The Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation (also known as the McGill Guide) is the most common style guide used in law for citing references. Most faculty in Law & Legal Studies prefer this style, but make sure you always check with them first!
While the full guide is not available online, here are some resources to help you get started:
- MacOdrum Library guide to Uniform Legal Citation (McGill Guide)
- Queen's University Library legal citations guide and practice tutorial
- University of Toronto Bora Laskin Law Library guide to legal citations
- UBC Law Library legal citations guide
The other main legal citation style is The Bluebook, issued by Harvard Law School. Only use this style if your professor has specifically requested it. For more information, see Cornell's Introduction to Basic Legal Citation or Purdue University's Online Writing Lab's quick guide.
If you are using an alternate style guide (eg, APA, Chicago), these do not handle legal citation very well. In most cases, unless they demonstrate a specific style, defaulting to McGill Guide for any specifically legal materials (eg, cases, laws) is generally acceptable.