8 replies to this topic

[default]

I was just wondering what sort of citation guide / format style is used in the writing of research papers for the various law schools in Canada.

Is there a universal procedure followed or does it vary from school to school?

[hefeweizen]

Canadian law schools/legal academics/law journals tend to use The Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation (generally referred to as the "McGill Guide"), currently in its 7th edition. The 7th edition made the interesting choice to do away with almost all punctuation within the citations, so there are no periods; I like it, personally (seems cleaner somehow) but it seems controversial among some other students.

[Gronk]

You have to write papers in law school? Damn it.

[hefeweizen]

You don't necessarily have to write very many - it varies depending on what types of courses you take (exam classes versus seminar/paper/theoretical classes) but I believe all the schools have some required writing components ... you'll also have to write memos, which are not like undergrad papers, but do require writing skills (and citation).

[Stark]

McGill guide. I've become used to it now but for the longest time the McGill style was a huge pain in the ass and I couldn't understand it for the life of me.

[West Coast Express]

McGill Guide, but I've found the profs to be far less concerned about perfect citations than they were in undergrad. Many of mine have let me use the older edition of the McGill Guide as long as it's uniform throughout, and they don't generally ask for bibliography. Neatly written footnotes seems to be the standard - some ask for more, some ask for less.

[Denning Jr]

Everybody will always tell you to cite the McGill Guide, but very few professors/practitioners actually have any idea what the McGill Guide actually requires. In fact, some of the formatting requirements of the MG are fucking stupid. Facta citations are in text like this (McGill Guide) and then after the sentence you have to put another in text citation.

• McGill Guide, supra at para ##.

People will tell you to use the McGill Guide, and then ask you why you're doing these stupid looking citations rather than just use footnoting. You also are supposed to have two point references: one to the paragraph in the source you're citing, and another to the first paragraph in your factum that you cited the source. So it looks like "McGill Guide, supra at para 1 at para 2". Which is dumb and confusing, especially in a factum where the judge is just going to flip back to the table of authorities anyways.


...seriously, I fucking hate the McGill Guide.

edit: because the citation is supposed to be indented

Edited by Denning Jr, 09 February 2012 - 11:34 AM.

[Gronk]

hefeweizen, on 09 February 2012 - 01:39 AM, said:

You don't necessarily have to write very many - it varies depending on what types of courses you take (exam classes versus seminar/paper/theoretical classes) but I believe all the schools have some required writing components ... you'll also have to write memos, which are not like undergrad papers, but do require writing skills (and citation).

I was only slightly kidding that I was shocked there were papers in law school. I was under the impression you would not be bogged down with the obligatory term paper in every class. Thank you for confirming this!

[hefeweizen]

Quote

So it looks like "McGill Guide, supra at para 1 at para 2". Which is dumb and confusing, especially in a factum where the judge is just going to flip back to the table of authorities anyways.

Haha I'm working on a moot factum right now and we were just talking about how funny that sounds.

Gronk - no, you'd usually know in advance if you were letting yourself in for an "obligatory term paper." I know lots of people that have happily avoided them.