Council Endorses Neutral Citation Standard for Canadian Case Law



Ottawa, June 28, 1999 ­ The Canadian Judicial Council today announced its endorsement of a neutral citation standard for Canadian case law, and urged all courts to implement the Standard as soon as feasible.

A "neutral citation standard" is a means of citing court judgments without reference to specific publishers, databases or report series.

The Neutral Citation Standard for Case Law permits every court registry to assign a unique identifier to every judgment which, together with paragraph numbering, provides an easy and accurate way of referring to all court judgments. Such a system is necessary for accurate citations in a computer environment, in which page numbers have been rendered meaningless.

The Standard was developed over the past two years by the Canadian Citation Committee representing court administrators, law librarians, legal publishers, law societies and others.

The Canadian Citation Committee, chaired by Professor Daniel Poulin of the Centre for Research in Public Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Montreal, has consulted widely in the preparation of the Standard since work was begun in June, 1997. The Canadian Judicial Council has supported the project in its role of promoting uniformity and efficiency in the operations of superior courts.

The Standard may be obtained electronically through the Canadian Citation Committee's Web site at http://www.lexum.umontreal.ca/citation/en. Copies in paper form may be obtained from the Canadian Judicial Council at Suite 450, 112 Kent Street, Ottawa K1A 0W8, 613-998-5182, fax 613-998-8889.

For further information:
Professor Daniel Poulin
Centre for Research in Public Law
Faculty of Law, University of Montreal
(514) 343-2139
fax (514) 343-7508




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