Secondary Legal Resources

• Author: Ted Tjaden
• Pages: 47-82

47

CHA PTER 2

SECONDARY LEGAL

RESOURCES

The goal of legal research is to f‌ind relevant legislation or judicial deci-

sions (primary legal resources) that apply to the particular legal prob-

lem being researched bec ause only legislation or judicial decisions have

the power to affect legal rights. However, f‌inding relevant statutes and

cases can be a challenge for f‌irst-time legal researchers.

Therefore, an effective legal research technique when sta rting to re-

search a particular problem is to f‌irst consult secondary legal resources

to gain a broad overview of the topic. Secondar y legal resources include

such things as textbooks, law journals, seminar papers, encyclopedias,

case law digests, and Web guides. Starting with secondary legal re-

search resources has several advantages:

• Secondar y 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 their f‌ield, allowing the re-

searcher to legitimately take advantage of someone else’s work.

• Most materials are relatively current, especially if they are in loose-

leaf form at or online.

• Some secondar y legal resources, such as leading textbooks or well-

researched law journal articles, are highly persuasive in court and

cited by judges in their decisions.

This chapter provides a brief overv iew of textbooks, law journals,

seminar papers, legal encyclopedias, case law digests, and general legal

reference resources (law dictionar ies, legal citation guides, legal direc-

tories, forms and precedents, court rules, current awareness tools, law

LEGAL R ESEARCH AND W RITING48

reform commission reports, and Web guides). The emphasis will be on

Canadian m aterials, with discussion of British, A merican, and Austra l-

ian material s where relevant, since these are usually the other jurisdic-

tions of most interest to Canadian legal researchers.

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 your area of legal research, you will have saved yourself a lot

of time by leveraging the rese arch of experts on the topic (the notion of

“standing on the shoulders of giants”).1

You can f‌ind law-related textbooks at most courthouse, law soci-

ety, and law school law libraries. Many law f‌irms also own law-related

textbooks relevant to their own areas of practice (for information 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 librar ies in Canada (and throughout

the world) can now be found online (see Table 2.1). Searching 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 borrow the material or buy it for yourself.

Table 2.1

Chart of Major Online Canadian Library Catalogues Containing

Law-Related Material

Law Librar y WWW Address for Catalog ue

Diana M Pr iestly Law Library (UVic) http://libra ry.law.uvic.ca

UBC Law Librar y www.library.ubc.ca

Thompson River s University www.tru.ca/library.html

Courthou se Libraries BC www.courthous elibrary.ca

U of Calgary Ben nett Jones Law Librar y http://library.ucalgary.ca/law

John A Weir Memorial Law Libra ry

(U of A)

www.library.ualberta.ca

Alberta L aw Libraries www.lawlibrar y.ab.ca

1 For an inter esting discuss ion on the role of legal “treatises” in t he development

of the law, see Angela Fern andez & Markus Dubber, eds, L aw Books in Action:

Essays on the Anglo-Americ an Legal Treatise (Oxford: H art, 2012).

Secondar y Legal Resources 49

Law Librar y WWW Address for Catalog ue

U of Saskatchewan Law Library http://library.usask.ca/law/

Law Society of Saskatchewan http://libra ry.lawsociety.sk.ca /

opac/

EK William s Law Library (U of

Manitoba)

www.umanitob a.ca/libr aries

Manitoba L aw Society http://opac.libra ryworld.com /

opac/home.php

U of Western Ontario L aw Library www.lib.uwo.c a/la w/

Paul Martin L aw Library (U of Windsor) www.uwindsor.ca/law/library/

Osgoode Hall Law School (York U) www.osgo ode.yorku.ca /

resources-and-ser vices/library/

Law Society of Upper Ca nada http://library.lsuc.on.ca

Bora Laskin Law Library (U of Toronto) http://libr ary.law.utoronto.ca/

Supreme Court of Canada L aw Library www.scc-csc.gc.ca/lib-bib/

William R Lederman Law Libr ary

(Queen s U)

http://library.queensu.ca/law/

Brian Dick son Law Library (U of Ottawa) ww w.biblio.uottawa.ca

Lakehead University Faculty of Law w ww.lakeheadu.ca/academics/

department s/law/law-libr ary

Nahum Gelber Law Libr ary (McGill U) www.mcgill.ca/library

U of Montreal Law Libra ry http://atrium.umontreal.ca

U of Sherbrooke Law Library www.usherbrooke.ca /biblio

Centre d’accès à l’informat ion juridique

(CA IJ)

www.ca ij.qc.ca/en/li brary

U of Laval Law Library http://ariane.ulaval.ca

Gerard V La Forest L aw Library (UNB) ww w.lib.unb.ca

U of Moncton Law Library www.umoncton.ca /

umcm-bibliotheque-droit/

Law Society of New Brunswick Librar ies www.nblawlib-bib.ca

Sir James Dunn L aw Library (Dalhousie U) www.libr aries.d al.ca

Nova Scotia Barrister s’ Society http://nsbs.org /library_ser vices/

library_catalogues

Law Society of Newfoundland &

Labrador

www.lawsociety.nf.ca /libra ry/

Law Society of PEI Library ww w.lspei.p e.ca/law_l ibrary.php

National Librar y of Canada www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/

amicus