How to Cite the Criminal Code of Canada?

If you have ever seen any legal documents, you must have seen some abbreviations consisting of numbers and letters. Legal professionals and lawyers usually use this format to site or document any case easily.

So if you want to know how to cite the criminal code of Canada, then this article is for you. In this following discussion, you will learn what legal citation means, and how to write a legal citation and read it.

Every case or legislation is required to be documented properly for future reference. Also, you may need to use the case history. A legal citation provides the court or readers with a brief about the case. Hence you no longer need to read the whole document but rather understand from the citation.

One of the top reasons behind its importance is when you present a court case or for legislation. You will need to provide a reference to your court’s criminal code.

The Canadian criminal code can be a bit complicated for you if you just begin. To clear up your confusion, here is an explanation in the following section.

If you’d like to refer to Canadian criminal law, you must take care of some things. These specific items are:

• Information about the legislation that you want to refer to in your article. It must be written in italics.
• Short forms of sources or references, volume
• Exact chapter number
• Year
• Amended statutes (if any).
• Optional or additional details to be more precise

Here this example refers to the legislative act as the criminal code. However, keep the font in italics when you are writing it in your paper.

“Criminal Code, RSC 1985, c C-46, s 132(1)(b).”

• The RS refers to the act’s Reserve Status. You will need to use the RS or revised statute if any laws or policies are changed. However, if the law remains the same for a period, you can refer to it as a statute or S.
• The C here stands for your country’s jurisprudence i.e. Canada. Also, it’s important to include the volume number and the cited sources when you choose jurisprudence.
• 1995 represents the year.
• Small c stands for the Chapter. Again, C-46 indicates the criminal code is in the 46th chapter.
• The final section is up to you; you can avoid it or choose to use it for more information.

You must follow a few rules when citing laws and court cases. Besides, you must mention their exact sources in court. Because if you somehow forget to do that, the procedure can be delayed.

The following are some crucial components of court case citations:

• Use italics font for specific information from your side or party.
• Specifics about the relevant citation.

Citing court cases will be different while using neutral citations. However, you can work with them without any neutral citations.

“R v John, [1976] 1 SCR 115.”

• ‘R’ represents the state’s court name, such as Regina (Queen) or Rex (King)
• John is the person accused name.
• 1976 refers to the year of publication.
• SCR refers to the Supreme Court Report in this context, which discusses the official reports.
• 115 refers to a specific page number. However, this is not mandatory. You can choose to use it or not.

The parts of a proper legal citation for a statute are in the following section:

Interpretation Act, R.S.C. 1985, c. I-21, s.1

Title: This is the title of the statute, followed by a comma. Use the short title of the act.

Volume: As in the preceding case, quote the Revised Statutes or annual volumes as S.C. There is no comma after. The words “Revised Statutes of Canada” and “Revised Statutes of Ontario” are denoted by the acronyms listed below.

Year. Right after the jurisdiction. The year is put after a comma.

Chapter. Put a stop after a lowercase “c.”

Alpha-numeric Designation. The letter is taken from the statute’s title. Indicated by a hyphen are federal statutes (I-21).

Section Numbers: One section is abbreviated as ’s,’ and several sections are abbreviated as “ss.” If you are citing a specific part, put a comma after the alphanumeric designation.

‘Canada Corporations Regulations, C.R.C. 1978, c.424, s. 23’ (revised).

A correct legal citation of this regulation consists of the below-numbered parts:

Title: The enabling act’s name is optional.

Jurisdiction: the acronyms here express the terms “Revised Regulations of Ontario” and “Consolidated Regulations of Canada.”

Year: Directly following the jurisdiction. A comma follows the year.

Number: Regulation number.

The chapter number of the statute includes the initial letter of the act’s title.

• Include the Privacy Act, RSC 1985, c P-21, and the Criminal Code, RSC 1985, c C – 46.
• BC Reg 181/74.
• Section 38 of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, SC 2002. (2).

You may find the penal code a little bit challenging to cite in APA style. The reason is this manner of citing differs from the other kind. The penal code must be cited using the specifics in APA style.

This is the basic format – Name of the law, Short form of your state or state code, specific section number, the year (additional)

• Child Custody Act, Chicago 2000, c.1
• Criminal Justice Act, SC, 1990, c. 28

A parallel citation is another name for a Supreme Court case. This is a little different from other citations in comparison to the other one.

If the report is available in a law edition, you must cite the country in which it was published. Besides, mentioning a Supreme Court case reference in APA is a must in your work.

Chicago Valley v. Hill, 335, U.S. 150, S. ct. 2200 (1990)

Citation for different kinds of references can be different according to where you live or the type of code you are using. You might have noticed that the differences are actually not pretty major; in fact, they all have quite similar methods of citing.

But if you do not take care of those specifications, you will end up citing it wrong. As a result, your claim or discussion can be proven wrong. So, it is a must to cite carefully and create the strongest claim in your paper.

The proper citation format for the Criminal Code of Canada is “Criminal Code, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-46”.

To cite a specific section of the Criminal Code of Canada, you would use the format “Criminal Code, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-46, s. [section number].”

The Criminal Code of Canada can be cited using MLA or APA citation style, however, it is recommended to check the specific guidelines for each citation style as it may vary.

Yes, there is an online version of the Criminal Code of Canada that can be cited. The citation format would be “Criminal Code, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-46, s. [section number]. (Year of the update) Available at: [URL]”.