In Canada, legal citation follows the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation, also known as the McGill Guide. Other countries usually use other citation styles, such as the US's Bluebook. Legal citation is required for articles published in law journals, for any citations in court cases, or for papers written for many Osgoode courses. Please see the Legal Citation Guide for in-depth help.
Note that if you're a non-law student, you likely will not need to use legal citation for your work - you will probably be using Chicago, MLA, APA, or another style. This page will give you some basics on citing Canadian case law, bills, and statutes in APA, MLA, and Chicago.
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For APA, always use the neutral citation of the case. The neutral citation is the official case citation issued by the Court (as opposed to a law reporter citation). For example: Canada Post v. Lepine, 2009 SCC 16
In this example, the style of cause (or names of the two parties) are in italics, followed by the year of the decision, the abbreviation for the court ("SCC" = "Supreme Court of Canada"), and the decision number ("16") issued by the court. For in-text case citations in APA, use the style of cause followed by the year of the decision: "Canada Post v. Lepine, 2009". If you are referencing a specific paragraph of the case, include the paragraph number: "Canada Post v. Lepine, 2009, para. 5". In your references list, include the full citation ("Canada Post v. Lepine, 2009 SCC 16").
For an example of a case found online, see the following:
R. v. Beaulieu, 7 Supreme Court of Canada. (2010). Retrieved from the Supreme Court of Canada Judgments website: https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/7846/index.do
See the APA Manual for more information.
MLA does not cover how to cite Canadian court cases. Simon Fraser University libraries recommends formatting Canadian court case citations like so:
R. v. Nguyen. 1 S.C.R. 826. Supreme Court of Canada. 2009. Supreme Court of Canada. Web. 1 Mar. 2010.
In this example, we see the style of cause ("R. v. Nguyen") followed by the volume number assigned by the court ("1"), the court abbreviation ("S.C.R." for "Supreme Court Reports") and then the decision number ("826"). The remainder of the citation follows general principles in citing American court cases in MLA,. It repeats the name of the court, the year of the decision, and then (because this is a web source), the name of the website ("Supreme Court of Canada"), italicized. Then the format ("web") and the date of retrieval.
See the MLA handbook (available online), rule 2.107, for more information.
Chicago follows the McGill guide (available online) for citing Canadian court cases, as in the following example:
R. v. Nguyen [2009] 1 S.C.R. 826 at para. 16, 2009 SCC 25. http://scc.lexum.umontreal.ca/en/2009/2009scc25/2009scc25.html
See rules 14.269 and 14.293 of the Chicago Manual of Style (available online) for more information.
In APA, bills are cited with the bill name (bill number and title) italicized, followed by the year in brackets. Specify which reading of the bill you are citing, which Parliament the bill was presented in, and in which parliamentary session it was heard. Then note where it was retrieved, and the URL. For example:
Bill C-6: An Act Respecting the Safety of Consumer Products. (2009). 1st Reading Feb. 5, 2009, 40th Parliament, 2nd session. Retrieved from the Parliament of Canada website: https://parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/40-2/bill/C-6/first-reading/page-4
Similar to bills, except that the title of the statute is not italicized. Give the title of the Act, followed by the volume title (here, "Revised Statutes of Canada"), the volume year, and the chapter number ("C-49"). Note where you retrieved the statute, and the URL.
Safe Containers Convention Act, Revised Statutes of Canada (1985, c. S-1). Retrieved from the Justice Laws website: https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/S-1/index.html
In MLA, bills are cited as follows:
Bill C-6: An Act Respecting the Safety of Consumer Products, 1st reading, 40th Parl., 2nd Sess. [Ottawa]: Library of Parliament, 2009, Parliament of Canada. Web. 23 Feb. 2022.
Note that the number and title of the bill are not italicized, but the website name is. Give the date that you accessed the website. No URL is provided.
In MLA, statutes are cited as follows:
Federal Accountability Act. Statutes of Canada, c.9. Canada. Department of Justice. 2006, Department of Justice. Web. 23 Feb. 2022.
Note that the title of the statute is not italicized, but volume and chapter number are. No URL is provided. See rule number 5.75 in the MLA Handbook and the SFU guide to citing laws in MLA for more information on citing laws.
In Chicago, bills are cited as follows:
Bill C-6, An Act Respecting the Safety of Consumer Products, 2nd sess., 40th Parliament, 2009, SC 1999. https://parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/40-2/bill/C-6/first-reading/page-4
In Chicago, statutes are cited as follows:
Federal Accountability Act, Statutes of Canada 2006, c.9. https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/F-5.5/
See rules 14.269–75, 14.275, and 14.290, and under "legal and public documents" in the Chicago Manual of Style for more information.