talk) 22:40, 23 February 2016 (UTC)

Seeking help
Can anyone here help me to generate a cite BAILII citation for this case? I've tried several ways, and I can't get it to produce a citation that makes sense, because I'm not sure what goes where.

Cite court produces:

cite BAILII:



SarahSV (talk) 17:46, 22 November 2017 (UTC)


 * I've managed to generate a citation. The problem now is that I can't make it work with sfn.




 * and




 * Does anyone know whether that should work? I've left this question at Template talk:Sfn. Leaving it here too in case someone can help. SarahSV (talk) 19:38, 23 November 2017 (UTC)


 * Noting that this was answered at Template talk:Sfn. SarahSV (talk) 20:51, 24 November 2017 (UTC)

wrong court name shown and wrong URL
Entering "scotcase=CSIH" is somehow leading it to show a cite for CSOH. Also, the BAILII URL produced does not contain the needed brackets, even when using "format=2".

Example at my sandbox. Thank you for your help.

Infoman99 (talk) 01:45, 2 April 2019 (UTC)


 * You need IH or OH, not CSIH or CSOH. Hairy Dude (talk) 13:40, 22 September 2019 (UTC)

Can't correctly cite CSOH prorogation decision
I'm trying to cite this case at Claim of Right Act 1689. Unfortunately the URL schema doesn't match any of the options available to me: it's "ScotCS/[year]/[year]_CSOH_[num].html" but the only ones I can get the template to generate are "ScotCS/[year]/[num].html" (with no format parameter or format=0), "ScotCS/[year]/CSOH_[num].html" (with format=1) and "ScotCS/[year]/[year]CSOH[num].html" (with format=2; note lack of underscores). I've done it ultimately by substing in my sandbox, condensing the template code and correcting the URL, but that's not ideal. Hairy Dude (talk) 14:13, 22 September 2019 (UTC)

Template not working for Irish cases
The URL for Irish cases has come in two formats, neither of which work with this template: Up to 2019: From 2020:.

I might play around in the sandboxes to see if I can use the format tag to work something out, though I'm still getting used to that level of coding, so if any of you have solutions, do see what can be done! Thanks, Iveagh Gardens (talk) 11:28, 17 March 2021 (UTC)


 * I believe this is working now. jnestorius(talk) 22:09, 5 June 2021 (UTC)
 * Great work ! –Iveagh Gardens (talk) 15:29, 15 June 2021 (UTC)

Does not produce correct neutral citations for NI High Court cases
This citation:



should produce the neutral citation [2021] NIQB 64 but produces [2021] NIHC 64 (QB). See the BAILII page for the citation. —Tom Morris (talk) 20:19, 12 October 2021 (UTC)

UK Employment Tribunal support
Just wanted to note, I've added UK Employment tribunal support to the template, as well as accompanying information to the docs , as UKET cases use a different URL format than was supported through the template. The only part I'm not sure if is necessary is "format=5". I needed to add a format override, as the end part of the URL for the test case I used is in the format " [num]_[year].html ", but I don't know if that applies for all UKET cases or not. Hopefully someone more versed in the template structure could assist with cleaning that up if it's not necessary? Thanks. Sideswipe9th (talk) 18:52, 19 March 2022 (UTC)

Scottish House of Lords case with undocumented URL scheme
Heaven v Pender cites Caledonian Railway Co v Warwick [1897] UKHL 54. The URL is https://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKHL/1897/35SLR0054.html. I can't figure out how to make this template generate this URL, or another that works. Setting R or SLR with the appropriate volume and firstpage doesn't work. format seems to have no effect. Hairy Dude (talk) 17:27, 25 January 2023 (UTC)

Separator for parallelcite
currently says regarding parallelcite values: "". Why is this? BAILII itself separates citation schemes by semicolon, eg.. It would be easier to copy and paste these alternate citations if I didn't have to replace the separator first. Furthermore, although I haven't seen it yet in BAILII, I suspect that more citation schemes use commas than semicolons in citing particular cases. I'd particularly welcome input if that supposition is correct. Daask (talk) 20:13, 2 November 2023 (UTC)