Legal Research and Writing - Legal Citation

Legal citation refers to a system of rules for citing primary and secondary legal materials (these rules, for example, would require you to put a case name or statute title in italics). In Canada, these rules have been established largely by the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation (the "McGill Guide"), now in its 10th edition, available in both print and by subscription here on Westlaw Edge Canada.

In 2024, CanLII launched the Canadian Open Access Legal Citation Guide (COAL), a collaborative effort developed by a team of editors and contributors across Canada (currently only in an English version). This new resource received a 2024 Clawbie Award for Best Legal eBook.

The next most significant source of legal citation rules would come from the work of the Canadian Citation Committee, including The Preparation, Citation and Distribution of Canadian Decisions (2 April 2009), edited by Frédéric Pelletier, Ruth Rintoul and Daniel Poulin and available online in PDF. The work of this Committee has established the use of "neutral citation" for case law.

The following free online resources also discuss legal citation:

Alberta Law Libraries: Research Guide: Citing Cases
British Columbia Court of Appeal: Citation of Authorities
Douglas College: Guide to Legal Citation
Queen's Law Library, Legal Citation
"Chapter 13: Legal Citation" in The Canadian Legal Research and Writing Guide, 2018 CanLIIDocs 161

In the United States, the McGill Guide equivalent is The Bluebook, available online here by subscription. However, in part due to the complexity of The Bluebook, the Association of Legal Writing Directors has developed a simpler form of legal citation in the ALWD Guide to Legal Citation.

There is a free, online "close equivalent" to The Bluebook by Peter Martin called Introduction to Basic Legal Citation.

In the United Kingdom, see the Oxford Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA), 4th ed,.

In Australia, legal writers use the Australian Guide to Legal Citation, 4th ed (AGLC).

On a related note: I highly recommend Butterick's Practical Typography (2nd ed) by Matthew Butterick for his recommendations on typography and the formatting of legal documents.