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• Introduction
  
  
• 1.1 What is Uniform Legal Citation?
  
  
• 1.2 Content + Form = Function
  
  
• 1.3 Citing Legal Sources: General Rules
  
  
• 1.4 Citing Legal Sources: Footnotes
  
  
• 1.5 Secondary Source Citations
  
  
• 1.6 Legal Encyclopedia Citations
  
  
• 1.7 Periodical Abbreviations
  
  
• Activity
  
  
• 1.8 Legal Periodical Citations
  
  
• 1.9 Government Document Citations: Non-parliamentary government documents
  
  
• 1.10 Legal Dictionary Citations
  
  
• 1.11 Bill Citations
  
  
• 1.12 Statute Citations
  
  
• 1.13 Federal Regulations
  
  
• 1.14 Provincial Regulations Citations
  
  
• Activity
  
  
• 1.15 Case Citations
  
  
• 1.16 The Style of Cause
  
  
• 1.17 The Neutral Citation
  
  
• 1.18 The Core Citation or Printed Reporter
  
  
• 1.19 The Parallel Citation
  
  
• 1.20 Putting the Components of Case Citation Together
  
  
• Review and Conclusion
  
  

Legal Citations – What is Uniform Legal Citation?

There are many different guides to citing documents, such as:

• the MLA (Modern Language Association) guide, used predominantly within the humanities context;
• the APA (American Psychological Association) guide, used within the sphere of social sciences;
• the Chicago style guide used by historians; and
• the CSE (Council of Science Editors) system in the sciences.

The legal field has its own system of uniform citation as well. Its aim is both consistency and efficiency.

• Proper citations provide your reader with all the information he or she requires in order to locate that source.
  EXAMPLE: If you only cite the title and author of a book, your reader might spend hours trying to find that book…especially if it has several editions.
  
  
• Proper citations minimize client, lawyer, and firm expenses by reducing the amount of time spent in the library or in an electronic database.

The most widely-adopted rules and guidelines for legal citation in Canada are those outlined in the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation, 8th ed (Toronto: Carswell, 2014), more commonly known as the McGill Guide. Don't leave home without it!