Citations

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Canadian Legal Citations: A Primer

Legal citations are a fundamental aspect of legal research and writing courses, as well as your daily encounters with Canadian case law. In Canada, the “Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation” (often referred to as the “McGill Guide”) is the standard reference for legal citation. Styles can vary a bit by prof or firm, so check in before finalizing your work.

Which Rules to Follow

The McGill Guide is used in both academic writing and legal practice, and it is updated in new editions from time to time. Make sure to ask your professor which edition and which rules to follow for your Legal Research and Writing assignments.

Short Form Citations

The first time you cite a source, use the full citation. For subsequent citations of the same source, you can use a short form. This not only saves space but also improves the flow of your document.

Cases

For case citations, the McGill Guide outlines the following components.

Example: R v Sharpe, 2001 SCC 2, [2001] 1 SCR 45 at para 4.

Component	Example	Notes
Case name (italicized)	R v Sharpe	Italicize the case name
Year of decision	2001	Year the decision was released (part of the neutral citation)
Court and decision number	SCC 2	Supreme Court of Canada, decision 2 of the year
Reporter year	[2001]	Year of the reporter volume, in square brackets
Volume and reporter abbreviation	1 SCR	Volume 1 of the Supreme Court Reports
Page number	45	Page where the case starts
Pinpoint citation	at para 4	Specific paragraph cited

Statutes

For statutes, the citation generally includes the following components.

Example: Criminal Code, RSC 1985, c C-46, s 265(1).

Component	Example	Notes
Name of the Act	Criminal Code	Italicize the name of the Act
Statute volume and year	RSC 1985	Revised Statutes of Canada, 1985
Chapter number	c C-46	Chapter number in the statute book
Section and subsection	s 265(1)	Section and subsection cited

Online Sources

For online sources, the McGill Guide suggests including the following components.

Example: Jane Doe, “Legal Research in the Digital Age” (1 January 2021), online: Example Law Journal <example.ca/legal-research>.

Component	Example	Notes
Author (if available)	Jane Doe	Author of the online source
Title	“Legal Research in the Digital Age”	Put the title of an article or page in quotation marks
Date of publication	(1 January 2021)	Date the source was published or updated, in parentheses
Source or website	Example Law Journal	Website where the source is published
URL	<example.ca/legal-research>	URL of the source, after “online:” (no need for https:// or www)

Note on Ibid

The term Ibid is used in a footnote that refers to the source cited in the immediately preceding footnote. It is italicized, and you can add a pinpoint (for example, Ibid at para 5). Don’t confuse it with Id., which is American Bluebook style and isn’t used under the McGill Guide. And no, neither one refers to Sigmund Freud or his theories.