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Research Consultations

I am available for research consultations throughout the academic year.  If you would like to arrange for an individual research consultation, please e-mail me with a requested date and time, and a brief description of your research interest.
athomson@laurentian.ca

Courses

For information about  Laurentian's Department of Law and Justice and the courses it offers, please visit the Department of Law and Justice's web site.

Welcome!!

The purpose of this guide is to recommend print and electronic resources for conducting research in Law and Justice in the Library.  Click on the tabs above for suggestions about starting your research, getting books and articles, and finding other useful tools for research in Law and Justice

Connect from Off Campus

Most of the Library's online resources are available to you from anywhere off campus.  See:  Proxy Server Accounts

Subject Librarian

athomson's picture
Ashley Thomson, BEd, MA, MLS
Instruction Librarian
athomson
3322
J.N. Desmarais Library, 30-245

Get Started

Quick Tips on Preparing for Research

Before you start:

  • understand the key terms you may be using as well as the general area that interests you;
  • think about ways to narrow your topic, making it as specific as possible (unless you have been given a specific topic to research!);
  • create a thesis statement;
  • list  the main concepts (key words) included in your thesis statement (research question), then based on your readings;
  • find as many synonyms as you can for each main concept. You are now ready to start searching in the library's catalogue and databases.

When you are looking for definitions or if you don’t know much about a specific subject, reference works such as dictionaries and encyclopedias become invaluable because they contain relatively short—and understandable—articles. These articles often lay out the parameters of a subject and can assist you in trying to narrow your topic. Often such articles are accompanied by lists of readings (bibliographies) which allow you to explore your topic further.

 
Two of the very best general encyclopedias are:
  
 
 

Legal Dictionaries

  • General

Black's Law Dictionary.  1979.  (Print).  To find more using the catalogue, click on the subject heading:  Law--Dictionaries.

  • Canadian Law

Dictionary of Canadian Law.  2004  (Print).  To find more using the catalogue, click on the subject heading: Law--Canada--Dictionaries.

 

 

Legal Encyclopedias

  • Canada

Canadian Abridgement. Overviews all areas of Canadian law.  For help, consult this Guide to the CA  (To access, login from LawSource)

Canadian Encyclopedic Digest (CED).  Succinct statements of law supported by statute and case law authority for more than 200 subject titles.  (To access, login from LawSource)

 

 

Get Books

Search the Catalogue

The  catalogue is your primary tool for finding books in the J.N. Desmarais Library. You can also use the catalogue to find other materials, including government publications and journals (the journals themselves- not individual articles).

You can search the catalogue by:

  • Keyword
  • Title
  • Journal Title
  • Author
  • Subject
  • Series

When you know the book you are searching for, pick Title or Author;  when you are searching for a topic, start with Keyword unless you know the exact  Subject heading describing your topic.  More on searching the Catalogue is available in Module 1 of the online library workshop program in D2L.

IMPORTANT: The Catalogue will tell you what books are available in the J.N. Desmarais Library--well almost all books.  There are e-books available to you as well, not all of which are listed in the catalogue.

                           And if you want to find what books are available in libraries around the world--many of which will not be available on campus--then you need WorldCat, which you would use in conjunction with RACER, the interlibrary loan service.

E-Books

E-books are located in two different places:

  • Some may be located by using the library’s catalogue. These records will have [electronic resource] in the title.
  • E-books can also be located by searching in e-book collections. Searching in these collections is the same as searching in a database.

Recommended E-Book Collections

Ebrary (close to 40,000 e-books in multiple subject areas)

Netlibrary (over 7,000 ebooks in multiple subject areas) 
Scholars Portal E-Books (over 250,000 e-books in multiple subject areas. Select Full Text Only to find only those e-books with full text)

WorldCat

With nearly 200 million records representing titles held by nearly 75,000 libraries you will find almost any book every published in WorldCat.

Maximum Simultaneous users: Unlimited

Search Tips:  Once you log-in, click on the Help Button:

After your search, when you see a title that interests you, click it on and within the record you will see:

 

When you click that on, you will be led to a menu which allows you to check for availability in Laurentian’s catalogue or order the item through Interlibrary Loan.

 Note: There is a "public" version of WorldCat accessible over the internet. You will find that the version available through the university contains a much more powerful search engine; further because of the "Get it @ Laurentian" feature, the university's version makes it much easier for you to obtain the books you want.

Get Articles

Quick Tip

If you need to find an article--and you have the full journal citation--then you can often get to it quickly using Electronic Journals (A-Z).  Type in the name of the journal, click on the correct journal name, click on the appropriate year / volume / issue, then find your article on the list by starting page number. Please note that you cannot use the A-Z list to search by subject--the list only supplies access to known electronic journal titles.

Quick Tips for Searching the Databases

The databases to the right provide references to many scholarly journal articles and papers.

  • Start off with keyword searches expressing your topic.Keyword searching crosses all fields.
  • Use Search Operators (below) to Expand or Reduce your results.
  • Review those items that look relevant, then,
  • Exploit the details within those entries to help lead you to other relevant articles. Pay attention to the subject headings (typically called "descriptors") to see how the database describes your topic and use them to find related articles. 

Search Operators

Function
To EXPAND Results
Example
Truncation (*. $, !)
Replaces one or more characters of a search term.
Canad* (searches Canada, Canadas, Canadian etc.)
OR
The result contains at least one of the search terms.
(Canada or Great Britain )
 
To REDUCE Results
  
AND
The result contains all of the search terms.
Law AND Canada
NOT
The result does not contain the specified term.
Law NOT American
 

Note:  Always place (Terms separated by OR in parentheses)

Peer Review

Peer Review is the evaluation of creative work by scholars  in the same field in order to maintain or enhance the quality of the work in that field.

In the case of peer reviewed journals, which are usually academic,  peer review generally refers to the evaluation of the articles in them prior to publication. 

For more follow this link.

Subject Databases

Hein Online
Database Description: Recommended starting database. Contains the full-text of more than 1,400 law and law-related periodicals. Coverage is from the first issue published for all periodicals and goes through the most-currently published issues allowed based on contracts with publishers.

Maximum simultaneous users:  Unlimited

Search Tips

Lexis-Nexis Academic
Database Description:

Lexis-Nexis Academic is a rich source of business and legal information. To search for Law Reviews, full-text, at the home page, click on the blue Sources button (on the left) then Find Sources and then type in "US & Canadian Law reviews, Combined" The full-text articles in hundreds of North American law reviews may be searched simultaneously from 1982 to the present.

Maximum simultaneous users:  Unlimited
 

Search Tips

Index to Canadian Legal Literature
Database Description: A bibliographic database providing thorough coverage of Canadian law journal literature since 1987. ICLL indexes journals, law reports, books, book reviews, theses, essay collections and Canadiana Forthcoming Books. ICLL records relate to articles, books, case comments, annotations, seminar proceedings, etc., as selected by ICLL's legal editors.

Maximum simultaneous users:  Unlimited

Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals
Database Description: The preeminent multilingual index to articles and book reviews appearing in 470 legal journals published worldwide since 1985. It provides in-depth coverage of public and private international law, comparative and foreign law, and the law of all jurisdictions other than the United States, the U.K., Canada, and Australia. IFLP also analyzes the contents of approximately eighty individually published collections of legal essays, Festschriften, Mélanges, and congress reports each year.

Maximum simultaneous users: 4

 

Getting Articles @ Laurentian

Hein Online and Lexis-Nexis are full-text databases, that is when you find an article you like, you can get it immediately within each of those databases.

In most other databases,  which do not themselves contain the full-text of every article they index, when you see an article that interests you, click it on and within the record you will see When you click that on,  you will arrive at a menu which will lead to an electronic copy of the article you want, or, if not available electronically, to Laurentian's catalogue which will allow you to check if the article is available in print, and if not, to a final link which allows you to order the item through Interlibrary loan.

The Index to Canadian Legal Literature is one of only a very few databases that does not contain the full-text of articles--or the  feature.  In that database, when you see an interesting article, go to the Catalogue and search the name of the journal containing the article to see if it is carried at Laurentian.

Get Cases

Canadian Cases

PRINT

Use the on-line catalogue to find hard copy holdings (e.g. Supreme Court Reports, Ontario Reports, Canadian Criminal Cases, Reports of Family Law, Canadian Rights Reporter, Canadian Human Rights Reporter, Labour Arbitration Cases, Canadian Labour Law Reports.)

ONLINE

CanLII

CanLII provides access to primary Canadian legal material by jurisdiction, federal and provincial, including current legislation and regulations and recent judgements as issued by the courts.

LawSource

Decisions published in Carswell Law Reports

  • Reported court decisions from 1977
  • Reported tribunal decisions from 1997
  • Unreported court decisions from 1986
  • Supreme Court of Canada and Privy Council decisions from 1876
  • Federal Court decisions reported in the Federal Court Reports from 1971, Exchequer Court decisions through 1970, and Federal Trial Reports from 1977
  • Québec decisions of national importance as well as Québec Court of Appeal decisions from 1986

Lexis-Nexis Academic (Quicklaw)

Court cases since 1876.  To find, click on International Legal / Canadian Cases as in

 

 

US Cases

Lexis-Nexis Academic

Includes:

  • U.S. Supreme Court decisions from January 1790 to present, searchable by majority opinion, minority opinion, concurring opinion, counsel, or headnotes
  • U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decisions
  • U.S. District Court decisions from 1789 to present
  • Decisions from Bankruptcy Courts; U.S. Court of International Trade; Tax Courts; Courts of Customs and Patent Appeals, and Veterans, Commerce, and Military Courts
  • State court decisions at all court levels for all 50 states and territories

For US federal and state law, click on US Legal and then Federal and State Cases as in:

UK and Other Jurisdictions

Hein Online

Includes English Reports, Full-Reprint (1220-1867).  This collection contains over 100,000 cases, representative of 265 separate series of Reports,arranged by Courts.

Lexis-Nexis Academic

Includes cases from most Commonwealth countrties. 

UK Cases cover from 1558 through current and include

  • All England Law Reports Reprints from 1558 (when available),
  • ICLR Law Reports from 1865,
  • All England Law Reports from 1936 and other law reports from 1945.
  • Scottish reported cases from 1982 and
  • Northern Ireland cases from 1945.
  • Unreported cases from England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland from 1980.

To access click on International Legal, then EU, Commonwealth, and Other Nations as in

and then when in this section, tick off desired collection

as in

 

 

 

 

Get Statutes

Canadian Legislation

CanLII

CanLII provides access to primary Canadian legal material by jurisdiction, federal and provincial, including current legislation and regulations.

LawSource

Full text of the following:

  • Complete, current consolidations of statutes from the Federal jurisdiction (both English and French), and all the common law provinces and territories
  • Québec Civil Code
  • Regulations in the areas of Criminal, Family, Insolvency and Securities law
  • The rules of practice of Canadian courts and a concordance to the rules

Lexis-Nexis Academic

Current legislation plus earlier legislation (from mid 1980s) from Canada, B.C., Alberta and Ontario. Regulations also available.  To find, click on International Legal / Canadian Legislation  as in

 

Federal legislation is also available at: http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/ and Ontario provincial legislation at http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/. Current Federal Bills are available at http://www.parl.gc.ca/ and Ontario Bills at: http://www.ontla.on.ca.

US and Other Jurisdictions

Hein Online

In Hein Online, the Session Laws Library provides access to federal legislation not only from Canada (1792 to within a year or so), but to Australia (1901 to a year or two), the Bahamas (1968-1996), the United States (1789 to three years ago) and to all states (19th and 21st centuries).

Lexis-Nexis Academic

Get the most current US law by clicking on US Legal and then, deparending upon your requirements, Federal Statutes, Codes & Regulations, or State Statutes, Codes & Regulations, as in

 

 

The Best Internet Portals

Guides


Canadian Law

Best Guide to Canadian Legal Research.  A fabulous resource--literally the best
Canadian Legal Research (Harvard Law School)
Doing Legal Research in Canada An introduction to the topic written from the perspective of an American.
 
International Law
 
Guide to Law On-Line Prepared by the Library of Congress
 

 

 

Citing Sources

Citing Sources

Why Cite?

We cite sources to acknowledge the work of others, as well as to avoid academic dishonesty or plagiarism.

Laurentian's Psychology Department has made available a comprehensive set of guidelines on How NOT to Plagiarize that is based on one prepared in 1988 by Margaret Procter, Coordinator of Writing Support, for distribution at the University of Toronto. It deserves to be read by every student since at Laurentian academic dishonesty is a very serious offence.

Plagarism and How to Avoid It

Purdue On-line Writing Lab

 

 

 

Guides to Legal Citation

Queen's University Law School, Kingston

University of Western Ontario Law School, London

Also useful: Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations

Get References into RefWorks

Refworks

Refworks

RefWorks is a web-based bibliography manager that allows you to :

  • Import references from electronic resources such as research databases or catalogues into a personal database;
  • Organize the references according to your needs;
  • Create a bibliography in the style of your choice;
  • Export it into a file to be included with your assignment, report, or project.

You will need to sign up (using your laurentian email account) for an individual account the first time you use RefWorks

Transferring References from a Subject Database

Index to Legal Periodicals (and Books)

  1. Mark desired records
  2. Click on "Print / Email / Save"
  3. Click on "Export to bibliographic software: EndNote, RefWorks..."
  4. Select "RefWorks' Direct Export Tool"
  5. Click on "Export"
  6. Login to your RefWorks account and the citations will be imported

View Slideshow

Hein Online

This database provides no exporting feature to RefWorks. Instead, the desired citations will need to be copied manually into your RefWorks account:

  1. Perform your search in the database
  2. Open another window in which you will connect and log in to your RefWorks account (http://refworks.scholarsportal.info)
  3. In RefWorks, select "References"
  4. Click on "Add New Reference"
  5. You will see a list of empty fields to be filled in (for author, title, periodical, volume, pages,...)
  6. Copy appropriate information from database and paste into appropriate field in RefWorks
  7. When finished, click on "Save Reference"
  8. Repeat steps for any citations you wish to add

Lexis-Nexis Academic

  1. Perform your search and mark the desired citations using the checkboxes provided.
  2. Click on the Export Bibliographic Records icon (the Book icon).
  3. A new window will open and RefWorks Format is automatically selected.
  4. Confirm your Document Range and click the Export button.
  5. If you are not already logged into RefWorks, you will be prompted to enter your login and password.
  6. Once logged into RefWorks, click on the View Last Imported Folder button to see your references.

Index to Canadian Legal Literature

This database provides no exporting feature to RefWorks. Instead, the desired citations will need to be copied manually into your RefWorks account:

  1. Perform your search in the database
  2. Open another window in which you will connect and log in to your RefWorks account (http://refworks.scholarsportal.info)
  3. In RefWorks, select "References"
  4. Click on "Add New Reference"
  5. You will see a list of empty fields to be filled in (for author, title, periodical, volume, pages,...)
  6. Copy appropriate information from database and paste into appropriate field in RefWorks
  7. When finished, click on "Save Reference"
  8. Repeat steps for any citations you wish to add

View Slideshow

Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals

  1. Mark desired records
  2. Click on "Export" 
  3. Select Fields to Display 
  4. Click on "Export Citation(s)"
  5. Login to your RefWorks account and the citations will be imported.