[Jellby]

Originally Posted by MacEachaidh

Jellby, your system isn't so clear, and falls down when the items in the list are longer than a single line. The list then becomes a bit messy and indistinct.

Well, you have to provide some styling, which I deliberately omitted. For example, if you want a hanging indent in the list items:

div.list p {
  text-indent: -2em;
  margin-left: 2em;
}

and if you want multi-paragraph items, one could be a bit more elaborate:

<div class="list">
 <p class="item">1. Item 1</p>
 <p class="item">2. Item 2</p>
   <p>Second paragraph of item 2</p>
 <p class="item">3. Item 3</p>
</div>

div.list p {
  margin-left: 2em;
}
div.list p.item {
  text-indent: -2em;
}

Yes, you have to number the items by hand, but you have to number the chapters and footnotes by hand too. If you are constantly reordering elements, you should consider creating the content in some kind of scripting or post-processing.