Glossary

• Author: Ted Tjaden
• Profession: National Director of Knowledge Management McMillan LLP
• Pages: 395-404

395

GLOSSARY

[Words in boldface within the def‌initions are def‌ined elsewhere in the

Glossa ry]

Abridgment: In legal literature, a summ ary or digest of a court case.

Many publisher s provide compilations of these summa ries or digests

organized by topic or theme. A well-known case l aw digest in Canada

is Carswell’s Canadian Abridgment, available in print, on CD-ROM, and

on Westlaw Canada (by subscription). It has summa ries of Canadian

court decisions, organized by topic. LexisNexis Quicklaw has an on-

line digest serv ice in its Canada Digests d atabase. See Chapter 2, Sec-

tion E for more information on abridgments.

Bill: A draft piece of legislation intro duced in the applicable leg islature.

Most often, it is the ruling party that introduces draft leg islation, but

members of the opposition can also introduce bill s; however, oppos-

ition bills generally do not pass the requisite three readings needed to

become law if they are too controversial. Bills can be public (if they are

of general appl ication) or private (if they only affect one organi zation or

entity). A bill must pass all three readings and come into force prior to

the proroguing of the legislature to become law. See also Prorogued.

Blog: Shorthand for “weblog,” a website containing posts or entries on

particular topics. Entr ies are usually displayed in reverse chronological

order and allow comments to be added to each post. The Canad ian Law

Blogs List (www.lawblogs.ca) lists hundreds of Canadian law-related

blogs.