These on-line laws have been adapted primarily from the USA version of the lawbook with some assistance from the Canadian and New Zealand lawbooks in cases where misprints seemed to occur. The laws are those of the I.R.F.B. (errors and omissions excepted) and apply to all international games. They also apply to all other games throughout the world excepting only where local unions have adopted domestic variations. In a few cases (e.g. New Zealand) those variations may be extensive (particularly for the lower grades of play) but for the most part they tend to be clarificatory. Where domestic variations have been included here they have been clearly indicated and are not part of the I.R.F.B. laws.
The laws are currently up-to-date for the 1995 season (i.e. the changes passed at the March 1995 meeting of the I.R.F.B. are included).
The main feature of this version, apart from their availability on-line, is that they are in hypertext. This allows one to follow links to other parts of the lawbook without having to thumb through the pages to find the relevant item. Another very useful feature is an automatic search facility.
The above features have been made possible by converting the laws to html (hypertext markup language) format. It is in the nature of html that the appearance of these laws will depend on the www browser you use to read them. (You can even modify many browsers to modify their appearance.) The nature and limitations of html severely restrict what I have been able to accomplish in the way of tidy presentation and faithful reproduction of the standard lawbook. For example, there is no way I can insist that Notes be presented in blue type and Penalties in red. (Even with Netscape enhancements this is not possible without departing radically from the html standards. It really requires style sheets and these are still in the draft stage.) I have simply used emphasis and strong constructs instead. The limitations of html are also evident in presenting numbered lists. I have done the best I could, though at times I have perverted html to try and get the desired effect in Mosaic (knowing full well that other browsers may interpret things differently).
When html3 becomes standardized and starts to become widely available in browsers I will upgrade these laws to that. I have started this improvement by including change bars for the 1994 and 1995 revisions even though few browsers will show them. Later I will include margin notes etc. I may also move all country-specific variations to footnotes or annotations.
Any comments or suggestions concerning these laws is most welcome.
Please do bring any misprints or omissions to my attention.
pbickers@phys.uidaho.edu Mon May 23 23:00:20 PDT 1994