LAW Legal Citation (McGill Guide) Quick Reference

Chapter 1 "General Rules" in the McGill Guide explains the basic rules and practices used in legal citation. Although Footnotes are customary for academic writing, shorter documents such as memorandum and factums use in-text citations. Sections include:

• Bibliographies, including a suggested example (Rule 1.1)
• In-text References for Memorandum and Factum (Rule 1.2)
• Rules for Footnotes, including when to footnote, formatting, and parenthetical information (Rule 1.3) and Quotations (Rule 1.8)
• Prior and subsequent references, including short forms, Ibid, and Supra (See below)
• Pinpoints - used to cite to a particular page, paragraph, section, number, etc. (Rule 1.5; See below)
• Online resources, including Internet sources, parallel citations, and Digital Object Identifier (DOI) (Rule 1.6)

The McGill Guide section called "Prior and Subsequent References to a Citation" (Rule 1.4.1) includes directions and examples to establish a Short Form, or short title for a piece of legislation, case name, or secondary source. This is a useful practice to help with long titles. Once you define the Short Form using square brackets, you can use that throughout your text and subsequent footnotes.

Treaty example from Legislation:

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 9 May 1992, 1771 UNTS 107, art 1, 31 ILM 849 [UNFCCC].

Ibid (Rule 1.4.2) - Used to refer to a source in the immediately preceding footnote without needing to provide repeat the complete reference. Use Ibid. alone if referring to the same page as referenced in the immediately preceding footnote but include a pinpoint citation if referring to other pages (Example: Ibid at 34.). There is no need to include the footnote number. The following example shows three sequential footnotes to the same source, the last being to a different article in the international treaty. 

[5] United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 9 May 1992, 1771 UNTS 107, art 1, 31 ILM 849.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid, art 8.

Supra (Rule 1.4.3) - Used to refer to a previously cited source, specifically to the footnote containing the full citation of that source without needing to repeat the complete reference. Include a pinpoint citation to the relevant page(s), if different than for the previous footnote. The following example shows a full reference to a case and statute followed by subsequent footnotes to portions of the same references. 

[1] 2015 SCC 5, [2015] 1 SCR 331 [Carter].
[2] Criminal Code of Canada, RSC 1985, c C-46, ss 14, 241(b).
[3] Carter, supra note 1 at paras 123, 127, 147.
[8] Criminal Code, supra note 2.

Pinpoint citation is used in legal citation to cite to a specific passage or page of text. Examples can be found in the McGill Guide (Rule 1.5) to cite to specific pages, paragraphs, sections, articles, chapters, footnotes, or numbers.

Primary Materials

Case Example if paragraphs are numbered: 

R v Cole, 2012 SCC 53 at para 67.

Statute Example:

Territorial Lands Act, RSC 1985, c T-7, s 3.

Secondary Materials

Book Example:

Philip H Osborne, The Law of Torts, 3rd ed (Toronto: Irwin Law, 2007) at 44.

Article Example:

Steven A Kennett, Arlene J Kwasniak & Alastair R Lucas, “Property Rights and the Legal Framework for Carbon Sequestration on Agricultural Land” (2005-2006) 37 Ottawa L Rev 171 at 176-78.

Loose-leaf Example:

Peter W Hogg, Constitutional Law of Canada 5th ed (Toronto: Carswell, 2007) (loose-leaf updated 2013, release 1), ch 30 at 30-3.