D. Legal Encyclopedias

• Author: Ted Tjaden
• Profession: National Director of Knowledge Management McMillan LLP
• Pages: 48-52

Contenidos

• 1) Canadian Encyclopedic Digest.
• 2) Halsbury’s Laws of Canada.
• 3) JURISCLASSEUR Québec.
• 4) Encyclopedias for Other Jurisdictions.

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Legal encyclopedias are another excellent starting point for legal research because of their relatively exhaustive scope and broad overview of law-related topics.

In Canada, there are now three major legal encyclopedias:

· Canadian Encyclopedic Digest (3d ed.) (Carswell)

· Halsbury’s Laws of Canada (LEXISNEXIS Canada)

· JURISCLASSEUR Québec (LEXISNEXIS Canada)

Although all three of these titles are available in hard copy versions, they are increasingly being used online (by subscription). The online versions have a number of advantages: (i) they are updated automatically, eliminating the need for manual updating of pages in the looseleaf versions, (ii) they are full-text searchable, and (iii) they have

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interactive hypertext links to the full-text of cases and legislation cited in their footnotes.

1) Canadian Encyclopedic Digest

The Canadian Encyclopedic Digest, known as the CED, is published by Thomson Reuters as a looseleaf in two separate editions, a brown Western edition and a green Ontario edition (although some titles from both editions, such as administrative law, are identical). As of the date of publication of this book, Thomson Reuters is in the process of publishing a new, updated fourth edition of the CED. The discussion that follows refers to the existing third edition.

The CED contains Vol. 1 (Absentees to Agency) to Vol. 34 (Weights and Measures to Young Offenders), plus a Research Guide and Key. Each topic can be found under a "tab" (called a "title"). Each topic or "title" is written by a lawyer who has some expertise in that area; hence, (i) titles are updated on an ad hoc basis, title by title, and (ii) the quality can vary from title to title, although the overall quality of the CED is quite good. The text is supplemented by yellow update sheets, found at the front of each title; thus, to note up your CED research, you must check the relevant paragraph number in the yellow supplemental sheets.

First-time users should consult the Research Guide and Key to obtain an overview of the publication, which is very simple to use. Access is most often by subject, via the index; if you have a case name on point, you can check the Table of Cases from the relevant title for that case and then refer to the paragraph cross-references where the known case is mentioned in the text and find other (similar) cases that may be relevant to your research.

The CED is also available on CD-ROM, a...