Scholarly articles in legal journals can alert you to precedents and other important cases on specific legal issues and provide important context and discussion of the legal issue in which the case law finds itself. We have access to several collections of scholarly legal journals in the Simon Fraser University Library. Searching news databases can be a great way to start searching case law by topic. Newspaper articles can help identify key cases on a particular topic and discuss the problems of the case in plain language. The details of the case can be used to find case law in other databases. These cases are related and were decided on the same day. Library for legal classics. Full text of more than 100 legal texts, including Blackstone`s Commentaries (1803), Cardozo`s Growth of the Law (1924), and The First Edition of Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1833) by Story. The Provincial Statute of Canada contains provincial laws for ten of Canada`s provinces.
Contains public and private laws passed by Canadian provincial governments. Up-to-date, revised and historical content is now available for Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Ontario. Historical and revised content is only available for Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island, Quebec and Saskatchewan. The Brian Dickson Law Library created this guide as a starting point for legal research on Canadian law and jurisprudence. To search by name under Databases, select Legal Journal Library. Note that many of these items can also be searched in the SFU library catalog. Case overviews and feedback contain a number of resources to help you find (and understand) cases by topic. TIP 1: Since this is a small database, it`s helpful to start with a simple search (e.g., fewer keywords) to keep your search sensitive accordingly. The Law Journal Library includes more than 500 American, British, Australian and international law journals.
For most journals, the date report starts very early (in many cases at the first issue). However, the latest issues (within the last calendar year) are sometimes not available due to licensing restrictions. HeinOnline makes these reviews available on an ongoing basis every year. Don`t forget the books! Online or in print, books can be an accessible entry point to learn more about your legal research topic and find related cases. Specific cases can be discussed in the body of the text or listed in bibliographies or annexes. Often, individual chapters of books, anthologies, or textbooks can provide a general overview of a legal problem and may be less technical or less specific than articles in scientific journals. Books may also contain treatises that deal in detail with legal issues. If you already have a specific law or statute that you are looking for (e.g., sections of the Canadian Criminal Code), you can use legal databases and specialized resources to search for jurisdictions that cite that law. Use legal encyclopedias if you want to get a general overview of a legal topic, including the main cases and laws that shape that area of law in its current form. For example, if you search the classification tree, you can find cases organized under specific topics, such as: Download free articles from the Law Society of Ontario`s Continuing Legal Education Service. Articles can alert you to key cases and current topics in Canadian law. The Canadian abstract contains summaries of thousands of Canadian common law cases from 1803 and unreported cases from 1986 to the present for common law provinces.
Civil law cases in Quebec are not included. Abridgment is available online and in printed form. Finding Canadian legal content can be a bit tricky, and even more so if you`re focusing on a specific geographic region of Canada. Other researchers (at SFU!) may have already written about your legal issue, and their work will help you find important cases. Browse the work of doctoral students – theses and dissertations – via SFU Summit, our institutional repository. TIP: Try to search for your topic`s keywords in combination with the keyword “judgment.” (Note: There is no “e” in the judgment with respect to court decisions). The Encyclopaedia entries cover a wide range of Canadian legal topics and provide a comprehensive overview of the law as it now stands for each legal topic. The entries are concise and regularly updated in response to new legislation and court decisions. The Canadian Asylum Digest (CAD) is the leading source for searching legal cases by topic in the Simon Fraser University Library. You can access the Canadian Shelterdgment Digest through Westlaw Next Canada. The Canadian Encyclopedic Digest, accessible through Westlaw Next Canada, is the most important legal encyclopedia we have in the Simon Fraser University library.
Jurist Canada offers extensive access to federal and provincial jurisprudence, as well as administrative tribunal decisions and links to other legal databases It has particularly interesting collections of British cases and includes in particular The Law Reports and The All England Law Reports, as well as numerous series of specialized reports. It is also a good source of UK legislation as it covers all UK laws and legal instruments in their current form. LNB is also an excellent source of US primary legal material and contains a large amount of legal commentary from the UK and us. The best way to search case law by topic is usually to start by searching for secondary legal literature. Unlike many types of academic research, it is unlikely to be effective to start with a keyword search (in a case law database). Coverage: The scope of the Canadian abbreviation is extremely broad, with over 850,000 Canadian cases ranging from 1803 to the present day. The abbreviation covers all reported Canadian cases and, since 1986, also includes unreported cases (excluding civil cases in Quebec). The CAD is updated daily. However, keyword research can be especially successful if your search concept is quite unique.
For example, a keyword search for “mustard gas” would likely yield many more topic-related cases than a keyword search for insurance fraud. About: Provides access to important Canadian legal journals such as the Supreme Court Law Review. Use this guide to search case law (i.e., individual court cases) by topic or topic. For example: The Great Library of the Law Society of Upper Canada contains a comprehensive database of federal and provincial cases, as well as information on Canadian courts and administrative tribunals The Canadian Shelterdgment Digest summarizes Canadian legal cases in one or two paragraphs to provide a quick overview of their relevance.