Guide to Foreign and International Legal Citations - New York ...

Cite laws by title (italicized), volume by year (if possible, cite to the latest Revised Statutes of
Canada, abbreviated “R.S.C.”), chapter (“c.”), section (“s.”), paragraph (“par.”), and
subparagraph (“subpar.”) referenced:
28
Canada Labour Code, R.S.C. 1985, c. L-2, s. 14.
2.1 Provincial Legislation
The same model prevails for provincial statutes, except that the name of the volumes and the
year of the last revision will vary (e.g., “R.S.O.” for Revised Statutes of Ontario).
2.2 Codes and Common Statute Abbreviations
Some statutes are referred to by accepted abbreviation. The most frequent are:
Criminal Code (C.C.)
Code of Penal Procedure (C.P.P.)
Civil Code of Quebec (C.C.Q.)
2.3 Treaties and Conventions
Civil Code of Lower Canada (C.C.L.C.)
Code of Civil Procedure: (C.C.P.)
Cite treaties and conventions as described in Section 1.0 on Treaties and Conventions (on page
266), filling in the source information with the Canadian Treaty Series by year, “Can. T.S.” and
treaty number:
[Treaty information], 1950 Can. T.S. No. 1, [date of entry into force, etc.].
3.0 Jurisprudence
Cite cases by the name of the parties (italicized) separated by “v.” (not italicized), year (when the
year corresponds to the year of the volume (for all relatively recent cases), the year is placed in
square brackets; when it does not (for older cases), the year is in parentheses), volume and, if
there is more than one volume in a year, the name of the volume, page on which the case begins,
followed by the word “at” and page referenced:
R. v. Seaboyer, [1991] 2 S.C.R. 577 at 590.
If the name of the volume does not indicate which court decided on the case, the name of the
court must be added in an abbreviated form in parentheses after the citation, but before the page
number of the actual reference.