10.7. Italics

The use of italics is restricted to specific cases, including the titles of electronic or printed publications and words and short phrases from foreign languages.

Use quotation marks to cite quotations from books and periodicals rather than italics. The simultaneous use of italics and quotation marks must be avoided.

The use of italics is restricted to the following cases.

  1. Titles of electronic or printed publications, films and plays (see Section 10.4(h)) if written in full.

    Official Journal of the European Union

    NB:

    Short and abbreviated titles are in roman:

    the Official Journal

  2. Words and short phrases from foreign languages with their appropriate accents:

    acquis, carte blanche, Länder, raison d’être

    but not proper names (names of persons, institutions, places, etc.), and not usually foreign quotations.

    Not all foreign words are italicised, however; a number have been assimilated into current English and are written in roman:

    alias, démarche, detour, ad hoc, per capita, per se, vis-à-vis, etc.

  3. Names of ships, aircraft and other vehicles:

    the Cutty Sark

    HMS Beagle

    the SS Normandie

    the Spirit of St Louis

    the Flying Scotsman

  4. Formulae in mathematical works.

    NB:

    Authors should take particular care to distinguish between l (the lower-case letter), 1 (the figure one) and I (the roman numeral or capital letter) and between O (the capital letter) and 0 (zero).

  5. The names of flora and fauna; genus and species must be in italics, and other taxonomic ranks are also often italicised:

    ORDER:RosalesCarnivora

    FAMILY:RosaceaeFelidae

    GENUS:RosaFelis

    SPECIES:Rosa moschataFelis cactus

    The genus name should be spelt out in full on first occurrence and subsequently abbreviated: Escherichia coli, abbreviated E. coli.

    NB:

    For more information on the use of italics in scientific names, see points 16.1–16.5 of the Directorate-General for Translation’s English Style Guide.

  6. The parties’ names in cases before the Court of Justice, but not the ‘v’:

    Case C-287/87 Commission v Greece [1990] ECR I-125

Latin abbreviations and phrases

abbreviationsLatin

Latin should be used sparingly as even the common phrases are often misused or misunderstood.

  1. Write all Latin abbreviations in roman.

    e.g., et al., et seq., ibid., i.e., NB, op. cit.

  2. Latin words should usually be printed in italics (e.g. ex ante), but certain common Latin phrases take roman (refer to the New Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors for italic or roman style).

    Examples of roman:

    ad hoc, ad infinitum, per capita, pro forma, status quo

    Latin phrases are not hyphenated when used adjectivally, e.g. ad hoc meeting.