Canadian Legal Resources

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Canadian Legal Research and Citation Guide Chapter 1: Introduction to Legal Research and Citation This chapter provides an general overview of ▪ primary and secondary resources ▪ the process of legal research ▪ Legal terminology and citation. Primary and Secondary Legal Resources It is common to divide the world of legal information into two broad categories: ▪ Primary legal resources include: ▪ (i) legislation (statutes, regulations, and orders-in-council) and ▪ (ii) case law (decisions of courts and administrative tribunals). Primary legal resources are the products of official bodies with the authority to make law. Thus, primary legal resources can affect the legal rights of citizens.…show more content…
The guiding principles are twofold: you want to identify the court , but you only want to include as much information as is necessary to identify that court. Direct quotations: Name of judge and pinpoint citation The name of the judge is included in a citation only when a direct quotation is taken from the case. The judge's name is placed at the end of the citation and is followed by his or her office in abbreviation (Rule 4.10 of the McGill Guide provides abbreviations for judges' offices). There is no comma after the judge's name. In the Barr case this would read: R. v. Barr (1982), 16 Man. R. (2d) 1 (Co. Ct.), Ferg C.C.J . You also need to include a pinpoint citation to the page the quote is taken from. Thus: R. v. Barr (1982), 16 Man. R. (2d) 1 at 14 (Co. Ct.), Ferg C.C.J. Neutral Citation Neutral Citation allows the identification of a case without specific reference to a particular printed reporter or database. These identifiers are assigned by the courts. The McGill Guide's Rule 3.10 of provides detailed direction as to use of neutral citation. Neutral citation should only be used on its own when there is no citation to a printed reporter…show more content…
Most publishers also provide a summary of the facts of the case and the ruling of the court, and create subject indices for easy reference to similar cases within the publication. In Canada, some of the more well known national-coverage case reporters include the Supreme Court Reports (S.C.R.), the Federal Court Reports (F.C.), the Dominion Law Reports (D.L.R.) and the Western Weekly Reports (W.W.R.). Other reports can be found by region, like the Ontario Reports (O.R.), or by topic, like the Canadian Cases on Employment Law
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