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Case law: online resources for common law countries: Canada

Canadian case law

Holders of an Oxford SSO have these subscription databases

Online sources available to all with access to the internet

Holders of an Oxford SSO have these subscription databases

Online sources available to all with access to the internet

These can be found on Level 1.

Supreme  Court Reports (SCR) (1923 - ) Cw Can 100 C90
Canadian Criminal Cases (CCC) (1898 - ) Cw Can 100 C50
Dominion Law Reports (DLR) (1912 - ) Cw Can 100 D50

 

Criminal Reports (1946 - ) Cw Can 100 C180
Canada Federal Court Reports    (1971 - )   Cw Can 100 F20
Labour Arbitration Cases (1948 - )   Cw Can 100 L10
National Reporter (1974 - ) Cw Can 100 N20

 

Regional

Western Weekly Reports    WWR    Cw Can W100 W30
This series includes "The Judgments delivered by and originating in the courts of Alberta, BC, Manitoba and Saskatchewan." It has a complex publishing history which can affect how it is cited.


Provincial

Atlantic Province Reports       (1983 - )       Cw Can 100 A50
Alberta Law Reports    (1908 - 2003)       Cw Can Alb 100 A10
Alberta Reports    (1977 - )    Cw Can Alb 100 A20
British Columbia Law Reports       (1867/69 - )    Cw Can BC 100 B10
Manitoba [Law] Repports        (1875 - )    Cw Can Man 100 M25
Ontario Reports O R.    (1882 - 2003)      Cw Can 100 O40
Recueils de Jurisprudence du Quebec       (1976/77 - )    Cw Can Qu 100 R32
Saskatchewan Reports    (1980 - 2004)    Cw Can Sask 100 S20

 In addition the LawBod has LRC Law Reports of the Commonwealth (in the wider sense) at Cw Gen 100 L30 a series which claims to pick up " the key cases whose significance transcends local boundaries."

Unlocking Canadian case citations

Main case reporters and abbreviations:

Case reporter    Abbreviation
Supreme Court Reports SCR
Canadian Criminal Cases    CCC
Canadian Criminal Reports CCR
Dominion Law Reports DLR
Ontario Reports OR
Rapports Juridiques du Quebec    RJQ

 

Federal courts in neutral citation are:

Court English French
Supreme Court of Canada    SCC    CSC   
Federal Court FC CF
Federal Court of Appeal    FCA CAF
Tax Court of Canada TCC CCI
Court Martial Appeal Court of Canada    CMAC CACM
Competition Tribunal of Canada Comp. Trib. Trib. conc. 
Canadian Human Rights Tribunal CHRT TCDP
Public Service Labour Relations Board PSSRB PSSRB

 

In 1999, Canadian courts began assigning neutral citations to their judgments (the start date varies depending on the court). The neutral citation is only a case identifier and does not indicate where a case can be found. It consists of three parts:

  • year of decision
  • abbreviation of the court
  • an ordinal number

For example: Arsenault-CameronPrince Edward Island, 2000 SCC 1

Citations to printed/published report series are usually easy to read for those used to English practice

R v Seaboyer, [1991] 2 SCR 577 at 590.

Canadian practice is to 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 (case for all relatively recent reports), the year is placed in square brackets []; when it does not (for older cases), the year is in round brackets (). If there has been more than one volume produced for a given year, this comes after the year & before the abbreviation for the report series. 

A case citation  ends with the page number on which the case begins, followed by the word "at" and page referenced if a pinpoint is needed.

Had the name of the report series not indicated which court decided on the case, the name of the court must be added in an abbreviated form in parentheses after the citation, before the pinpoint.

New to Canadian law?

This other Law Bod Libguide may help!