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MLA 9th Edition Citation Style Guide

Quick tips

This guide contains basic citation information for legal documents. For specific information and more examples, please refer to the MLA Manual (pp. 344 - 346) or to the UBC Law - Legal Citation Guide. Note: the UBC Law guide is in Chicago Style; adapt the material you need to match MLA style. 

Please also note that the examples for law sources in the MLA guide are focused on US examples, so you will have to adapt for Canadian sources if that is what you are using. 

Court Judgements

Template for Court Judgements

Works Cited List: Case name. Supreme Court Report Number. Supreme Court of Canada. Date. Link.

Parenthetical in-text citation: (Case name page number)

Narrative in-text citation: Case name (page number)

EXAMPLE

R. v. Nguyen. 1 SCR 826. Supreme Court of Canada. 2009. https://scc-csc.lexum.com/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/6738/1/document.do

  • SCR stands for Supreme Court of Canada.

Parenthetical in-text citation: (R. v. Nguyen 826)

Narrative in-text citation: R. v. Nguyen (826)

Laws

EXAMPLE - Act

Government of British Columbia. University Act. RSBC 1996, c. 468, 14 July 2021, https://www.bclaws.gov.bc.ca/civix/document/id/complete/statreg/96468_01

Parenthetical in-text citation: (Government of British Columbia)

Narrative in-text citation: Government of British Columbia's University Act


EXAMPLE - Bill

House of Commons Canada. Bill C-4, An Act to implement the Agreement between Canada, the United States of America and the United Mexican States. parl.cahttps://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/43-1/bill/C-4/third-reading. 1st Session, 43rd Parliment, 13 Mar. 2020. 

Parenthetical in-text citation, first time: (House of Commons Canada)

Narrative in-text citation, first time: House of Commons Canada's Bill C-4