Canadian Law Research Guide

  1. Constitution
  2. General Sources
  3. Statutes
  4. Cases
  5. Index Sources to Journal Articles

Note: This research guide is a brief annotated outline of resources useful to those conducting legal research in Canadian law. As in United States law, Canada has both Federal and Province/Territory (State) law. The resources mentioned in this guide are either in the Marquette University Law Library collection (with call numbers noted), or web sites (with links provided). If you have further questions, or need assistance, please consult a reference librarian.

Canadian Constitution

As in the British tradition, the Canadian Constitution is several different documents used together to form the Constitution. Refer to the Constitution Act of 1982 and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, 1982.

Constitution Acts 1867 to 1982

General Sources

For background information on the Canadian legal system, consult the following titles found in our collection:

Foreign Law Guide.  Access through the Databases & Subscription listing on the law library landing page.

Canadian Legal System, 5th ed. (Gerald L. Gall)
KE 444 G34 2004

Canadian Guide to Uniform Citation, 6th ed. (McGill Law Journal)
KE 259 C36 2006

Canadian Constitutional Law, 3d ed. (P. Mackem…et al.)
KE 4219 C3 2003

Constitutional Law of Canada, 5th ed. (Peter W. Hogg)
KE 4219 H63 2007-

Statutes

CanLII (available in English or French):
Federal and Provincial law

Cases

CanLII

Also see, in our collection, The Candaian Abridgment, 3d ed.
KE 173 A1 C37

The Canadian Abridgment Quick Reference Guide enables you to find: 1: Case Law By Legal Issue 2: Case Law By Case Name 3: Case Law Considering a Word or Phrase 4: History and Judicial Treatment of a Case 5: History and Judicial Treatment of a Statute 6: Legislative History 7: Legal Literature. In other words, the Canadian Abridgment Reference Guide will assist you in the use of the Canadian Abridgment.

Please note that the Canadian Abridgment is also available on Westlaw (you must have a Westlaw password to access).

In order to verify the authority and validity of Canadian case law, you should consult Canadian Case Citations, KE 173 A1 C37. This is similar to West's Key Cite or LEXIS' Shepards for U.S. law.

Index Sources to Journal Articles

As with U.S. law, you may gain further insight to Canadian law if you consult journal articles on a particular topic or case. You may search the following journal indexes:

INDEX TO LEGAL PERIODICALS & BOOKS
K 33 I521

INDEX TO LEGAL PERIODICALS AND LAW LIBRARY JOURNAL
(to access the link to this index, do a title search in the Library's catalog, MARQCAT; the link is in the record)

HEINONLINE
(to access the link to this index, do a title search in the Library's catalog, MARQCAT; the link is in the record)

LEXIS/NEXIS ACADEMIC
(to access this database, either go to 1) Databases & Subscriptions list on the right-hand column of the Law Library homepage, and scroll to Congressional Universe, click on the link, then change to Academic by scrolling down and clicking on Academic in the lower left-hand column. 2) Do a title search in the Library's catalog, MARQCAT for Academic Universe)

MAOB 2012