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Legal Citation with the 9th edition of the McGill Guide

This guide provides an introduction to legal citation in Canada.

Citing Online Resources

Online Resources

As a general rule, when citing online resources, give the traditional citation for the type of secondary sources it is - whether it is an article, a government document, etc. - followed by a comma, and then "online:", and give the name of the website, and the URL. The URL should not be underlined, but it should be enclosed with "<" and ">".

To prevent link rot, provide an archived URL in addition to the original URL.  The Perma system is strongly recommended.  The archived URL should be placed beside the original URL, in square brackets.

Example:

Polly Donda-Kaplan & Natasha Bakht, The Application of Religious Law in Family Law Arbitration Across Canada (April 2006), online: Women's Legal Education and Action Fund <http://www.leaf.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/2006-04-Submission-The-Application-Of-Religious-Law-In-Family-Law-Arbitration-Across-Canada.pdf> [https://perma.cc/S4JV-4PHH].

There are some variations to this rule depending on the type of material being cited.  Consult section 6.19 of the McGill Guide for more details.

Sources from a Database

If you retrieved an article or e-book from a database such as Lexis Advance Quicklaw or WestlawNext Canada, you can indicate this by adding the name of the database in parentheses after the traditional citation.

Example:

Chidi Oguamanam, "Cross-Cultural Dynamics in Palliative Care: The Emerging Canadian Scenario" (2016) 39 Dal LJ 455 (QL).