# Formatting Standards Act **URL:** \ **Category:** The Concordat and Laws of The East Pacific\ **Created:** [January 25, 2024, 12:44am UTC](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/formatting-standards-act/17710 "2024-01-25T00:44:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 4
**Author:** ![Ladona](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/user_avatar/forum.theeastpacific.com/ladona/32/15492_2.png) [@Ladona](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/u/Ladona)\ **Post date:** [October 25, 2025, 11:00pm UTC](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/formatting-standards-act/17710/4 "2025-10-25T23:00:07Z")
Notice of Amendment Due to the passage of [[A-2025-44] Amendment to the Law Standards Act](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/a-2025-44-amendment-to-the-law-standards-act/19437) on Wednesday, October 15, 2025 3:35 AM and subsequent sign-off by [the Delegate](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/notice-from-the-magisterium/16271/95), the following amendments have been made. > **Details** > > > [@](#): > > > > # Section I. CITATION > > > > 1. This Act shall be referred to as the “LawFormatting Standards Act”. > > > > # Section II. DEFINITIONS > > > > 1. “Format of this Act” refers to the section, clause, and subclause style used by this Act. > > 2. “Legislative Proposal” or “Proposal” refers to a proposal to exercise legislative action through a Bill. > > 3. This Act uses the same definitions for each category of Bill that can be found in the [Standing Orders of the Magisterium](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/standing-orders-of-the-magisterium/16205). > > 4. This Act uses the same definition for “Sponsor” that can be found in the Standing Orders of the Magisterium. > > 5. > > > > “The Forums” refers to [https://forum.theeastpacific.com](https://forum.theeastpacific.com) > > > > # Section III. LAW FORMATS > > > > 1. Unless specified elsewhere in this Act, the Standing Orders of the Magisterium, as well as all legislation and amendments thereto, must be written according to the Format of this Act. > > …1. Until it is amended, any legislation that was passed on or before Tuesday, September 9, 2025 4:13 AM does not need to comply with this Act. > > 2. All amendments being brought to vote must be made with the `[add][/add]` and `[remove][/remove]` tag pairs to indicate where changes are being made. > > …1. If the amendment is a rewrite that requires the entire Legislative Proposal to be considered as a whole, then tag pairs are not mandatory, especially if their inclusion affects readability or comprehension. > > 3. Nominations, Repeals, Removals, and Overrides are not required to follow a particular format. The Sponsor must clearly identify the target of the Legislative Proposal and why they introduced it. > > 4. Resolutions should be written with the first section being titled “CITATION”, the second section being titled “FINDINGS”, and a third section titled “RESOLUTIONS”. > > 5. Treaties and Declarations of War must use the Format of this Act where practical. > > …1. Sections may be referred to as Articles instead. > > > > # Section IV. DATE AND TIME FORMATS > > > > 1. All dates and times used for official purposes on the Forums shall follow “Discourse Standard”, defined as YYYY-MM-DD. > > 2. Where applicable, dates must be expressed using the `[date]` tag for an individual date, or the `[date-range]` tag for a range of dates. > > 3. All uses of the [date] and [date-range] tags should, when applicable, represent individual dates as `YYYY-MM-DD`, individual times as `hh:mm:ss`, combined datetimes as `YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss`, and the timezone as `tz`. > > …1. `YYYY` is the year the event will occur; > > …2. `MM` is the month the event will occur; > > …3. `DD` is the day that the event will occur; > > …4. `hh` is the hour the event will occur, in 24-hour notation; > > …5. `mm` is the minute that the event will occur; > > …6. `ss` is the seconds that the event will occur, typically 00; and > > …7. `tz` is the appropriate timezone for the event. > > 4. Compliant examples and a list of timezones have been included in Appendix A. > > > > # Section IV. RESPONSIBILITIES > > > > 1. The Sponsor is responsible for formatting a Legislative Proposal according to the standards defined in this Act. > > 2. The Office of the Provost may, at its discretion, request that a Sponsor reformat a Legislative Proposal to comply with the standards defined in this Act. > > 3. The Office of the Provost may reformat a Legislative Proposal to comply with the standards defined in this Act before the Proposal is brought to a vote. > > > > # Section VI. ALTERATIONS > > > > 1. A Sponsor may alter their implementation of the Format of this Act as necessary. They must provide a justification for the alteration. > > 2. The Office of the Provost may alter a Legislative Proposal’s implementation of the Format of this Act as necessary. They must provide a justification for the alteration. > > 3. The Office of the Provost must not make unreasonable alterations when reformatting a Legislative Proposal to comply with this Act, including changing the intended meaning of a Resolution or the legal effect of a binding Legislative Proposal. > > …1. The Conclave may, by majority vote, reverse any edit that violates this paragraph of this Act. > > > > # Appendix A. COMPLIANT EXAMPLES > > > > - Individual date & time: `[date=2023-02-07 time=11:30:00 format="LLLL z" timezone="UTC"]` > > - Date & time range: `[date-range from=2023-01-07T11:30:00 to=2023-01-07T11:30:00 format="LLLL z" timezone="America\Los_Angeles"]` > > - A list of appropriate timezones can be found here: [List of tz database time zones - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones#List) --- _[View the full topic](https://forum.theeastpacific.com/t/formatting-standards-act/17710)._