The New Dispute Settlement Report Formatting
Apologies for this rant, but the new format for heading numbering in WTO dispute settlement reports is getting to me. Here's the problem, taking the EC - Seal Products panel report as an example. Let's say you are on p. 144, and you come to this heading:
7.3.3.3.4.5 Overall assessment of the reasonable availability of an alternative measure, taking account of risks of non-fulfilment would create
When you look at this heading alone, it's really hard to figure out where you are in the report. That's six numerical sub-headings, separated by periods!
You might scroll up a bit, to get your bearings, and on p. 139 you get to this:
7.3.3.3.4.4 Reasonable availability of the alternative measure
That's not much help, so you keep going until you see a higher level heading, like this one on p. 134:
7.3.3.3.3 Risks non-fulfilment of the objective would create
It's not until you get to p. 125 that you get a good sense of where you are:
7.3.3.3 Whether the EU Seal Regime is more trade restrictive than necessary to fulfil a legitimate objective, taking account of the risks non-fulfilment would create
And it's on p. 109 where the section starts, with this:
7.3.3 Article 2.2
Yes, there is a table of contents to guide you a bit, but at least in this report, it only goes to 5 levels, not the 6 that are actually used. Anyway, I find the whole approach very hard to follow. I would have thought that using the more traditional I.A.1. etc. would be easier.
And while I'm at it, a friend of mine has complained about the new font:
Do you know anything about the decision to start issuing panel and AB reports in Verdana? Now I realize this is partly a matter of taste, but I do believe that there is some scientific evidence to suggest that large passages of text are harder to read in sans-serif typefaces. (Just ask yourself this – when was the last time you read a book set in a sans-serif typeface?)
I feel less strongly about this one, although it does throw me off a little to read Verdana.