Federal bills:
Number, | Title, | Session, | Legislature, | Year, | Clause Pinpoint.
Bill C-32, An Act to Amend the Copyright Act, 2nd Sess, 35th Parl, 1997, cl 15(1)(a).
Provincial bills:
Number, | Title, | Session, | Legislature, | Provincial Jurisdiction, | Year, | Clause Pinpoint.
Bill 139, An Act to Make April 21 Climate Change Awareness Day, 2nd Sess, 38th Leg, Ontario, 2006, cl 3.
Statutes: Once a bill has received the necessary legislative approval and royal assent, it becomes a statute. Statutes are first collected in annual volumes. Periodically, all the statutes in a particular jurisdiction (including all amendments) are collected in a collection of statutes known as the revised statutes.
Statutes:
Title, | Statute Volume | Jurisdiction | Year, | Chapter, | other indexing elements, | (session or supplement), | pinpoint.
Annual volumes:
Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, SC 2000, c 5.
Revised statutes:
Criminal Code, RSC 1985, c C-46, s 319.
Electronic versions: Federal and provincial governments now publish their statutes electronically on government websites, most of which are official versions. Citations still use the print format, however (ie, you don't have to add the URL to the citation).
Jurisprudence or case law: These are the written reasons for a judge or decision-makers decision once a case has been heard. Most cases will have a decision, unless under a publication ban for some reason, or if the case was tried by jury. We used to only have access to cases that were published in case law reporters (see below for more detail), but now both published and unpublished cases are available online.
Cases:
Style of Cause, | main citation | pinpoint, | parallel citation | [short form].
R v Sharpe, 2001 SCC 2 at para 25 [Sharpe].
R v Oakes, [1986] 1 SCR 103 at paras 32-34, 26 DLR (4th) 200 [Oakes].
Neutral citations: Most courts now publish their decisions with a neutral citation indicating the year of the decision, the court, and a decision number. When available, a neutral citation should always be the main (first) citation. List it right after the name of the case (style of cause); eg, 2001 SCC 2 = neutral citation for the Supreme Court of Canada's decision in the Sharpe case listed above.
Parallel citations: A parallel citation is simply a second place you can find a reported case. This is less crucial now that most cases are easily accessible online. Include one only if there is no neutral citation available, as in the Oakes example above.
Journal articles:
Author, | "Title of Article" | (Year) | Volume: | Issue | abbreviated Journal Title | First Page | Pinpoint | (Database Service, if applicable).
Journal articles with one author:
David M Tanovich, "E-Racing Racial Profiling" (2004) 41 Alta L Rev 905 (QL).
Journal article with additional authors:
Rachel Cox & Karen Messing, "Legal and Biological Perspectives on Employment Testing for Physical Abilities: A Post-Meiorin Review" (2006) 24 Windsor YB Access Just 23.
Rafael La Porta et al, "Law and Finance" (1998) 106:6 Journal of Political Economy 1113 at 1152.
Use "et al" (like in the La Porta example above) as soon as you have more than three authors.
Books:
Author (as the name appears on title page), | Title, | edition | (Place of publication: | Publisher, | Year).
Books with a single author:
LW Sumner, The Hateful and the Obscene: Studies in the Limits of Free Expression (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004).
Books with additional authors:
Patrick Fitzgerald, Barry Wright & Vincent Kazmierski, Looking at Law: Canada's Legal System, 6th ed (Toronto: LexisNexis, 2010).
Use "et al" as soon as you have more than three authors: eg, CJC Sampford et al, Retrospectivity and the Rule of Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006).
Newspaper articles:
Author, | "Title of Article", | Newspaper | (Date) | Page | (Database Service, if applicable) OR online: <URL>.
Rod Mickleburgh & Gloria Gallaway, "Storm brews over drug strategy", The Globe & Mail (15 January 2007) A1 (Lexis).
Naomi Wolf, "Take the Shame Out of Rape", The Guardian (25 November 2005), online: <www.guardian.co.uk>.
Government documents include diverse sources ranging from legislative debates, reports from Parliamentary committees, and documents and reports from other bodies such as Officers of Parliament, Commissions of Inquiry, and government departments. Parliamentary documents are published by a legislative body (either federal, provincial, or territorial); all others are non-Parliamentary.
Debates:
Jurisdiction (if a province), | Legislature, | Title, | Legislative Session, | Volume | Number | (Date) | Pinpoint | (Speaker).
House of Commons Debates, 37-1, No 64 (17 May 2001) at 4175 (Hon Elinor Caplan).
Non-Parliamentary Papers:
Jurisdiction, | Issuing Body, | Title, | (Type of document) | (Publication Information).
Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, Protecting Your Privacy on the Internet: Canada's New Privacy Laws (Fact Sheet) (Ottawa: Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, 2004).
Treaties and UN Documents: While most treaties and UN documents can now be found online, it is preferable to cite to the print version. Most of the needed information should be listed on the website, however. You can include an optional reference to the electronic source.
Treaties:
Treaty Name, | Parties (if applicable), | Date of Signature, | Treaty Series Reference | Pinpoint | (Date of Entry into Force | other information).
Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, 4 November 1950, 213 UNTS 221 at 223 (entered into force 3 September 1953).
UN documents:
Author (if applicable), | Title, | UN Body Res or Dec Number, | UN Body's acronym and OR, | Session Number or Calendar year, | Supp Number, | UN Doc Number (Calendar Year) | First Page | Pinpoint.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, GA Res 217A (III), UNGAOR, 3rd Sess, Supp No 13, UN Doc A/810 (1948) 71.