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McGill Guide to legal citation

Cases

Hierarchy of Sources

  • Where possible the neutral citation should be the main citation (see below for an explanation of neutral citation)
  • In the absence of a neutral citation provide the Canadian Legal Information Institute (CANLII) citation
  • If none of the above is available, provide another source e.g. online databases, official reporters and unofficial reporters

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Screen image of CanLII case____________________________________________________________________________________

Cases  (E-3.1 in the McGill guide)

Neutral Citations

The neutral citation is provided by the court and is only a case identifier and does not indicate where a case can be found. It consists of three parts:

  • year of decision
  • abbreviation of the court e.g. SCC for Supreme Court of Canada
  • an ordinal number e.g. 45 indicating this is the 45th case decided in 2003
  • The "Style of cause" is a shorter version of the title, referring to a decision informally (3.3)
Type

Style of cause (Italics), year volume reporter (abbr.) series # (if needed) pinpoint.
Neutral citation

Wewaykum Indian Band v. Canada, 2003 SCC 45.

Official reporter

Wewaykum Indian Band v. Canada, [2003] 2 SCR 259.

Other reporter/sources

Wewaykum Indian Band v. Canada, (2003) 231 DLR (4th) 1.
In-text Example

The McGill rules for in-text references differ slightly from APA citation style. The following is our best interpretation of how to adequately refer to the corresponding entry in your APA Reference list

("Wewaykum," 2003)

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