Our Mission

It is well known that the decisions in some court cases—typically called “landmark” cases—disproportionately influence the law’s development. The question then becomes how to measure and depict that influence: 

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• within a given jurisdiction or across different jurisdictions; 

• across different court levels (e.g., trial, mid-level appeal, final appeal); 

• in comparison to other cases; and 

• over time. 

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The Legal Citation Lab aims to answer these and related questions and, in so doing, develop and enhance the methods of citation analysis, particularly the citation of legal cases. We aim to do this by starting with an exemplar case—the 1932 landmark decision of the House of Lords in Donoghue v Stevenson—and build on the lessons learned from our research. 

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The lab is a collective research project overseen by Professor John Kleefeld at the University of New Brunswick Faculty of Law and funded in part by grants from various foundations. It reflects the work of UNB Law students and faculty and other contributors from around the world. (See Lab members and other contributors.)