Vicki Jay Leung, Reference Librarian

Paul Martin Law Library

October 2015

*Legal Citations

*The Purpose

*Citations are used to document where you can find sources used in a report:

*Find them in secondary sources, to track down primary sources of law (legislation, cases)

*To record which sources you used in your report for academic papers or legal proceedings

*Learning Objectives

*Introduction of the McGill Guide, 8th edition

*How to interpret a citation to statutes you find in secondary sources

*How to create a case citation that you can use to document primary sources you relied on

*N.B. There are many other types of documents not covered in this session, please refer to the McGill Guide or come to the Reference Office for help

*Pop Question

*Why do we have legal citations?

*Answers

1)So readers of your work can find the primary & secondary sources of laws that you are referring to

2)Helps with your credibility

3)Balance between providing useful information & saving space on the page

4)Can provide additional information related to a case or piece of legislation that you are referring to

*Deciphering legislation citations

*Note the difference between revised & annual statutes

*Note the difference between federal & Ontario regulations

*Amount of information included in a citation depends on the purpose of including it

(ex. pinpointing to sections, or referencing amending statutes after substantive statutes)

pp. E-23-E-44

*Revised Statute Citation

Parts of a Revised Statute Citation:

- Short title of statute

- Revision, jurisdiction & year

- Alpha-numeric chapter

- Pin-point to a specific section (if referring to)

*Sessional or Annual Statute Citation

Parts of an annual statute:

- Short title of statute (includes year)

- Statutes, jurisdiction & year

- Chapter number (sometimes alphanumeric in provinces outside of Ontario)

*Regulation Citation

Parts of a Regulation:

- Title (optional)

-Abbreviated regulation designation

-Year-Regulation number

-Pinpoint to section

*Building a Case Citation

*Parts of case citation

*Neutral citation

*Parallel citations (official, semi-official, unofficial sources)

*How much information you want to include is dependent on the purpose in your essay (ex. judge’s name, case history etc.)

pp. E-49-E-66

*Parts of a citation

- style of cause

- judgment year

-Volume

-abbreviated case reporter

- (series number if applicable)

-page number

- jurisdiction & level of court (not evident by reporter name)

*Neutral Citations

Parts of a neutral citation:

- Style of cause

- Judgment year

- Court abbreviation

- ordinal number

- Can only be created by the court by which it originates

- Created in 1999 in accordance to a Federation of Law Societies’ Special Task Force recommendation

- Courts across Canada slowly adopted this practice in the early 2000’s (common practice today)

*Parallel Citations

*Providing 2 citations for the same case

*To help readers increase their chance of finding the case

*Traditionally print publications have priority over electronic

*Order of preference:

-Neutral citation>official print>semi-official print>

unofficial print & electronic sources

*How to find a case in other reporters:

-Quicklaw

-WestlawNext Canada

- CanLii (Canadian Legal Information Institute)

- Canadian Abridgement (Canadian Case Citations)

*Legal Abbreviation Dictionaries

*To help you decipher legal abbreviation to a reporter or statutes set, recommend using:

-McGill Guide Appendix C (reporters only)

- Bieber’s Dictionary Legal Abbreviations

- Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations

*Pop Question

*There are many other different legal documents that you may need to cite that were not covered in this 1hour session.

How would you go about citing these sources in your academic

paper/factum/memorandum?

*Answer

*When in doubt refer to the McGill Guide

*For further clarification ask your professor or friendly

reference librarian

*Vicki’s Contact Information

Email: vicki.jayleung@uwindsor.caPhone: (519) 253-3000 ext. 4266

Reference Hours:

Monday to Thursday 10:30 am to 5:00 pm

Fridays 10:30 am to 12 noon(Student Reference Associates available in evenings and

weekends)

lawreference@uwindsor.ca

(519) 253-3000 ext. 2975

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask!!