Transcript legal_citations_2.pptx

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Vicki Jay Leung, Reference Librarian
Paul Martin Law Library
October 2015
*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
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*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
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*Why do we have
legal citations?
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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
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* 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)
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pp. E-23-E-44
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)
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Parts of an annual statute:
- Short title of statute (includes year)
- Statutes, jurisdiction & year
- Chapter number (sometimes alphanumeric in
provinces outside of Ontario)
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Parts of a Regulation:
- Title (optional)
- Abbreviated regulation designation
- Year-Regulation number
- Pinpoint to section
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* 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.)
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pp. E-49-E-66
- style of cause
- judgment year
- Volume
- abbreviated case reporter
- (series number if applicable)
- page number
- jurisdiction & level of court (not evident by reporter name)
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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)
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* 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)
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* 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
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* 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?
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*When in doubt refer to the
McGill Guide
*For further clarification ask
your professor or friendly
reference librarian 
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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)
[email protected]
(519) 253-3000 ext. 2975
If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask!!
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Email: [email protected]
Phone: (519) 253-3000 ext. 4266