Canadian Legal Research

This entry tries to help you research Canadian law.

Background

When beginning research in Canadian Law, it is important to keep a few facts in mind. Canada is a federation consisting of ten provinces and two territories. Although Canada is a common law system, (with the exception of Quebec which is a civil law jurisdiction) it does not have a dual court system as does the United States. For example, divorce law and criminal law in Canada are governed by federal law, but cases are heard and decided by provincial superior courts.

The original constitution “The British North America Act of 1867” is still in effect, but has been renamed and added to, principally in the form of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and an amending power. It is now known as the Constitution Act (1982) and also provided for the relinquishment of the United Kingdom ‘s role in Canada’s legislative affairs. A good summary of the provisions of the Constitution Act may be found in the Appendix volume of Revised Statutes of Canada 1985. (see Statutes below).

Statutes

A potentially confusing aspect of statute research for Americans is that statutes are not subject codified. However, there are ways to locate a Canadian federal statute.

To find statutes by subject, one may use the English Index to the Revised Statutes of Canada (R.S.C) which is a paperbound volume shelved next to the statutes set. To find them by title, use the “Table of Contents” located in the front of each looseleaf volume of the R.S.C.

Canadian statutes are designated by chapters in an alphanumeric system. The statutes are arranged in the chapters by the first significant English word in the title of the act. For example, the chapter number of the Canada Evidence Act is E-10, and the Canadian Film Development Corporation Act is C-8.

The supplementation to R.S.C. contain the later versions of statutes found in the main volumes. For amendments and new statutes, go to the annual Statutes of Canada. To put the whole statute together, take the latest Statutes of Canada annual volume, turn to the back and use the “Table of Public Statutes.” To update a Canadian law from the most recent published supplements, refer to the annually published Legislation consolidated in Canadian Current Law.

From that point, one may check issues of the Legislation pamphlet, published 8 times yearly.

Case Finding

Prior to 1949, Canada’s highest appellate court was the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in England. Since that time, the Supreme Court of Canada has held that position. It has criminal and civil jurisdiction throughout Canada.

The Federal Court of Canada has two divisions, trial and appellate. The Trial Division handles cases involving federal legislation, such as immigration and shipping. The Federal Court of Appeal hears cases from the trial court, as well as judicial review of federal administrative decisions. There is also a separate tax court to deal with matters under the Income Tax Act.

The provinces have their own courts which vary in structure and name. As of 1984, the Act to Amend the Courts of Justice Act changed the Ontario structure to consist of the Ontario Court and the highest court, the Ontario Court of Appeal. There are several lower courts as well.

To find cases by subject, the major Canadian digest is the Canadian Abridgement. This covers reported decisions of all courts of the Common Law Provinces, and decisions of federal significance from Quebec. The Abridgement is updated by bound and looseleaf supplements, and by the monthly issues of Canadian Current Law Jurisprudence.

“Noting Up”

When specific cases have been found it is important to discover whether the cases has been judicially considered in subsequent cases. This process of “noting-up” or “annotating” is similar to “Shepardizing” American cases, but the procedure is somewhat different. Among the sources to assist in noting up, there is the Canadian Abridgement’s multi-volume Tables of Cases Judicially Considered (KE 173 .C328). Cases are listed alphabetically by case name. Updating “Cases Judicially Considered” may be done by consulting the latest issues of Canadian
Citations, published monthly.

Another annotating source is Dominion Law Reports Annotation Service (KE 132 .D66). The difference between D.L. R. and the Abridgement is that cases are listed by citation only (as in Shepard’s) not by name.

Regulations

Canadian Regulations are categorized as either Statutory Orders and Regulations (SOR) or Statutory Instruments (SI). SOR’s are regulations made under the authority of a statute and have general legislative intent. SI’s are enacted for specific situations, such as proclamations. Regulations are published in the official Canada Gazette, Part II, however to find regulations in the Arthur Neef Law Library, the “Regulations” section of the Legislation volumes of Canadian Current Law may be consulted. Another source for both federal and Ontario regulations is Q.L., a full-text Canadian legal database.

Databases

The Q.L. database provides electronic access to the full text of decisions from all provinces (except Quebec) from 1986. It also contains files such as Canadian Environment, Canadian News Index, Tax Reform Papers, and SOR. Lexis also contains an increasing number of Canadian law files, in its CANADA database.

Print Sources to Assist in Further Research

• Banks, Margaret A. Using a Law Library: A Canadian Guide to Legal Research. 5th Ed., 1991 (KE 250 .B35). Originally written for Legal Method courses at the University of Western Ontario, this book includes sections on using Canadian materials from a law student’s point of view. It also contains chapters on automated legal research and using British legal materials.
• Gall, Gerald L. The Canadian Legal System. 3rd ed., 1990 (KE 444 .G34). A comprehensive treatment of the essential features of the Canadian legal system. Chapters include “The Role
  of Courts in Canada”, “The Quebec Legal System”, “The Role of Judges and Lawyers”, and several others on the nature of law in general.
• The Legal Ontario Desk Book, 1995 (KE 213 .O5 L2). Intended to be the directory of information on the operation of courts in Ontario. Contains tables of limitation periods for the Ontario and federal courts, legal research techniques, a directory of the committees of Canadian Bar Association, government departments, agencies and commissions, and other resources not otherwise compiled into one volume.
• MacEllven, D.T. Legal Research Handbook. 2nd ed., 1986 (KE 250 .M32). Considered the best guide to legal research in Canada, the Legal Research Handbook has a multitude of
  through and accessible research checklists. It contains sound advice for novice researchers, and concise directions for those who simply want to ensure that they have not overlooked an avenue of research. The Handbook features chapters on computer assisted legal research, including sections on how to use CALR to research the sources discussed in each chapter. In addition to the more traditional legal sources, MacEllven discusses reference works from the sciences and social sciences, as well as government documents.
• Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation, 2d., 1988 (KE 259 .C35). The Canadian Guide has been officially adopted by five Canadian law schools, as well as several provincial
  courts, as the citation form standard. In format it is very similar to the Uniform System of Citation used in U.S. law schools; however, it places much more emphasis on international materials. The Appendices contain standard abbreviations for Canadian reporters, periodicals and courts.
• Basic Canadian Law (Audio Research in the Law), 1983. (KE 250 .B37). Although dated in several places (the book was published before the 1985 Statutes of Canada were published),
  this book/audio tape set is a solid introduction to Canadian courts and legal research. The three audio tapes contain the topics of secondary legal sources, statutory and regulatory materials, and law reports. The checklists in the printed materials are useful for a researcher new to the materials, but would not be as helpful to an experienced Canadian legal researcher.
• Modern Legal Systems Cyclopedia (v.1 “North America”), 1984-(K 530 .M62). The Cyclopedia is a multivolume set containing summaries of the basic legal provisions of the major countries of the world. Canadian law is discussed in Volume One “North America”, and is useful for orientation to such areas as family law, corporation law, or tort law before beginning research. The Cyclopedia is a looseleaf publication updated occasionally.

Online Sources

To skip to a specific section of this entry, click on a link in the outline below.

Primary Sources:

• Canadian Case Law
• Canadian Constitution
• Canadian Statutes
• Canadian Regulations
• Treaties

Secondary Sources:

• Canadian Law Treatises
• Canadian Directories
• Canadian Handbooks, Practice Guides and Nutshells
• Canadian Encyclopedias
• Canadian Digests
• Canadian Dictionaries
• Canadian Legal Indexes
• Canadian Bar Associations
• Online Research Guides (see below)
• Helpful Links and Canadian search engines (see below)

Online Research Guides

1. Best Guide to Canadian Legal Research, by Catherine P. Best.
2. University of Toronto,Guide to Legal Research by Susan Barker.
3. University of Calgary, Legal Research Guide.
4. LLRX: Overview of Sources of Canadian Law on the Web, Revised, by Louise Tsang.
5. Canadian Government and Legal Information,by Chenglin Liu.
6. Doing Legal Research in Canada, by Ted Tjaden.

Helpful Links and Canadian search engines

1. American Law Sources Online (also!) (Canadian section)
2. Canadian Justice System
3. Access Canada
4. Lexum’s The Virtual Canadian Law Library (by the University of Montreal Faculty of Law)
5. University of Victoria Library
6. British Columbia Courthouse Library Society
7. Office of the Commissioner for Federal Judicial Affairs
8. Law Library of Congress (Canadian section)
9. JURIST Canada
10. CANLII (Canadian Legal Information Institute) and CANLII Beta (searchable in French and English) with RSS Feeds
11. Canadian Law School Websites search engine (created by Michel-Adrien Sheppard, searches 25 websites)
12. Legal Research/Recherche juridique (created by Michel-Adrien Sheppard, searches legal research guides and tutorials created by Canadian law schools and their corresponding libraries)

Resources

Further Reading

• Maureen F. Fitzgerald and Susan Barker, The ultimate guide to Canadian legal research (Markham, Ont.: LexisNexis, 2011)
• Nancy McCormack, John Papadopoulos and Catherine Cotter, The practical guide to Canadian legal research, 3rd ed. (Toronto: Carswell, 2010)
• Maureen F. Fitzgerald and Susan Barker, Legal problem solving: reasoning, research & writing, 5th ed. (Markham, Ont.: LexisNexis Butterworths, 2010)
• John Eaton, “Teaching legal research in Canadian law schools: are we meeting the needs of the profession?” Legal Information Management 10(2):98-101 (Summer 2010)
• Bonnie Fish, Fish on legal research, (Aurora, Ont.: Canada Law Book, 2009)
• John Eaton and Denis Le May, Essential sources of Canadian law = Les références essentielles en droit canadien, (Toronto: Irwin Law, 2009)
• Margaret E. McCallum, Deborah A. Schmedemann and Christina L. Kunz, Synthesis : legal reading, reasoning and writing in Canada, 2nd ed. (Toronto : CCH Canadian, 2008)
• Maureen F. Fitzgerald, Legal Problem Solving: Reasoning, Research & Writing, 4th ed. (Markham, Ont.: LexisNexis Butterworths, 2007)
• Eric B. Appleby, Legal research guide to statutes, (Frederiction, NB: Maritime Law Book Inc., 2007)
• Connie Crosby, “Students still unprepared for legal research”. Lawyer’s Weekly 26(12):14 (July 21, 2006)
• A quick guide to researching statutes, (Toronto: Thomson Carswell, 2006)
• Rosemary Bocska, “When is it time to stop doing research?”. Lawyer’s Weekly 25(12):15,17 (July 22, 2005)
• Do-Ellen Hansen, “A legal research plan should be part of every litigator’s toolkit”. Lawyer’s Weekly 24(37):16 (February 11, 2005)
• Ted Tjaden, Legal Research and Writing, 2nd ed. (Toronto : Irwin Law, 2004).
• Pierre-Claude Lafond, Techniques de repérage des sources documentaires du droit : guide pratique, 3rd ed. (Cowansville, Québec : Éditions Y. Blais, 2004)
• John A. Yogis and Innis M. Christie, Legal writing and research manual, 6th ed. by Michael J. Iosipescu and Phillip W. Whitehead (Toronto : Butterworths, 2004)
• Douglass T. MacEllven, Legal research handbook, 6th ed. by Michael J. McGuire, Neil A. Campbell, and John N. Davis (Toronto : Butterworths, 2003)
• Denis Le May and Dominique Goubau, La Recherche Documentaire en Droit: 2002 5th ed. (Montréal: Wilson & Lafleur, 2002)
• Suzanne Gordon and Sherifa Elkhadem, The Law Workbook: Developing Skills for Legal Research and Writing (Toronto: Emond Montgomery, 2001)
• M. Drew Jackson and Timothy L. Taylor, The Internet handbook for Canadian lawyers, 3rd ed. (Scarborough, Ont.: Carswell, 2000)
• Jacqueline R. Castel and Omeela K. Latchman, The Practical Guide to Canadian Legal Research, 2nd ed. (Toronto: Carswell, 1996)
• Margaret A. Banks and Karen E.H. Foti, Banks on Using a Law Library: A Canadian Guide to Legal Research, 6th ed. (Toronto: Carswell, 1994)
• Edmund M.A. Kwaw, The Guide to Legal Analysis, Legal Methodology and Legal Writing (Toronto: Emond Montgomery, 1992)
• Barbara Cotton, “Advanced Legal Research and Writing: How to Build a Cadillac” Advocates Quarterly 13(2):232-245 (Oct 1991)

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This entry was last updated: June 9, 2016