Secondary Legal Resources

• Author: Ted Tjaden
• Profession: Faculty of Law and Faculty of Information Sciences University of Toronto
• Pages: 28-51

CHAPTER

2

SECONDARY

LEGAL

RESOURCES

The

goal

of

legal research

is to

find

relevant legislation

or

judicial deci-

sions (i.e., primary legal resources) that apply

to the

particular legal

problem being researched. Finding relevant statutes

and

cases, howev-

er,

can be a

challenge

for

first-time

legal researchers.

An

effective

legal research technique when starting

to

research

a

par-

ticular

problem,

therefore,

is to

first

consult secondary legal resources

to

gain

a

broad overview

of the

topic. Secondary legal resources include

such things

as

textbooks,

law

journals, encyclopedias, case

law

digests,

Web

guides,

and

other reference tools. Using secondary legal research

resources

first

has

several advantages:

secondary

legal resources generally

provide

a

good

synopsis

of the

law

and

provide footnotes

or

links

to

relevant legislation

or

case law;

they

are

usually written

by

experts

in a

particular

field,

allowing

the

researcher

to

take advantage

of

someone else's work;

most materials

are

relatively current, especially

if

they

are in

loose-

leaf

format

or

online;

and

some secondary legal resources, such

as

leading textbooks

or

well-

researched

law

journal articles,

can be

highly persuasive

in

court.

This chapter provides

a

brief overview

of

secondary legal resources,

emphasizing Canadian materials, with discussion

of

British, American,

and

Australian materials, where relevant, since these other jurisdictions

are

the

most important comparators

for

Canadian legal researchers.

28

Secondary Legal Resources

29

A.

TEXTBOOKS

Lawyers, judges, academics,

and

other researchers have written books

on

most,

if not

all, legal topics imaginable.

If you

find

a

relevant book

covering

the

topic

of

your research,

you

will have saved yourself

a lot

of

time

by

taking advantage

of

someone else's work.

You

can

find

law-related textbooks

at

most courthouse,

law

society,

and law

school

law

libraries.

In

addition, many

law

firms

own

their

own

law-related textbooks relevant

to

their

own

areas

of

practice (for infor-

mation

on

selecting

or

acquiring law-related resources,

see

Chapter

9).

Searching

for

law-related textbooks

has

been made easy with

the

advent

of

the

Internet. Catalogues

for

major

law

libraries

in

Canada (and

throughout

the

world)

can now be

found online (see Table

2.1).

Search-

ing

these

online

library catalogues

by

author, title, subject,

or

keyword

can

help

you

identify

relevant materials

for

your topic

to

help

you

decide

if

you

want

to try to

borrow

the

material

or buy it for

yourself.

Table

2.1

Chart

of

Online Library Catalogues Containing Law-Related Material

Diana

M.

Priestly

Law

Library

(U.

Vic.)

U.B.C.

Law

Library

B.C.

Courthouse

Library Society

University

of

Calgary

Law

Library

John

A

Weir Memorial

Law

Library

(University

of

Alberta)

University

of

Saskatchewan

Law

Library

E.K.

Williams

Law

Library

(University

of

Manitoba)

U.

of

Western Ontario

Law

Library

U.

of

Windsor

Law

Library

Osgoode Hall

Law

School

(York

U.)

Law

Society

of

Upper Canada

Bora

Laskin

Law

Library

(U. of

Toronto)

Supreme Court

of

Canada

Law

Library

William

R.

Lederman

Law

Library

(Queen's University)

University

of

Ottawa

Law

Library

Nahum

Gelber

Law

Library (McGill

U.)

University

of

Montreal

Law

Library

University

of

Sherbrooke

Law

Library

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