Comments on the Neutral Citation Standard for Case Law / Commentaires sur la norme de référence neutre pour la jurisprudence


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Le tableau suivant présente les divers commentaires reçus durant la phase consultative sur l'établissement d'une norme de référence neutre pour la jurisprudence au Canada The following table exposes the comments received during the consultation phase for the proposal of a neutral citation standard for case law in Canada.

Commentaires généraux
General Comments

Auteur/Author

Il ya accord avec le format de la norme de référence : année + code de désignation du tribunal + numéro de séquence de la décision. La simplicité de la norme est son principal atout.     Claude Marquis - Arrêtiste (Cour suprême du Canada)
  First, let me congratulate your Committee for its important work in promoting access to the law. In my view, the standard for the preparation of judgments in electronic form should be an annex to this citation standard, and it should be made clear that numbering of paragraphsis a mandatory element of the standard. Given that we can presume that beforevery long all judgments will be published electronically, and given that the paragraph numbering is essential to replacing page numbers in a citation standard, I can imagine some benefits to combining the two standards into a single standard.  Author wishing not to be identified
Au nom du Comité sur l'accès au droit, j'amerais féliciter le Comité canadien de la référence pour l'excellence du travail effectué sur cette importante question. Votre travail contribuera très certainement à promouvoir l'accès au droit au Canada.   Auteur souhaitant ne pas être identifié
  I think the neutral citation standard is an excellent idea and fully expect that it will be adopted by the Court of Queen's Bench of Manitoba. Associate Chief Justice Jeff Oliphant (Court of Queen's Bench of Manitoba)
L'adoption de cette norme sera très utile. Elle facilitera le repérage des décisions récentes disponibles uniquement sur support informatique. Elle contribuera à réduire la compétition actuellement existante entre les différents éditeurs concernant le mode de citation des décisions disponibles en format électronique. La norme facilitera le repérage des décisions.   Auteur souhaitant ne pas être identifié
  We have reviewed the Neutral Citation Standard for Case Law and we are very supportive of the proposal. Author wishing not to be identified
La norme de référence proposée pour la jurisprudence à mon avis comporte quatre avantages : uniformité des références, simplicité et rapidité de la recherche qui s'en trouve facilité.   Honorable juge en chef Lyse Lemieux (Cour supérieure du Québec)
  A sensible approach. The main difficulty I see is the minor administrative one of maintaining a numbering system of judgments filed in each registry. Supreme court of Newfoundland (Trial division)
En général, nous trouvons votre démarche intéressante et utile. Cependant, nous n'embarquerons pas dans un tel système avant d'être certains que le système fonctionne à 100% et qu'il est appliqué à travers le pays ou au moins à travers la province de Québec.

En ce qui concerne les éléments de la norme, nous sommes d'avis que c'est une bonne idée d'y inclure l'année de référence etc. Cependant, la forme libre de l'intitulé devrait être obligatoire. Toute qualification qui a trait  à l'utilisation des langues officielles, et axu révisions sera utile.

Enfin, nous utiliserons cette norme en parallèle avec nos citations "maison".

  Auteur souhaitant ne pas être identifié
  The proposals in the paper seem sensible on the whole. My only reservation is that I think it would be preferable to confine the ultimate   standard to the substance of th citation without sipulating rules as to form.

What matters is to ensure that a unique identifier is attached to every decision in a consistent manner across the country and among all tribunals. Just how the identifier is included in the footnotes, in terms of punctuation, plurals, ect., is a question that, I think, is better left to the law journals.

That reservation aside the porposed system seems logical and practical.

Author wishing not to be identified
Alors que nous prenons le plus grand virage technologique du siècle, l'orientation que donne le comité à ses travaux est tout à fait louable. L'utilisation de plus en plus répandue des moyens de communication électronique rend même l'atteinte des objectifs fixés vitale.

La numérotation des paragraphes était un excellent premier pas (simple et en douceur) dans cette direction. La référence neutre et uniforme en est un deuxième pour lequel l'effort d'implantation est plus considérable.

  Auteur  souhaitant ne pas être identifié
  Excellent project which I hope will continue!

There is a definite need for a neutral citation standard. The standard should include, as a mandatory element, the style of cause. To ensure universal application, all publishers should agree to adhere. Acknowledging that publishers will assign their own citations for their own products, perhaps the neutral citation should be part of the overall case description. The proposed standard seems to contemplate that all courts have some type of centralized support system whose function includes the assigning of case numbers and distributing of judgments. This is not generally found at the Provincial Court level.

Author wishing not to be identified
Elle constitue assurément un pas en avant, et je partage les objectifs visés qui lui ont donné naissance.

Toutefois, ne court-on pas le risque qu'une maison d'édition veuille ajouter à la norme proposée ses propres indications de référence? L'objectif des simplicité et d'efficacité pourrait être ainsi compromis.

Est-il nécessaire que tous les jugements de tous les tribunaux fassent l'objet d'une diffusion publique, que l'attribution d'une norme de référence favorisera?

  Jean-Maurice Brisson (Faculté de droit-Université de Montréal)
  Would the Committee consider that in the case of Courts of appeal, it might be desirable to have a designation that the decision is "in Chmabers", that is, not a decision of the Court but of a single judge. A suggestion has been made that perhaps a small "c" after the number as in : 1999 NSCA 32c might show that designation. Author wishing not to be identified
La norme proposée est simple et rencontre les objectifs et les avantages énoncés dans le document de consultation. Cependant, il y aurait lieu de retenir les deux observations suivantes:

1. L'intitulé de la décision devrait être un élément obligatoire de la référence au même titre que l'année de la décision, le nom du tribunal et le numéro au même que l'année de la décision, le nom du tribunal et le numéro de séquence.

2. Pour un certain temps, il faudra continuer d'utiliser des références parallèles en plus de la référence neutre proposée.

  Auteur souhaitant ne pas être identifié
  The neutral citation standard being proposed constitute an excellent initiative and we fully endorse its adoption. This standard will constitute a very useful tool for those working in the judicial world.

Obviously, the fact that a Court issues its official citation does not prevent a publisher from adding its own.

Chief Judge Donald H. Christie (Tax Court of Canada)
La promotion d'une norme de référence est une excellente initiative; la communauté juridique connaît un réel besoin de normalisation quant aux références à la jursiprudence, publiée ou non sur Internet.

L'absence d'outils uniforme pour citer l'information disponible sur Internet n'est pas sans causer de difficultés.

  Dominique Duclos (Chambre des notaires du Québec)
  I am strongly in favor of assigning a neutral citation for court judgments.This universal citation, when assigned by the originating court, would serve as an invaluable identifier for tracking down court decisions. Unlike those citations assigned by commercial publishers, this would be an integral part of the document from the moment it leaves the court and would serve as a unique identifier regardless of where of how the document is made available. It would serve as an interim citation until the decision becomes available a published/printed format. Author wishing not to be identified
Nous nous réjouissons de constater l'effort de rationalisation du Comité en vue de simplifier la vie aux utilisateurs des textes juridiques.   Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec
  Having a uniform standard makes a great deal of sense. The approach proposed also makes sense because it apperas logical and would be easily understood. Honourable Mr. Justice Clyde Wells (Court of Appeal of Newfoundland)
Nous appuyons sans réserve le projet de référence neutre qui, malgré les difficultés techniques qu'elle implique, facilitera le consultation de la jurisprudence au Canada.  

Hubert Reid (Wilson & Lafleur ltée)

  I think this is a great initiative and I agree with your overall approach.Your attempt to coordinate internationnally is particularly impressive

Associate Chief Justice Micheal MacDonald (Supreme Court of Nova Scotia)

La norme proposée nous apparaît très intéressante surtout en ce qu'elle est simple et facilement compréhensible.  

Me Pierre Brassard (Régie du logement du Québec)

  I support the initiative and believe it will be of great benefit to all concerned. The standard for the preparation of judgements was a great step forward, and the Neutral Citation Standard will be the same.

Author wishing not to be identified

L'idée d'une norme de référence neutre pour la jurisprudence est une proposition très intéressante. Cette idée s'impose.  

Honorable Gérald-A. Beaudoin

  Congratulations for proposing an international standard for citations. It is simple and straightforward, yet complete and informative.

Chief Judge J.L. Batiot (Provincial Court of Nova Scotia)

Je vous encourage à le [le projet] poursuivre. C'est d'une grande urgence et nécessité.  

Jean-Guy Bergeron (Doyen, Université de Sherbrooke)

  We wholeheartedly agree with the process your are making.

Author wishing not to be identified

Je trouve que la simplicité de la norme proposée est un avantage indéniable.  

Auteur souhaitant ne pas être identifié

  The standard is well-thought out and generally simple and straight forward to apply and to understand.

John H. Kromkamp, Senior Legal Officer (Court of Appeal of Ontario)

La norme proposée est sûrement un bon pas vers l'uniformisation d'un mode de référence pour la jurisprudence.   Yves Panneton, Directeur-Services Juridiques-Montréal (Commission Santé et Sécurité au Travail)
  I commend you and your committee for taking the initiative to create a formal citation system for electronic cataloguing of judicial opinions. In recent years, searching computerized data bases has become the quickest and most efficient method of legal research. It is critical that the citation system bas as accessible ans as user friendly as possible so as to facilitate public dissemination of our common law. I believe the work of your committe will greatly encourage more public awareness of, and appreciation for, yhe Canadian judicial system. Author wishing not to be identified
Cette norme semble bien répondre à un réel besoin d'identification unique des jugements accessibles sur les médiums électroniques.   Auteur ne souhaitant pas être identifié
  This is a necessary step in citation given the rapidity of circulation of court decisions. It will overcome questions of authority in the citation of unpublished decisions. Author wishing not to be identified
Il y a d'abod lieu de souligner de façon positive le travail effectué par le Comité canadien de la référence et de saluer avec enthousiasme l'élaboration d'une norme de référence neutre pour la jurisprudence canadienne. Une référence uniforme et permanente pour les décisions judiciaires se révélera sans doute un outil précieux pour la communauté juridique, que ces décisions proviennent de banques de données informatiques ou d'Internet, ou qu'on les retrouve sur support papier dans les collections traditionnelles.   Auteur souhaitant ne pas être identifié
  I have been kept informed of the discussions in the Canadian Judicial Council Judges Computer Advisory Committee on this subject and am pleased to say that I generally agree with the standard as propose.  Author wishing not to be identified
  It would seem that a considerable burden is being placed upon courts and tribunals to consistently and correctly apply the standard in times of increasingly tight resources. Should an effort be made to have the tribunals contract the job along with the distribution of decisions to a single private or not-for-profit agency, commercial publishers  would be very concerned. The experience with SOQUIJ in Quebec has not been very encouraging to the private sector. Author wishing not to be identified
  Neutral citations as described in this standard will be very "readable", components are easily identified.

Citations can be easily generated from common information in decisions - facilitating the process for publishing bodies. I hope this will encourage compliance.

Sufficient flexibility while maintaning standard. Well done!

Mary Jane Parsons (Nova Scotia Department of Justice)
  In general, our members are pleased by the initiative and in particular, by its laudable goals of encouraging publication of decisions by Courts on the Web, facilitating reference to very recent decisions for legal writers, and increasing freedom of choice in the selection of research tools.

The standard as proposed seems to have a single focus - creating a uniform style for referring to a specific decision. Traditionnally, citations have served a second critical purpose - to assist the reader in finding the decision in question in order to read it.

In our view, the finding function of citations is critical, and will remain so well into the future.

However, formulating a proposed neutral standard in isolation, without determining how it will mesh with the present citation standards, may well create problems. 

Author wishing not to be identified
  Establishing a neutral citation standard may be very helpful in the legal community, but I have some reservations with regard to its practicability. I believe that an "iterim" citation standard may be very useful in the period of time between when a decision is rendered and when it is published.

However,my concern lies at the point in time when the judgment is published in a reporter; are we to disregard that citation or use it merely as a parallel citation? What about older cases, will the neutral standard apply to them? I think that the further past actual publication of the judgment you get, the more problematic it becomes to use the neutral standard when the system for locating published judgments is so easy. 

McGill Law Journal
  Generally, the proposed standard is elegant in its coupling of essential simplicity with optional modifiers. It is a great idea whose time has come. Allen Edgar (Office of the Chief Judge, Ontario Court, Provincial Division)
  Alberta Justice agrees there is a need for a neutral citation standard, in particular for decisions published in electronic format.

During 1997, representatives from the Court of Appeal of Alberta, the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta and the Provincial Court of Alberta formed the Judgment Database Committee to create an electronic judgment database which could provide optimal access to the judgments of all courts in the province. AS part of the process, there was consultation with the Canadian Citation Committee. After much consideration the Judgment Datatbase Committee decided on the following format being assigned to each decision posted:

Smith v. Jones, 1998.ca.ab.ca. 187-a

Style of cause - Smith v. Jones

Year of judgment - 1998

Location - Canada(ca), Alberta (ab)

Court - Queen's bench (qb), Court of Appeal (ca), Provincial Court (pc)

Judgment number - 187

Errata - The portion of the judgment which is amended, designated as (-a)

Author wishing not to be identified
  A good idea. Especially using paragraph rather than page numbers.

The style of cause and level of court should be compulsory parts of the citation.

Margaret McCallum (University of New Brunswick)
  We support the idea of authorizing and standardizing the citation of materials from electronic sources. We do not see any problems with attaching the citation directly to the judgment. Marlene Rodie (Saskatchewan Court of Appeal)
  I support the establishment of the neutral citation standard as stated in the consultation document and accept that it has the advantages listed in section 5 of the document.

Author wishing not to be identified

  I support and encourage the development of a neutral citation standard.

Chief Justice Julius A. Isaac (Federal Court of Canada)

  The creation of a standard is clearly important given the developments discussed in the consultation document. The standard appears to be simple, clear and workable.

Douglas E. Finkbeiner, Q.C. (The Law Society of Manitoba)

  From a purely practical legal research perspective, the Court should encourage the development of a neutral citation standard.

A neutral citation standard issued by the courts would eliminate the argument about the unofficial nature of the electronic decision.

Author wishing not to be identified

  The neutral citation standard is really a fixed or unique number for a case that should be assigned by the court that issues the decisions. When and if it is issued by the courts, it will be included with the decision when it is reported, preferably in a separate field where it may be searched.

A lack of understanding as to the nature of the number could result in confusion in its use.

Author wishing to not be identified
  The proposed standard appears both simple and precise, which will contribute to making recent decisions rendered by Canadian Courts and administrative tribunals more accessible to Canadian lawyers and the Canadian population in general. This standard would allow people to read a decision within a short period of time following its issuance, instead of having to wait for its publication. Author wishing to not be identified
  I agree in principle with the need for a standard for citing the electronic judgements, regardless of the system from which they are derived. And, I think that this standard is inevitable with the developments of technology. Author wishing to not be identified
  I am in complete agreement with the proposal. Author wishing to not be identified
  We agree with the standard. Author wishing to not be identified
  It is somewhat confusing to sort out what the citation would look like when the core elements can have both prefixed elements and suffixes. Will optional elements that can be attached to the core elements cause problems in interpreting a citation?

The document does not make it clear whether the only allowable suffixes are those specified in items 29-33 or if others are also permissible.
Author wishing to not be identified

Commentaires quant au cadre général

Comments concerning the general framework of the standard

Auteur/Author

  I agree with the proposal to enable the standard to be used easily with computerized systems. It is a good idea to implement elements that are not case-sensitive. Associate Chief Justice Jeff Oliphant (Court of Queen's Bench of Manitoba)
Le carctère non descriptif de la norme correspond à la pratique actuelle et celle qui sera retenue dans le cadre du projet de rédaction et diffusion des jugements qui doit être instauré incessamment au Québec.

L'aspect pratique du jeu de caractères utilisés mérite aussi d'être souligné.

  Honorable juge en chef Lyse Lemieux (Cour supérieure du Québec)
  Recognizing the hurdles that must be overcome just to get a citation standard, the problems of not having a standard for a style of cause are becoming increasingly apparent.

In a situation where one court renders a ruling, a judgment and a sentence all on the same case, and assigns 3 consecutive ordinal numbers, the risk of confusion is increased.

Author wishing not to be identified
Quant au caractère non descriptif, la norme proposée omet d'indiquer, d'une façon ou d'une autre, le rang hiérarchique de la décision dans une affaire donnée, ce que le sigle du tribunal ne révèle pas toutefois. Cette omission devrait être reconsidérée.   Jean-Maurice Brisson (Faculté de droit-Université de Montréal)
  Ref: [12]: Not sure if "it has no descriptive elements pertaining to the hierarchical level nor to the internal structure of the institutions concerned" means the level of Court. If so, we do not agree. We think that the citation should contain an identifier as to whether the judgment is from, for example, the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal of Queen's Bench as is suggested in ref. 18-21 Tribunal Identifier.

Ref. [15]: We see no problem with avoiding accented characters.

Ref. [16]: We approve the elimination of case-sensitivity.

Marlene Rodie (Saskatchewan Court of Appeal)
La norme proposée semble respecter à tous égards les normes internationales existantes et c'est très bien ainsi.   Auteur souhaitant ne pas être identifié
  We agree with the general framework of the standard. We believe that the standard should take into account the limiting factors of computers in order to ensure more efficient electronic retrieval of case law. Chief Judge Donald H. Christie (Tax Court of Canada)
Nous nous intérogeons sur le caractère optionnel de l'intitulé de la décision, ce dernier étant, dans la communauté l'élément premier de repérage.   Dominique Duclos (Chambre des notaires du Québec)
  The general framework seems sensible and is very attractive from a practical point of view.

Douglas E. Finkbeiner, Q.C. (The Law Society of Manitoba)

En matière de référence juridique, il faut une extrême précision. Or, les accents font partie de l'identification des personnes, notamment. Il s'agit d'une fausse contrainte, car l'informatique permet de gérer les caractères accentués. Depuis plus de 30 ans, IBM fonctionne en Suisse dans les quatre langues du pays avec les accents (français, italien, allemand, romanche). À notre avis, les accents devraient apparaître là où ils font partie de l'orthographe exact des noms et des mots.   Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec
. With respect to paragraph 12 it would appear that the tribunal identifier conveys any hierarchical information that may be desirable or necessary, at least for courts. Again, the comment in paragraph 12 is not clear Honourable Mr. Justice Clyde Wells (Court of Appeal of Newfoundland)
L'intitulé doit comprendre le nom des parties; cela m'apparaît très important. On devrait aussi être en mesure d'identifier l'origine du tribunal, particulièrement lorsqu'il s'agit d'une cour d'appel. C'est une donnée fondamentale.  

Honorable Gérald-A. Beaudoin

  Good points to ensure that there are no "traps" to finding a case, electronically, using the citation.

John H. Kromkamp, Senior Legal Officer (Court of Appeal of Ontario)

Le caractère non descriptif de la norme pose problème lorsque le lecteur d'une citation veut voir rapidement le rang hiérarchique du tribunal.   Yves Panneton, Directeur-Services Juridiques-Montréal (Commission Santé et Sécurité au Travail)
  All three, 12, 15 and 16 are necessary for ease of use on the Internet and electronic databases. None seem to have any undesirable side effects. Together they avoid duplicate citations. Allen Edgar (Office of the Chief Judge, Ontario Court, Provincial Division)
On peut difficilement passer sous silence l'élimination des caractères accentués dans la norme. Ce choix cadre mal avec le préambule de la Charte de la langue française.   Auteur ne souhaitant pas être identifié
  On the non-descriptive character of th standard - an extensive period of the use of parallel citations will probably be necessary. The avoidance of accented characters, while possible, may not be appropriate in a bilingual province. Author wishing not to be identified
  The Alberta Courts have adopted the use of punctuation to seperate elements of the citation, rather than spaces or no seperation. Author wishing not to be identified
  Ref. [12] This is fine. Hierarchical level or tribunal institutional structure are not relevant. Mary Jane Parsons (Nova Scotia Department of Justice)
  Need information in citation as to the level of Court. Margaret McCallum (University of New Brunswick)
  Par. 15: Any standard adopted should reflect the bilingual nature of Canada's legal system, in which accented characters are common.

Chief Justice Julius A. Isaac (Federal Court of Canada)

  I think that ref. [12] is going to involve compliance with current reporters that do use a descriptive citation method. McGill Law Journal
  The standard is silent on the matter of parallel citations. It aims to permit the permanent identification of a judicial decision independently of its mode of publication, on paper or on electronic media. However, the standard will have to co-exist with 150 years of Canadian case law, which will continue to be cited using old standards, and must allow for a transition period while the courts adopt the new neutral citation standard. Based on the experience of the ABA and the US Judiciary's reaction to the neutral citation standards, the standard should be explicit on and encourage the use of parallel citations.

The advoidance of diacytics or accented characters is not appropriate for a court in a bilingual jurisdiction. Any ISO standard adapted should reflect the bilingual nature of Canada's legal system.

I do not believe that case sensitivity is an issue, as two citations will be distinguished by their decision number and not by the style of cause.

Author wishing not to be identified

  Ref. 12: If a decision is released by the courts that is not subsequently published, the researcher would need to know the specificcourt location to approach to access the case. While one of the key benefits of the standard is that it yields a citation that is brief, it might be worth conidering a unique court identifier, much like the unique publisher identifier that constitues part of an ISBN. Author wishing not to be identified
  The suggested format is workable. Author wishing not to be identified
  The two proposed initiatives regarding the "used set of characters" and the "case-insensitivity" will facilitate the search of decisions through the use of electronic research tools and also minimize the risks of confusion that could occur from the use of both accents and capital letters. However, I am concerned that these initiatives (to avoid accents and capital letters) will minimize the use of the French language in electronic medias. Author wishing not to be identified

Commentaires quant aux éléments obligatoires de la norme

Comments concerning the mandatory elements of the standard

Auteur/Author

Année : Le principe énoncé au paragraphe 17 peut faire l'objet de certaines exceptions. Doit-on présumer que chaque tribunal aura la responsabilité de régler les cas particuliers? Doit-on indiquer, pour les fins de la norme, l'année du jugement ou celle du dépôt des motifs comme année de référence?

Désignation du tribunal : On indique au paragraphe 21 relativement aux tribunaux des juridictions bilingues qu'il faut "éviter que coexistent des références anglais et française pour une même décision". Pourtant QL utilise un tel système depuis plusieurs années avec succès. Ce système permet de réduire la longueur du code de désignation d'un tribunal et rend inutile l'ajout des suffixes FR et EN.

Si l'on utilise seulement un code de désignation unilingue anglais pour ces tribunaux, on instaure un système qui ne tient pas compte de ces nouveaux développements.

Enfin, dans une annexe au document final sur la norme de référence, il pourrait être opportun que le Comité publie un guide relatif aux désignations des tribunaux.

Numéro de séquence de la décision : Le paragraphe 25 précise "que tous les jugements produits devront être numérotés". Puisque le jugement formel et les motifs de jugement constituent deux documents séparés, les tribunaux devront-ils attribuer un  numéro au jugement formel et un autre aux motifs de jugement?

  Claude Marquis - Arrêtiste (Cour suprême du Canada)
  It is likely that the ordinal number will come to be used to establish precedential weight, as well as simply providing a citation. For this reason, the rules on assignment of ordinal numbers must be defined more clearly. For example, ref. 22 - "Tribunals assign these ordinal numbers the way they see fit --> rather, there should be a uniform four or five digit number used by each tribunal, using "000" prefixes.

Ref. 24 : Oral decision should have the next available ordinal number assigned at the time of the judgment is pronouced rather than at the time the judgment is published.

The tribunal identifiers should be assigned by someone other that the local authorities. Consistency is important across our various jurisdictions, and this will be facilitated through a central assignment of identifiers.

Logan Atkinson (Carleton University)
À mon sens, si on s'en tient à la forme de base des éléments obligatoires, on investit sur une norme permettant strictement de cataloguer la jurisprudence. En effet, tout l'aspect du "développement harmonieux des outils de recherche électroniques" ne me semble pas compatible avec une norme à expression aussi réduite.   Auteur souhaitant ne pas être identifié
  Ref [22-25] : The ordinal number is critical. For jurisdictions and courts where there does not exist a central control mechanism, such as a Registrar of clerk's office, there would have to be a system whereby the assigned number could be controlled through a central office. This would be necessary to ensure there was no duplication. Author wishing not to be identified
Si la numérotation de tous les jugements doit avoir pour effet d'en favoriser la diffusion, je cros qu'il s'agit là d'une effet non souhaitable.   Jean-Maurice Brisson (Faculté de droit-Université de Montréal)
  Ref. [17]: We are pleased to see that four, rather than two characters, are used to depict the year. Marlene Rodie (Saskatchewan Court of Appeal)
Le choix de l'année et la désignation du tribunal semblent adéquats. Même si l'adoption d'un numéro de séquence semble également aller en harmonie avec l'esprit de la norme, ce numéro ne devrait pas nécessairement être séquentiel. Des difficultés peuvent également surgir lors de l'attribution (Qui l'attribue? Doit-on l'inscrire sur le jugement? Comment le corriger s'il y a erreur?...)    
  We believe that the mandatory elements of the standard should include the style of cause and this for several reasons. First, this would encourage more uniformity in the style of cause used by the various publishers. Confusion may arise when there are several claimants or appellants. When the order of the claimants is changed on appeal, the style of cause may change and this makes it more difficult to follow a case from the trial to the appellate court.

Secondly, having the name of the parties as part of the citation could help distinguish two judgments if by mistake the same ordinal number was given to two different cases. Combining the style of cause with the ordinal number would avoid any ambiguity in the reference.

Finally, when looking for a judgment, members of the public would more likely know the name of the parties than the rest of the citation, so we think that adding the style of cause should be very helpful.

Chief Judge Donald H. Christie (Tax Court of Canada)
Il faudra un processus très bien encadré pour le numéro de séquence.   Dominique Duclos (Chambre des notaires du Québec)
  On paragraph numbering - I feel that the numbering of paragraphs is essential for universal reference in the place of page numbers. If this neutral citation standard is to be implemented, then mandatory paragraph numbering should be implemented as well.

If paragraph numbering were to be retained by legal publishers, then his cross reference would work universally.

On tribunal identifiers and Ordinal numbers - Adding further designation of Court location can be accomplished while keeping the tribunal identifier within the recommended length of eight characters (ref. 19).

I agree that case sensitivity should not play a role in the citations. The combination of upper and lower case letters will only serve to confuse users (ref. 16).

Author wishing not to be identified
Nous nous rallions intégralement aux choix du Comité quant à ces éléments.   Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec
. The use of the year of the decision, described in paragraph 17, as a mandatory reference is logical and at the same time provides significant information. The tribunal identifiers as proposed in principles 18 to 21 are also logical and provides significant information. I would recommend that each jurisdiction or tribunal be asked to approve of the proposed identifier. The approach proposed in paragraphs 22 to 25 for use of ordinal numbers appears appropriate Honourable Mr. Justice Clyde Wells (Court of Appeal of Newfoundland)
Par. 20: Puisque, au par. 13, il est précisé que l'expression "tribunal" désigne tout autant les institutions judiciaires que les institutions quasi judiciaires ou administratives, il faudra une bonne coordination entre tous les intervenants lors du choix des codes de désignation des tribunaux, car il ne faudrait pas qu'un même code soit utilisé pour désigner deux tribunaux.

Par. 23: Sans pour autant utiliser les numéros complets du greffe, pourrait-on noter la première séquence du numéro? Autrement, il faudra une bonne coordination entre tous les greffes afin d'éviter d'octroyer un même numéro pour des jugements différents.

 

Hubert Reid (Wilson & Lafleur ltée)

  Ordinal Number - In the case of a Court with many Justice Centres and many more Judges, a more uniform system may have to be recommended to avoid duplication and ensure chronology. This could mean a central "citation desk" for each Court.

Chief Judge J.L. Batiot (Provincial Court of Nova Scotia)

La numérotation des jugements exige des changements pour nous au greffe mais elle semble réalisable  

Bureau du commissaire général du travail (Québec)

  Reference year - this makes sense - all typed decisions already include year in upper right corner.

Ordinal number - This requires the creation of a new identifier; and creation of an indexing system to link the decision to ordinal number, and both to the original appeal of motion. (...) Since the court issues 15-20 decisions daily on motions and appeals, setting up and maintaining a separate, ordinal system is cumbersome and unnecessary. Perhaps other courts that have only a few decisions, or who have no method of displaying a unique internal identifier could adopt the ordinal system, in the absence of an alternative.

John H. Kromkamp, Senior Legal Officer (Court of Appeal of Ontario)

Nous pensons, à première vue, que le moment de l'inscription du numéro de la décision devra se faire lors de la dactylographie du projet de décision. C'est en effet au moment de la dactylographie que notre système fait la fusion des différents renseignements relatifs à cette décision, nom et adresse des parties, numéro de dossier, etc.  

Me Pierre Brassard (Régie du logement du Québec)

  I think it would be helpful if the ordinal number assigned to the case was assigned consecutively based on the date the decision was rendered. This would enable the reader at first glance to determine the sequence of two cases arising from the same tribunal in the same year, which will have some pratical value.

Douglas E. Finkbeiner, Q.C. (The Law Society of Manitoba)

L'année de référence est une donné incontournable. Les quatre chiffres doivent apparaître. Le code de désignation devrait être le plus bref possible, soit quatre ou cinq caractères (six pour la Cour suprême).  

Honorable Gérald-A. Beaudoin

  Paragraph numbering has recently been imposed by the new rules. While paragraph numbering was mostly an automation change (using macros), there was nontheless some resource implications for our administrative staff. The implementation of other of th changes recommended by the Draft Neutral Citation Standard will have additionnal resource implications.

Author wishing not to be identified

Pour ce qui est du code de désignation des tribunaux, je pense qu'il serait intéressant de joindre une liste par province des codes de désignation de toutes les institutions productrices de jurisprudence.

Quant au numéro de séquence, il me semble plus problématique s'il est attribué dès qu'un jegement est rendu. Au comité sur l'entrpôt des jugements, nous avons suggéré le fait que le numéro séquentiel pourrait être attribué dès le versement de tous les jugements motivés dans la banque centrale des tribunaux judiciaires. Ainsi, ce numéro serait appliqué selon l'ordre de dépôt des jugements, peu importe la Cour. Les autres jugements, qui ne sont pas motivés et ne font donc pas partie de cette banque, n'auraient pas de référence neutre. 

 

Auteur souhaitant ne pas être identifié

  Ref. [18-21] Quite reasonable, tribunal identifiers sound as though they will be easily recognized. Address the issue of "bilingualism".

Ref. [22-25] Well thought out. Achieves the goal of establishing a standard yet allows some flexibility for the publishing bodies.

Mary Jane Parsons (Nova Scotia Department of Justice)
Un travail supplémentaire sera demandé au personnel des greffes du tribunal pour ajouter le numéro de séquence. Pour les tribunaux adminsitratifs dits "régionalisés" ce travail demandera de la minutie pour avoir des numéros séquentiels.   Yves Panneton, Directeur-Services Juridiques-Montréal (Commission Santé et Sécurité au Travail)
  The reference year should have brackets so that we know it's mandatory.

All judgments should have a standard number of digits.

Linda McKay-Panos (Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre, University of Calgary)
La consultation des recherchistes de notre cour confirme que l'année de décision comme 1er élément obligatoire du mode de référence proposé facilitera et accélèrera la recherche.   Honorable juge en chef Lyse Lemieux (Cour supérieure du Québec)
  Ordinal number ref (22-25) : Alberta Courts designate the ordinal number as a simple number with no prefixes or other designations. The number is assigned in the order that the decision os entered into the Judgment Database and is independent of the docket number. Oral decisions are included and are not distinguished from other decisions.  Author wishing not to be identified
Ref. 17 : C'est très bien, l'année de la décision est plus importante que sa date de publication.

Ref. 18-21 : Le code de désignation d tribunal doit être le plus mnémotechnique possible, d'où l'importance de limiter le nombre de caractères et d'utiliser des abréviations déjà reconnues.

Ref. 22-25 : Le numéro de séquence  doit être simple et faire abstraction du numéro de greffe.

  Auteur souhaitant ne pas être identifié
  The outlined standard is acceptable. Some considerations will be required to avoid gaps or duplication in courts with sevral judicial districts. Author wishing not to be identified
Au niveau des éléments obligatoires, il y aurait de songer à inscrire la date au complet, soit le jour, le mois et l'année, compte tenu dutrès grand nombre de décisions qui seront ainsi répertoriés et du risque d'erreur dans la retranscription du numéro de séquence de la décison. Une date est souvent mieux qu'un numéro qui ne fait appel à aucun critère.   Auteur souhaitant ne pas être identifié
  It is essential to indicate the year of the decision as a mandatory element and I think it is an excellent idea that it be the first mandatory element. Regarding tribunal identifier, trial courts across the country are identified in different ways. The tribunal identifier should take into account the province and an abbreviation of the court. Associate Chief Justice Jeff Oliphant (Court of Queen's Bench of Manitoba)
  Ref. 17 : The year in which a decision is rendered is not always a straightforward determination. There are more and more instances where the court issues "judgment from the bench with reasons to follow" months before the reasons are issued. Guidelines should be issued to cover such situations to avoid inconsistencies in citation.

Ref. 18-21 : I suggest that you may encouter some diffculties in restricting the tribunal identifier to eight characters in the case of some administrative tribunals in bilingual jurisdiction eg. Crown Employees Grievance Settlement Board.

Ref. 22-25 : The citation system cannot succeed if the decisions are not consistently numbered by the issuing tribunal. How should cases be cited in the absence of such a number?

Author wishing not to be identified
  In my view, it is somewhat alarming that th standard allows courts to add a numeric refix "in order to simplify the attribution of numbers in the case of complex tribunals" (para. 23). In my view, adding numeric prefixes can only make citations more complex and confusiong for the reader and will not "simplify" anything for the reader (although they might "simplify" things for court adminsitrators).

By adding numeric prefixes, a reader who is unfamiliar with that court's pratice will not know that the prefix has ben added and the cases with different prefixes will appear oddly numbered.

Another consequence of adding the numeric prefix is that it will deprive the unfamiliar reader with the ability to recognize at a glance approximately when in the year a decision was rendered, how busy that court is, or whether the decision was rendered before or after a related decision in the same jurisdiction.

A further consequence will be to make numbering of court decisions inconsistent across Canada, which is the opposite of what a "standard" should be trying to achieve.

In essence, the numeric prefix is an internal code that is useful only for the court.

To a certain extent, adding a number prefix makes te standard more difficult to understand than today's paper based standard, where each element of a citation cn be used understood by the unfamiliar reader.  

Author wishing not to be identified
  Ref. 22-25 : Will the ordinal number go back to zero in the new year?

This question is important in order to decide how the year will be framed (ref. 17). If the number does go back to zero, it means that the year is the "anchor" of the cite, i.e. it is the pivotal element which determines the progression of the ordinal number and we would need to know it in research since there could be a case with the same number but different year. In which case, there should be brackets around the year, and a comma seperating it from the style of cause; Party A v. Party B, [1999].

If the number will not go back to zero in the new year, it means that the year is not key to locating a cite (only the number is), in which case parentheses should be used and the comma should come afterwards: Party A v. Party B, (1999).

Author wishing not to be identified
  The standard should provide a method of refering the reader to a website or database on which the case is located. Obviously, the initial citation to a case issued by a court which does not yet have a website may not include this element. However, the standard could use the Supreme Court of Canada website as an example, and could create an additional element which provides that information.

Limiting the tribunal identifier to eight characters may create extra worl for the reader. Where the court is familiar, the identifiers assigned will become quickly known. In cases of more specialized tribunals, however, the reader may have to consult a listing to determine what the abbreviation stands for.

Author wishing not to be identified
  17 - This is essential.It instantly places the judgment in its general location in the developing jurisprudence.

18-21 - Could result in some awkward looking identifiers, but worth it for brevity.

22-25 - Easy to implement for centralized courts, but presents a real logistical problem for large, high volume, decentralized courts like ours. Should noy be insurmountable in the long run, but may well prove to be the most difficult practical problem. 

Allen Edgar (Office of the Chief Judge, Ontario Court, Provincial Division)
  It is recommended that one not use the hyphen in bilingual tribunal identifiers. Author wishing not to be identified
  We will have to change our handling for the distribution of judgments, in order to use this system but we feel that the work involved is worth the end. Author wishing not to be identified
  The proposal to identify decisions through the use of a tribunal designation code ("tribunal identifier") along with an ordinal number appears satisfactory. However, it appears that the sole use of the "reference year" to help identifying a decision may not be precise enough in the case of very complex cases involving numerous interlocutory decisions. In such complex cases, the inclusion of the month could help differentiate the orders rendered in the course of a single case.  Author wishing not to be identified
  The use of choice of year: I think the standard should specify no brackets. It is not clear until you see examples.

Tribunal identifier: I worried about not being able to understand the tribunal identifier from other jurisdictions and I would hope that some sort of table would be prepared. 

Ordinal number: This could be problematic for court registries practically.It could be applied at the secretarial level. However, the registry should be involved at some point, to include a field in their systems for the ordinal cite.

Author wishing not to be identified
  Will the assignment of this numbering system be mandatory? It seems to me that the system must be mandatory. This must be the official cite assigned by the courts and always referred to by publishers/online providers. The standard refers to the statutes in the introduction and suggest that the neutral citation is similar to a statute citation. This works for statutes because we know the government publication is the official reference point. Author wishing to not be identified

Commentaires quant aux éléments optionnels de la norme

Comments concerning the optionnal elements of the standard

Auteur/Author

Intitulé de la décision : Au Canada, l'intitulé est un élément de base pour la jurisprudence.

Qulifications de la décision : L'ajout des suffixes FR et EN aux références des jugements des juridictions officiellement bilingues devrait être optionnel. Pour la plupart des tribunaux, il ne faut pas oublier que souvent la traductionne sera disponible que plusieurs mois après que le jugement a été rendu. Il se pourrait donc qu'un chercheur ne puisse pas trouver le jugement parce que la version qu'il cherche n'est pas encore disponible.

La norme proposée au par. 31 semble inutile. De plus, cette norme pourrait même causer des problèmes lorsque les motifs de jugement d'une cour d'appel sont rédigés en partie en français et en partie comme il arrive assez couramment au Québec.

EN mettent les suffixes FR et EN pour les tribunaux des juridictions officiellement bilingues et T pour les autres tribunaux, on risque de créer une nuance qui n'a pas sa raison d'être relativement aux traductions préparées par divers tribunaux. 

Quant à la norme proposée au par. 33 relativement aux révisions, il faudra définir ce qu'on entend par révision.

Références aux paragraphes et aux notes : Il semble étrange en anglais d'utiliser le singulier lorsqu'on renvoit à plusieurs paragraphes ou notes.

Adaptation aux normes internationales : Une décision devra être prise rapidement à ce sujet. L'adoption d'une norme internationale pourrait influencer le code de désignation.

  Claude Marquis - Arrêtiste (Cour suprême du Canada)
  To facilitate cross-referencing to conventional publications, the style of cause should be mandatory and assigned by the tribunal when the ordinal number is assigned. Logan Atkinson (Carleton University)
Il est bon de conserver la forme libre de l'intitulé telle que suggérée.

Je doute que le projet actuel de rédactioon et diffusion des jugements puisse faire place à un suffixe relatif à la langue de la décision.

  Honorable juge en chef Lyse Lemieux (Cour supérieure du Québec)
  Presumably, publishers will asign their own citation, so standardizing the first two parts of "identification" (see [43]) will ensure that the neutral cuitation standard appears beforethe publishers' citation. Author wishing not to be identified
Pourquoi ne pas encadrer la manière de formuler l'intitulé et en faire un élément obligatoire, ne serait-ce qu'à des fins mnémotechniques?   Jean-Maurice Brisson (Faculté de droit-Université de Montréal)
  27 - A standard form would be helpful since the style of cause will continue to be central. Names are more memorable than numbers.

28-32 - Regardless of "official status" language qualifier should be used only for translations, two-language releases; if one language is used in the vast majority of judgments.

Allen Edgar (Office of the Chief Judge, Ontario Court, Provincial Division)
Le nom des parties est très important. Ils devraient systématiquement apparaître. Quant aux aqualifications, il me semble seulement utile de préciser s'il s'agit d'une traduction. La mention "révision" ne semble pas nécessaire. Enfin, tous les paragraphes des jugements devraient être numérotés.  

Honorable Gérald-A. Beaudoin

  We do not believe that the standard is clear enough with respect to the qualifications to be adopted with respect to the use of the official languages. We believe that whenever a Court is publishing a judgment in more that one language, each version of the decision should be identified by the proper suffix, "-en" when the text of the judgment is in English, "-fr" whenever the text of the judgment is in French. Whenever a Court issues a translation of one of its judgment, it should be identified by the additional suffix "-t". This information should be useful because in most cases the judge authoring a judgment does not check the translation. A judgment cited with a suffix "-t" would inform the reader that the text is not the original version.

Having the suffix "-fr" or "-en" in the citation would be useful for any subsequent "user" of the judgment. It would allow such a person to retrieve the judgment in the langugae of his or her choice. That would also be useful for a judge who writes, for example, a judgment in French and who would like to cite in French a particular judgment written originally in English.

Chief Judge Donald H. Christie (Tax Court of Canada)
L'intitulé de la décision devrait être obligatoire. La majorité des juristes se réfèrent plus souvent à l'intitulé qu'à une année ou à un numéro séquentiel. Il devient difficile de retracer un organisme ou une compagnie dans ces conditions.   Yves Panneton, Directeur-Services Juridiques-Montréal (Commission Santé et Sécurité au Travail)
  I have some concern about the optional use of the style of cause. Practically speaking, the style of cause is the method by which most pratitioners discuss a case. A reference to a style of cause in a citation means it may jump to mind readily to the reader.

I wonder whether the term "para" could be shortened to "pr" in an effort to save time and space.

Douglas E. Finkbeiner, Q.C. (The Law Society of Manitoba)

La forme libre de l'entité laisse toute la souplesse voulue. Quant à la qualification des décisions, serait-il opportun d'envisager d'ores et déjà une ouverture sur l'international qui dépasse la mention du pays.   Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec
  Strongly support the approach to using paragraphs and not numbers identified in paragraphs 34 to 39. Honourable Mr. Justice Clyde Wells (Court of Appeal of Newfoundland)
Si dans une affaire il s'agit d'une décision interlocutoire qui ne dispose pas du mérite, ne faudrait-il pas un suffixe (i) par exemple pour éviter la publication de plusieurs décisions sous un même nom et compliquer la recherce?  

Auteur souhaitant ne pas être identifié

  Many publishers edit decisions that are subject to publication bans. It might not hurt to have it qualified (i.e. "b") if the decision is subject to such a ban.

Associate Chief Justice Micheal MacDonald (Supreme Court of Nova Scotia)

Par. 27: La norme ne devrait-elle pas préciser la forme des intitulés pour qu'il y ait uniformité?

Par. 29: Qu'arrive-t-il pour les arrêts de la Cour d'appel du Québec où la décision est généralement rédigée en français alors que les opinions des juges peuvent être écrites en deux langues?

 

Hubert Reid (Wilson & Lafleur ltée)

  Qualifications - this is a good idea; could add qualifiers for revisions; addenda; perhaps whether it is a judgement or an endorsment;

Note - given the desire to avoid complex symbols, consider deleting hyphen from the suffix (eg. 1999 ONTCAC12345r or 1999 ONTCAC12345fr etc.) presumably the citation could include a series of suffixes.

John H. Kromkamp, Senior Legal Officer (Court of Appeal of Ontario)

La référence aux paragraphes pourrait être faite à moyen terme.  

Bureau du commissaire général du travail (Québec)

  I believe that th standard should extend to styles of cause.

Chief Justice Julius A. Isaac (Federal Court of Canada)

Il semble opportun que l'intitulé soit optionnel particulièrement en regard des exigences de confidentialité du nom des partiesqu'imposent certaines législations. On voit mal l'obligation qui est faite de qualifier certaines décisions quant à la langue.   Auteur souhaitant ne pas être identifié
  For the forseeable future the inclusion of the style of cause will greatly aid those trained in the traditional means of legal research.

Author wishing not to be identified

Le groupe de travail est d'avis que l'intitulé de la cause devrait être obligatoire. Par contre, la norme à l'effe que l'intitulé doit être en italique ou souligné apparaît secondaire.

Si le nom des parties figure à la référence, ainsi que la date et un code de désignation du tribunal, il n'est pas certain que le numéro de séquence de la décision soit nécessaire.

Quant aux autres éléments optionnels, la qualification de la langue représente sans doute un coût important sans que ce soit vraiment utile. En revanche, l'identification d'une version révisée le serait, de même que la référence, au besoin, aux notes et aux paragraphes. Si l'on songe à ajouter un code de pays, mieux vaut peut-être l'y intégrer tout de suite. 

 

Auteur souhaitant ne pas être identifé

  The first, and most important concern, was the proposal to make the Style of cause an Optional Element in the Standard. In the strongest terms this recommendations is opposed. The name of the case must be a mandatory element for each citation.

The inlcusion of the names of the parties as well provides a critical check whih permits a party to ensure that the case being cited matches the numeric citation and is, indeed, the one that the party intended to rely upon.

In other words, the numeric citation alone promotes obscurity rather than familiarity.

Author wishing not to be identified

  A brief style of cause should be included and should precede the citation. The style of cause should be abbreviated, especially where there are multiple parties.

Associate Chief Justice Jeff Oliphant (Court of Queen's Bench of Manitoba)

  With respect to the style of cause I understand the intent is that case names should not be italicized or underlined. I think this should be made explicit in the standard and the example given in paragraph 42 should be changed to reflect this intent.

Author wishing not to be identified

  Ref. 27 : I think there should be a mandatory style of cause, and it should be cited in the following manner: Party A v. Party B.

The parties' names should be italicized in the style of cause.

Azimuddin Hussain (Editor-in-chief of the 45th volume of the McGill Law Journal)

  Ref. 27 : Previous attempts to eliminate the style of cause from Canadian citation patterns have failed in the marketplace. The style of cause should be a mandatory element of the citationand the CLIC rules should be used.

Author wishing not to be identified

  The style of cause should not be optional, it should be a required elements of the citation. If the reader is attempting to find the decision, particularly if they are using print resources, style of cause will be critical. If, for example, the ordinal number is wrong, the reader will have insufficient information to find the case.

Author wishing not to be identified

  Style of cause (ref. 27) : Alberta Courts includes the style of cause on each decision and positions it before the citation, seperated by a comma. The variety and complexity of the long style of cause dictates tha any standards for indexing the short style of cause would be only guidelines at most.

Every attemp is made to be consistent with standards established by the major publishers, but even the major publishers vary from time to time. An in-depth indexing manual could be an asset and perhaps could be developed by memebrs of the Canadian Association of Law Libraires using established indexing principles.

Qualifications of the decisons (Ref 28-32) : The errata (-a) has been adopted and other qualifiers would be designated as required.

Reference to paragraphs and notes (ref. 34-39) : All decisions published by Alberta Courts since 1998 include pragraph numbering.

Author wishing not to be identified

  I would make the style of cause mandatory because it forms a very integral part of the citation that I don't think can be divorced. McGill Law Journal
  The standard is silent on the style of cause. As an information professional I am concernedthat lack of standardization with respect to style of cause will undo all the efforts going towars standardization / neutral citation. Most legal researchers first attempt to locate a decision by style of cause. Lack of standarization in that area hampers our best effort to provide effective access to case law.

Author wishing not to be identified

  The style of cause should perhaps be mandatory. Without it, any mistake or typo in the first three elements of the citation render it useless. With it (no matter what format), the case can normally be located even if one or more of the mandatory elements ar incorrect.

Author wishing not to be identified

  The style of cause should be mandatory for ease of reference.

Linda McKay-Panos (Alberta Civil Liberties Research Centre, University of Calgary)

  Ref. [27] I would like to see the style of cause included.

Mary Jane Parsons (Nova Scotia Department of Justice)

  We agree with the proposals.

Author wishing not to be identified

  Ref. 27 : The courts should be urged to apply the CLIC rules by adding an "Indexed as" entry to each decision to address the problem of the CLIC rules being applied inconsistently.

It is recommended that one not use a hyphen in the language suffixes.

Author wishing not to be identified
  It appears to me that the voluntary absence of requirements with regard to the form of the "style of cause" may create confusion (the way of citing a cause should be standard). Indeed, the absence of norm may lead to difficulties in researching a specific decision (for instance, should there be an apostrophe and/or an article before the name of the parties? etc.). A more uniform citation standard for the style of cause would be desirable. I also question whether initiatives will impact on the accuracy of the style of cause in French. It is important that the tribunal's decisions be as easy to search on the electronic search tools in French or in English.

Author wishing not to be identified

  Style of cause : I almost think that there should be some reference to the style of cause in the citation standard. I say that more for the cases where it is important to hide the identity of the accused/victims, etc.

Author wishing not to be identified

  The standard (ref. 27) states that the style of cause is optional. I think this is a mistake. I understand that the reason the Committee felt it should be optional was their concern over the mistakes made when assigning the style of cause. The CLIC rules are silent on many points and therefore publishers and courts are continuing to assign various names to a case. I think it is optimistic to assume that all courts, lawyers and judges will never make a mistake when referring to a case cite. The style of cause is a good econd check when the case can't be found. We encourage work in developing the CLIC rules further. Author wishing to not be identified
  The logical place to insert the country code would be immediately before the jurisdiction element. This would affect the format by introducing another element within the core set. If the intentions is to use country codes, it would be best to be consistent and do so from the start. Author wishing to not be identified
  The first, and most important concern, was the proposal to make the style of cause an optional element in the standard. In the strongest terms this recommendation is opposed. The name of the case must be a mandatory element for each citation. The inclusion of the names of the parties as well provides a critical check which permits a party to ensure that the case being cited matches the numeric citation and is, indeed the one that the party intented to rely upon. Author wishing to not be identified

Autres commentaires

Other comments

Auteur/Author

Le document final du Comité sur la norme de référence neutre sera-t-il accompagné d'un rapport plus explicite sur les motifs qui sous-tendent les choix proposés?

Après la publication du rapport final du Comité sur la norme de référence, une personne devrait être nommée pour superviser l'implantation du nouveau système et conseiller les tribunaux qui seront confrontés à des cas particuliers. De plus, qui s'occupera de faire connaître les normes aux tribunaux et aux juristes après leur adoption.

Quant aux bénéfices que les éditeurs espèrent tirer de la norme, il semble que la rapidité de la diffusion d'un jugement a peu à voir avec le mode de citation, mais dépend plutôt du support utilisé. 

  Claude Marquis - Arrêtiste (Cour suprême du Canada)
  We should be cautious about allowing too much discretion to local jurisdictions. This will lead to variations in standards that will weaken the possiblity of achieving a true uniformity in citation.  Logan Atkinson (Carleton University)
Pour tout diffusuer, il s'agirait là d'un gain considérable car beaucoup d'énergie, de temps et d'argent doivent être investis pour intégrer le texte des décisions dans des formats informatiques compatibles avec les moteurs de recherche adoptés par chacun.

En adoptant une grille standard de saisie des décisions, maintes opérations de répérage et de conversion pourraient être automatisées, permettant ainsi de mettre l'accent sur la valeur ajoutée au produit plutôt que sur sa simple présentation.

Un autre facteur à inclure dans les réflexions du comité consiste en la façon d'assurer le suivi des décisions de première instance devrait pouvoir accéder à une clé permettant de savoir si elle a été portée en appel ou non.

La composition du comité comporte un éventail impressionnant de spécialistes dans le domaine de la documentation juridique et en assure la crédibilité. Toutefois, pour maximiser l'aspect fonctionnel du système à implanter, nous souhaiterons ardemment que les gens de terrain (concepteur d'infobases, informaticiens, techniciens juridique, secrétaires, etc.) soient rejoints avant l'implantation plutôt que de recevoir leurs suggestions après coup et que les ajustements requis soient plus nombreux.

  Auteur souhaitant ne pas être identifié
  The bottom line is, for any citation to be functional, one must be able to easily locate the decision. Marlene Rodie (Saskatchewan Court of Appeal)
Le projet de norme, une fois amendé, pour tenir compte des commentaires reçus suite à la présente consultation devrait être soumis à nouveau aux principaux intervenants afin d'obtenir leur avis final.    
  The standard as adopted together with a list of Court identifiers should be available on the Internet so that users can find out what the various elements of reference including the suffix mean.

Chief Judge Donald H. Christie (Tax Court of Canada)

Il faudrait prévoir une méthode simple permettant à la communauté juridique et au public en général de retrouver la liste des sigles utilisés et leur définition.  

Dominique Duclos (Chambre des Notaires du Québec)

  An excellent first draft!

Chief Justice Julius A. Isaac (Federal Court of Canada)

Je souhaiterais voir une norme de référence ainsi libellée:

Young c. Young, 1998-CSC-SCC-003

Young c. Young, 1998-QCCA-003,para.24

Young c. Young, 1998-ONCA-003t

 

Honorable Gérald-A. Beaudoin

  Subject to these notes, a well thought out and useful project and initiative.

John H. Kromkamp, Senior Legal Officer (Court of Appeal of Ontario)

Excellente initiative. Bonne continuation!  

Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec

  Maritime Law Books welcomes the adoption of a standard citation system. We will include the citation in our publications much the same as we have used court numbers in the past. We congratulate the Citation Committee on a job well done.

Maritime Law Books

Ce projet de norme de référence neutre pour la juriprudence complète et s'intègre bien avec les normes "Felsky" retenues par le ministère de la justice du Québec dans le cadre du projet de rédaction et diffusion des jugements qui sera instauré d'ici peu pour tous les tribunaux du Québec.  

Honorable juge en chef Lyse Lemieux (Cour supérieure du Québec)

  This important first step has been well done. The Committee is to be congratulated.

Author wishing not to be identified

Nous nourissons toutefois quelques inquiétudes sur la faisabilité actuelle de l'élaboration d'une norme de référence, compte tenu du nombre de décisions rendues quotidiennement par tous les tribunaux (judiciaires et administratifs) et organismes quasi-judiciaires au Québec. La décentralisation administrative fait qu'il sera difficile de s'assurer de l'ordre séquentiel des numéros attribués aux décisions. On s'inquiète également des décisions des cours municipales.  

Auteur souhaitant ne pas être identifié

  I congratulate you on the work which has been done on the neutral citation standard and wish you success with it.

Author wishing not to be identified

  Finally, it seems to me that the standard can be and should be adopted by administrative tribunals about the standard and that administrative tribunals will agree to follow thte standard.

Author wishing not to be identified

  Overall, the proposed draft Neutral Citation Standard is a good first attempt. Its implementation is largely administrative matter.

Author wishing not to be identified

  I would like to see a standard adopted for style of cause, particularly in decisions where letters are used to protect identity (eg. R. v. P(M.J.)). These decisions are extremely difficult to find online. Maybe a numerical system could be adopted?

Mary Jane Parsons (Nova Scotia Department of Justice)

  This is a very interesting development and I would love to know how it progresses. The McGill Law Journal publishes a Citation Guide and I would love to be able to include your citation format assuming it catches on in the following years.

McGill Law Journal

  In the absence of established standards, the Alberta Courts Judgment Database has adopted the use of a Neutral Citation which conforms to the recommendations by this Committee. The small variations in appearance are not significant and the established citation could be reviewed for conformity should the standard be adopted. 

Author wishing to not be identified

  Examples would have been very helpful.

Author wishing to not be identified

  I agree with the use of a country code but I have no suggestions of where or its appearance in the standard.

Author wishing to not be identified


Bruno Ménard, March 22 mars 1999