Library Guide to Primary Legal Documents
What are Primary Legal Documents
Primary legal documents, for the purposes of this subject guide, are cases, statutes (laws), regulations and parliamentary materials such as bills and debates (Hansard). Legal commentary (books and articles) are covered in the Subject Guide to Law: Secondary Materials.
How to Find and Use Primary Legal Documents
The Legal Reference Collection can be found on the first floor of the library at the far east end. There are also legal reference materials in the KE section of the General Reference area on the 1 st floor and in the Special Collections room on the 3 rd floor of the library.
International Legal Resources:
Legal sources from the United States the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries can be found in Lexis Nexis.
WorldLII , also links to international legal sources.
Quick Links to:
Canada 's Constitution Act 1867 (formerly the British North America Act and the Constitution Act 1982)
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
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Books
Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation REF KE259.C35
Black's Law Dictionary KF156 .B53
The Dictionary of Canadian Law KE183 .D82 2004
Legal Research and Writing (Tjaden) KE250 .T53 2004
Legal Writing and Research Manual KE265 .I57 2004
Legal Research Handbook KE250 .L44 2003
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Databases
Major Indexes
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- Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII)
- Connect to Canadian Legal Information Institute
CAN LII provides links to all federal and provincial and territorial statutes, regulations and court tribunal decisions.
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- Martin's Online Criminal Code
- Connect to Martin's Online Criminal Code
Includes the current Criminal Code and all Criminal Code versions back to 1955, including annotations. Use this database to access point-in-time Criminal Code provisions or investigate changes to specific provisions over the past 50+ years.
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- Quicklaw
- Connect to Quicklaw (At bottom right, click REGISTER LATER, then click ACCEPT)
Online Canadian collection of court and tribunal decisions, legislation, commentary and legal news.
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Other Indexes
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- E-Laws
- Connect to E-Laws
Ontario Statutes and regulations. (includes source law and repealed law)
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- Justice Canada
- Connect to Justice Canada
Canadian statutes and regulations; news releases from the Department of Justice.
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- Legisinfo (Library of Parliament)
- http://www.parl.gc.ca/LEGISINFO/index.asp?Lang=E
Finding tool for Canadian legislation in progress
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- Lexis Nexis
- Connect to Lexis Nexis
Provides the full text of over 5,600 news, business, legal, medical, and reference publications. Includes mainly U.S. newspapers, laws, business news journals, company financial information, and industry and market news. Limited Canadian and other international legal research sources.
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- O’Brien’s Forms
- Connect to O’Brien’s
Searchable database of legal forms and precedents for O’Brien’s Divisions V, VI, VIII and IX (Wills and Trusts, Ontario Family Law, Ontario Court Forms and Municipal Corporations).
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- Supreme Court of Canada Judgements (through LexUM)
- http://scc.lexum.umontreal.ca/en/index.html
Provides SCC judgments from 1985 to present, accessible by date, case name and subject.
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- World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII)
- http://www.worldlii.org/
Over 270 databases from 48 jurisdictions in 20 countries. Databases include case-law, legislation, treaties, law reform reports, law journals, and other materials.
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Additional Resources
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How to Cite
Library Guide for Legal Citation - cite legal sources and format papers in legal style
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Help!
For further assistance, contact the Legal Librarian.
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