Skip to Main Content
Banner Image

Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation: Books

Also known as the "McGill Guide"

Books: General Form

References for this section are taken from E-89 to E-96 of the  McGill Guide (10th ed)

General Rules

1) Author - indicate the author's name as it is presented on the title page of the book

2) Title - indicate the title in full in italics. Precede subtitles by a colon

3) Edition - abbreviate edition to "ed" and revised edition to "revised ed"

4) Place of publication - indicate the place of publication as it appears on the title page or on the verso of the title page. Use an English form of a name if it exists. If more than one place of publication is listed, include the first place only

5) Publisher - write the publisher's name as it appears on the title page and do not abbreviate

6) Year of publication - indicate the year of the current publication and not the year of printing

7) Pinpoint - prefer paragraph pinpoint/s to page pinpoint/s, and begin with "at para" or "at paras". Do not include "p" to indicate the page number.

Single Author

Indicate the author's name as it is presented on the title page of the book. Include:

  • initials used (but no space between initials)
  • titles, if they appear on the title page (e.g. Professor or Lord)
  • name suffixes (e.g. Jr or IV)
  • but not the author's degrees or other credentials. 

Example 1

Tan Yock Lin, Personal Property Law (Singapore: Academy Publishing, 2014).

Example 2

Jeffrey Pinsler, Evidence and the Litigation Process, 7th ed (Singapore: LexisNexis, 2020).

Joint Author

A) Include up to three authors, separating the first two authors' names with a comma, and the last two with an ampersand (&)

Example

Chan Wing Cheong, Neil Morgan & Stanley Yeo, Criminal Law in Singapore, 4th ed (Singapore: LexisNexis, 2022).

B) If there are more than three authors, include only the first author's name followed by et al.

Example

Colin Birss et al, Terrell on the Law of Patents, 18th ed (London: Sweet & Maxwell/Thomson Reuters, 2016).

C) For collaborations other than full joint authorship, follow the usage on the title page of the book.

Example

Roger Blanpain with the collaboration of Chris Engels, European Labour Law, 3rd revised ed (Deventer: Kluwer Law and Taxation Publishers, 1995).

Editor of a Collection

A) If the author's name is part of the title, treat the editor as the author, followed by ed. 

Example

HG Beale, ed, Chitty on Contracts, 33rd ed (London: Sweet & Maxwell/Thompson Reuters, 2018).

B) If the author's name is not part of the title, indicate the editor after the edition. Precede the name/s of the editor/s with ed by.

Example 

Data Protection Law in Singapore: Privacy and Sovereignty in an Interconnected World, 2nd ed by Simon Chesterman (Singapore: Academy Publishing, 2018).

C) Other rules

  • Include up to 3 editors, separating the first 2 editors' names with a comma, and the last 2 with an ampersand "&"
  • If there are more than 3 editors, include only the 1st editor's name followed by "et al".

Example 

Terrell on the Law of Patents, 18th ed by Colin Birss et al (London : Sweet & Maxwell/Thomson Reuters, 2016).