The first edition, published in 2009, quickly became the standard for the citation of New Zealand legal material. The second edition built on that in 2013 and now the third edition aims to update and modernise the content by:

- providing new or expanded rules for a range of material not included in the first and second editions;
- clarifying rules, including the position on ibid and "above n x"; and
- taking into account developments in citations since the last edition.
- Some sections have been rewritten and reordered to make them easier to understand.