Canadian Legal Citation/Citation style

Bibliographies

Bibiliographies should be divided into four categories, listed in the following order and labelled in the following way:

LEGISLATION [or STATUTES AND REGULATIONS CITED]

JURISPRUDENCE [or CASES CITED]

BOOKS

PERIODICALS

[or put books and periodicals together under AUTHORS CITED]

Put each section in alphabetical order. For books and journals, put the references in alphabetical order by last name of the author. If the author is not mentioned, use the first word of the title of the book/article. If citing the same author more than once in the same section, replace the author's name with a short dashed line:

Dye, C. "Is Trial by Ordeal Still Relevant in Today's Criminal Procedure?", (1948) 7 Westm't L.J. 233.
------. "Trial by Ordeal in Norwegian Military Law", [1950] 2 Norweg. Mil. L. Rev. 97.

Footnoting

Use a footnote whenever referring to a source for the first time. Also footnote whenever directly or indirectly quoting from a source, or generally where the reader could ask, "Where did he/she get these facts?" Remember, the point of legal research is to show that X authority supports Y legal principle. Footnoting expresses which authority is being referred to.

When footnoting the same authority twice or more in a row, use "ibid.". When footnoting a different section of the same source, use "ibid. at X".

1 C. Dye, "Is Trial by Ordeal Still Relevant in Today's Criminal Procedure?", (1948) 7 Westm't L.J. 233 at 237.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid. at 241.

"Ibid." means "see previously", telling the reader to look at the previous footnote to find information on the source.

If footnoting the same source twice in the same research paper but with other sources in-between, use "supra note." This device tells the reader to refer back to a previous note, so that the researcher does not have to write out all the information on that source again. Write the name of the Statute/style of cause/author's name followed by a comma, then "supra note" then the number of the footnote where that source first appeared.

1 C. Dye, "Is Trial by Ordeal Still Relevant in Today's Criminal Procedure?", (1948) 7 Westm't L.J. 233 at 237.
2 Bees Act, R.S.B.C. 1985, c. B-2., s. 1.
3 Dye, supra note 1 at 234.
4 Bees Act, supra note 2, s. 4.

"Hereinafter" is another device for simplifying footnotes. If the title of a statute/case/book/journal is long, write "[hereinafter X]" just before the page reference. X represents a shortened form of the title. Example:

1 Beach and Waterfront Protection and Regulation Act, R.S.B.C. 1985, c. B-2 [hereinafter Beach Act], s. 4.
2 Association of Wine Producers of Northern Quebec v. Attorney-General (Quebec), [1985] 3 R.J.Q. 456 [hereinafter Wine Producers] at para. 5.
3 Beach Act, supra note 1, s. 9.
4 Wine Producers, supra note 2 at para. 76.

Introductory signals

Introductory signals are used in legal citations to present authorities and show how the authorities relate to propositions in textual statements. A legal writer uses an introductory signal to tell readers how her citation to legal authority supports, or does not support, her written proposition.

An example for the US, but can be easily adopted:

Unfortunately, hiring undocumented laborers is a widespread industry practice. E.g., Transamerica Ins. Co. v. Bellefonte Ins. Co., 548 F. Supp. 1329, 1331 (E.D. Pa. 1982).