Indexes

Indexes and Periodical Literature in Canadian Legal Research

When starting a research project, it is sometimes helpful to start with a secondary source such as an index or a periodical literature source. A legal periodical can provide analysis and insight into a recent case decision or piece of legislation. Use of an index may provide more access points to journal literature than searching through a full-text database.

• Canadian Legal Literature – is indexed by Index to Canadian Legal Literature (1985-2000) . This is also available on Westlaw within the CANADA-JLR database.
• Index to Canadian Legal Periodical Literature (KE 8 .I5). This is a multiple-volume work, starting in 1963. It can also be found online within the ICLL database on Westlaw.
• Index to Legal Periodicals and Books (K 33 .I54) It can also be found online through the ILP file on Lexis and the ILP database on Westlaw.
• Current Law Index (Reference K33. C87). This is a multiple-volume work, starting in 1980.
  Journals and Law Reviews: Many of these can be found online.
• Journals and Law Reviews in Lexis: Many journals have their own individual library files on Lexis. However, the CANJNL (Canadian Law Journals, Combined) file includes journal articles from multiple sources, as its name indicates.
• Journals and Law Reviews in Free Web sources: Law Source (lawsource.com) (note that links in French link to pages written in French)
• Canadian Law Symposia Index: This index covers papers delivered at various law symposia either held in Canada or that include Canadian content, dating back to 1986.

Journals and Law Reviews in Westlaw, which offers:

• TP-Canada (Canadian Law Reviews, Texts & Journals)
• Canada-JLR (Journals and Law Reviews – Canada)
• CLRA-ALL (Carswell Law Reports – All)

Statute Indexes

Indexes to statutes and regulations are generally not very good or detailed. Some of the smaller provinces do not have indexes to their statutes, due to the cost of preparation. To a certain extent, the advent of full-text electronic searching has minimized the problem caused by print indexes. Some commercial publishers publish consolidated or annotated versions of legislation, sometimes for one particular statute and other times on a group of statutes that affect a particular topic. Such publications often contain good quality indexes that can provide another means of accessing statutes by topic.

Index to Canadian Legal Literature

For articles emphasizing Canadian legal issues it is recommended that you use the Index to Canadian Legal Literature (also known by its acronym ICLL). This index is available in print, and on a database-format. The web version of the Index is probably the easiest to use, and software allows you to print, download or e-mail your search results. To search for articles simply conduct an author, title or keyword search. An “Index” button on the web version allows you to see a list of every keyword used in the Index. You can use the list to pick the words that will produce the best search results.

The print version of the Index to Canadian Legal Literature (Ref. A. K. 33 .I514) has four components: a Table of Cases covering articles published since 1984, and Subject, Author, and Book Review indexes covering articles published since 1956. The Index also contains lists of periodical abbreviations, subject headings, and subject authorities (where to look when your keyword is not a subject heading).

Other online journal indexes . Two other online indexes provide coverage of Canadian legal issues and articles. However, since these indexes are geared mainly to an American audience, the Canadian coverage is not comprehensive. The Index to Legal Periodicals and Books is available to U of T community members on the web, and uses the same search software as the Index to Canadian Legal Literature . LegalTrac, which allows searches by subject or keyword, is available through an Internet subscription that requires you to be using a web browser.

Other journal indexes in print . In addition to the print version of the Index to Canadian Legal Literature mentioned above, the Law Library subscribes to a print index called the Index to Canadian Legal Periodical Literature.

The main disadvantage of the print Canadian legal indexes is that they do not contain a cumulative index. It is therefore necessary to check each annual volume to do a complete index search. The main advantage of the print indexes is that they date back further than the online version of the Index to Canadian Legal Literature . The online version of this index only covers articles published since 1981, while the print version covers publications since 1956. The Index to Canadian Legal Periodical Literature dates from 1961.

Other Secondary Sources

• Treatises
• Directories
• Handbooks, Practice Guides and Nutshells
• Encyclopedias
• Digests
• Dictionaries
• Associations
• Other Online Research Guides
• Helpful Links and Canadian search engines

Quality

“All law reports have subject indexes, and most reports cumulate those indexes every few
years. The quality of such work in Canada is often very high. This has been so especially
over the past 25 years. Conducting large-scale research using a number of these indexes in
print form would be a great deal of work. However, if one has access to online indexes, or
if one is willing to confine the research to a particular jurisdiction or court, or to certain
years, such research can be very useful. There are enough topical law reports in Canada that
the indexes of any of them can also be very valuable.” (“Practical Legal Research”, JE Côté and Debra MacGregor)

Resources

See Also

Secondary Sources