Rule numbers are an address. Officials quote them in decisions, players cite them in protests and committees refer to them in minutes. A good numbering system is easy to say out loud and never points to the wrong place.
Decimal: 1, 1.1, 1.1.1
The most familiar system. Each level adds a number. It's easy to read and works at any depth, though more than four levels ("3.2.1.4.2") becomes hard to say.
Best for: most competition and sports rule books.
Padded decimal: 1.0, 1.1, 1.1.01
Chapters end in ".0", sections are "1.1" and individual rules are padded to two digits ("1.1.01"). Padding keeps long sections in order and makes rules visually distinct from headings.
Best for: long rule books where sections hold many rules.
Articles and clauses: Article 4, 4.2, (a), (i)
Familiar from constitutions and legal documents. Articles hold numbered sections, which hold lettered clauses and then Roman sub-clauses.
Best for: constitutions, bylaws and governance documents.
Lettered and Roman chapters: A.1, I.1
Useful when chapters are separate parts, such as "Part A: Competition" and "Part B: Discipline", or for appendices.
Whatever you choose, protect your cross-references
The most expensive numbering mistake is the stale cross-reference. "As set out in rule 4.7" is correct when written, but after an insert it points to the wrong rule. Readers follow it, find a rule about something else, and you have a dispute.
Two habits prevent this:
- Don't renumber by hand. Use a tool that calculates numbers from the structure.
- Make references live links, not typed numbers. A reference that points to the rule itself, not to its number, can't go stale.