G. Sample Questions and Suggested Approaches

• Author: Ted Tjaden
• Profession: National Director of Knowledge Management McMillan LLP
• Pages: 183-185

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Set out in this section are three hypothetical questions that a Canadian legal researcher might have, along with suggested approaches to an-

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swering these questions, with an emphasis on using free Internet resources, where feasible.

How do I serve Ontario court papers on a Swedish company?

There are several possible approaches to answering this question. Ontario litigators might think of checking Rule 17 (Service outside of Ontario) from one of the annotated versions of the Ontario Rules of Civil Procedure where the Rule itself mentions the Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters (the annotated versions of the Rules in print provide added commentary).

Simply "Googling" the name of this Convention results in finding it on the first hit. The full text of the Convention is available online, and by clicking on the "Full Status" there is a link for Sweden that explains who the "contact" is within Sweden for the purpose of accepting foreign court documents under the Convention.

Alternative approaches: The International Law Digests (in print) from Martindale-Hubbell (part of its multi-volume Directory) has a listing for Sweden that mentions that Sweden is a party to this Convention. That might be enough to trigger one to search online for the Convention.

I have a citation to E/CN.4/Sub.2/1997/1. What is it and how can I get it?

Even if one is not certain this is a United Nations document symbol, simply Googling the citation retrieves the document on the first hit. The document turns out to be a 1997 Provisional Agenda from the Sub Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities of the Commission on Human Rights. The symbol/citation translates as follows:

E = Economic and Social Council

CN.4 = Commission on Human Rights

Sub.2 = Sub Commission on Prevention of...