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McGill Guide to Uniform Legal Citation: The Basics Every Law Faculty Student Should Know

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McGill Guide is a citation and referencing style used in Canadian legal writing. It is primarily used in legal publications, including law journals, legal opinions, and legal academic writing. The McGill Guide provides guidelines for citing legal sources, such as cases, statutes, regulations, and legal commentary.

Students who study law in Canadian higher educational institutions may face the need to read the McGill guide minimum once. A better alternative is to study this mini-guide in the shape of the informative article.

Some students find it difficult to study a particular referencing guide on their own. Order both help with citing essays and custom academic papers written from scratch at one of the leading essay websites!

What Is McGill Guide to Uniform Legal Citation?

The initial question to discuss is what McGill guide is. It is a special guide on academic writing format created to generate Canadian legal citation along with the corresponding reference. The guide was established by the Faculty of Law in the corresponding Canadian university. The Canadian guide allows pursuing research goals in the legal field. The format provides the students with standardized, accepted approaches to expressing their thoughts to the target audience.

The 8th edition of the Canadian McGill Guide to uniform legal citation is the final released version. Every student knows what a citation is at the university level. The initial time a student meets citation is a high school when the English Composition 101/ Literature teacher assigns an essay. In college, a citation becomes something more complicated as the research paper is introduced to the student. A citation is supported by the corresponding reference, explaining the source’s details.

Guide McGill: What Is a Citation and Why Is It Used?

A citation is a way a writer informs the readers about the “borrowed material.” The words of the field experts help to prove the writer’s arguments, make the reader visualize the picture, and share forecasts for the future. There is no way to prove a statement in the argumentative/ persuasive essay without involving a quotation. A legal paper is either an argumentative or a persuasive essay. The citation reveals:

  • Author’s details
  • Project’s title
  • Company’s location
  • Date a copy was published
  • Number of pages

It is all about the borrowed materials. The information about the student comes at the beginning of the work. What are the goals of the guide?

The Goals of McGill Citation Guide

If you are a student studying liberal arts or law, it is necessary to start learning the art of creating a Canadian McGill Guide to uniform legal citation ASAP. What about creative aspect? At some point, a creative writing using this style is a phenomenon, which can be present in the world of the legal careers.

Legal citations are made of a couple of goals:

  1. Communication of the significant information regarding the case;
  2. Opportunity for the reader to find a solution.

An accurate legal citation Canada can prove the claim of the author. It should be based on the guide. Take a look at the prompt/grading rubric when referring to non-legal sources that may demand extra quotation formats like APA style format/ CMS (Chicago Manual of Style).

McGill Legal Citation: Basic Rules

Most of the academic essays in the field of Canadian law require the application of numbered endnotes & footnotes to cite the sources collected during the research. Endnotes appear at the end of work. Footnotes go to the bottom of every page.

Each time a law essay writer refers to a source initially, it is important to provide a whole citation with the limited information on the source like said in the Canadian guide. Use supra or ibid.

Make a difference between these two while creating a legal citation:

  • Supra Use it to cite the source that possesses a full citation (preceding citation).
  • Ibid Use it to cite the same source.

The Canadian McGill Guide to uniform legal citation mentions that students can come up with a brief form of the source. If the student cites a certain work more than a single time, and the source is lengthy, this rule may save plenty of time. Put the brief form using brackets after the initial citation. Add the author's last name for subsequent citations from articles/ books.

Keep away from the repetition working with this guide to legal citation (example: if the case’s title appears in the body text of the paper, stay away from repeating it in the citations).

McGill Legal Citation Canada: What Are Some Different Types of Sources to Cite?

It is time to observe some examples of the legal citation Canada. The template looks this way:

Author Forename Author Surname, Title, ed (City: Publisher, Year Published).

In-text citation stands for the quotation/reference to the source in a writer’s work. A corresponding reference with the full source’s information should appear at the end of the paper under the title References Page/ Bibliography.

Learn how to cite various types of sources according to the guide.

  1. Legal cases – Case’s Title, (Decision Date), Neutral Quote, [Author’s Year].
  2. Provincial bill – Number, Name, Session, Legislature, Jurisdiction.
  3. Federal bill – Number, Bill’s Name, Session, Legislature, Extra Info.
  4. Statute – Name of Statute, Volume Jurisdiction, Year, (session/supplement).
  5. Journal article – Writer, “Article’s Name” (Year) Volume: Issue.
  6. Newspaper – Author, “Name of Work,” Newspaper (Date).
  7. Non-parliamentary paper – Jurisdiction, Issuing Body, Name, Volume.
  8. Book – Author, Work’s Heading (Publication’s place: publisher’s name, date).
  9. Debate – Jurisdiction, Legislature, Title, Session, Volume (Date) at Pinpoint (Speaker’s Name).

It is critical to know the source’s type to arrange referencing entries in the end based on these types: secondary sources, government documents, jurisprudence, legislation, or international docs. Decide which sources to use.

Another thing to add is the role of Canadian McGill guide in professional resume writing. Experts recommend preparing a scholarship essay, CV, resume, and cover letter in this format if you would like to apply for the legal educational institution/job position.

Verdict

Those were the basic things about a Canadian legal citation. Do you need more information or help? If the answer is “help,” it is worth trying to contact professional online legal writing service for students of the English-speaking world. Local Canadian writers will find a solution to any legal case/ write a legal paper from scratch within the set time frame. There is no way you will miss the deadline. No matter how hard your task is, purchase tailored research papers for sale from leaders online now to discover how easy it could be! 

Article posted on:May 9, 2022
Article updated on:Apr 7, 2024

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