Guides to Legal Research

Canada

• University of Toronto:
  • Research Guide for Beginners: Includes basic research skills for students or anyone conducting legal research.
  • A guide to finding legal information on the web
• Legal Research Manual: Queen's University
• Researching Canadian Law: A research guide from New York University, which describes and explains the Canadian legal system.
• Research Guides: from Osgoode Hall Law Library

United States

• Bacal's Internet Legal Research Guide: Glenn S. Bacal offers tips and lists of recommended sites and books to use for research. Primarily oriented towards an American audience.
• Legal Information Services to the Public (LISP): From the American Association for Law Libraries, this guide is "intended to help a person with a legal problem find legal rules that can resolve or prevent conflict."

Legal Information: Canada

- Access is Restricted to Concordia Users

• Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII): Search Canadian case law. Free access to Canadian legal information managed by the Federation of Law Societies of Canada.
• Consolidated Statutes and Regulations of Canada: Search Canadian legislation. "The online source of consolidated Acts and regulations of Canada."
• Department of Justice guides to understanding Canadian law:
  • Canada’s System of Justice: "offers a brief outline of Canada's laws and the whole justice system."
  • Canada’s Court System: "provides a general description of the court system in Canada, the types and levels of courts and their responsibilities."
• Federal Court of Canada: Decisions of the Federal Court.
• Jurist Canada Reference Desk: Hosted by the Bora Laskin Law Library at the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. Includes Canadian legal news, scholarship, education, and more.
• Legisinfo: Legislation currently before Parliament. An essential research tool for House of Commons and Senate Bills, including the text of bills, background information, legislative summaries and important speeches. Begins with the 37th Parliament, 1st Session (January 2001).
• LexUM: A directory of Canadian legal web resources from University of Montreal.
• Supreme Court of Canada
  • Judgments of the Supreme Court of Canada Organized by LexUM. All Supreme Court judgments from the Supreme Court and Supreme Court Reports, from 1876 onward

Tip: Search for articles from newspapers, magazines or scholarly journals in order to find the relevant case name or information.

• ProQuest Combined Canadian

Legal Information: Quebec

• Annotated Civil Code of Québec: LexUM’s Annotated Civil Code of Québec, “ACCQ”, is a free online version of the Civil Code of Québec divided by sections and searchable by keyword or section number. It is free and available in English or in French.
• éducaloi: Information for Quebecers about their rights and obligations.
• Le ministère de la Justice: "a pour mission de favoriser le respect des droits des citoyens du Québec."
• Jugements.qc.ca: Décisions des tribunaux et organismes du Québec
  • Unofficial English translations of selected judgments available here
• Quebec Courts Decisions from Quebec Courts, Boards and Tribunals dating back to 1987 for some bodies. (provided by CanLII).
• Ville de Montréal: Rights and by-laws and municipal court information.

Legal Information: United States

• Govtrack: An independent site which allows users to track legislation. Search bill numbers, committees, legislators and voting records in the Senate and House of Representatives.
• Government Printing Office: FDSys: "Current and historical information from all three branches of the Federal Government"
• Justia: Search U.S. case law, codes, regulations, legal articles and legal blog databases.
• The Legal Information Institute (LII): From the Cornell Law Library, LII provides federal and state law, federal and state statutory codes, and administrative codes and case law.
  • LII Supreme Court collection
• LLRX: Sabrina Pacifici's web site includes sections about Legal Research, Librarian Resources, Legal Technology, as well as Pacifici's blog beSpacific. Best-known for articles about technology and the law.
• The Oyez Project: "A multimedia archive devoted to the Supreme Court of the United States and its work." Get details of cases at a glance. Cases date back to 1793.
• Supreme Court of the United States: Access to the most recent cases.
• THOMAS: Legislative information, including bill and resolution text treaties, from the Library of Congress. Includes materials for teachers.

Legal Information: International

• Electronic Information System for International Law: EISIL includes primary law materials, research guides and web links. It is maintained by the American Society for International Law.
• Foreign Law Guide: "Current Sources of Codes and Basic Legislation in Jurisdictions of the World."
• Global Courts: Supreme Court decisions from around the world.
• Global Legal Information Network (GLIN): A full-text database of laws and legislative records from government and international agencies.
• Guide to Law Online: An annotated guide to international legal information on the Web, by the U.S. Law Library of Congress.
• International Law: Provides information from the United Nations about the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice.
  • UN Research Guide on International Law: Information from and about the UN’s various Courts and Tribunals.
• WashLaw: Legal Research on the Web: Produced by the Washburn University School of Law, includes links to many foreign countries. "Arranged alphabetically, by subject, and by geographic location."
• World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII): Free access public legal information of the world.

Legal Dictionaries

- Access is Restricted to Concordia Users

• Oxford Dictionary of Law
• Duhaime's Legal Dictionary
• Legal dictionaries: A selection of online dictionaries compiled by McGill University.
• Legal Dictionary: From the Worldwide Legal Information Association.

Criminal Justice: Canada

- Access is Restricted to Concordia Users

• Canada: Criminal Justice Links: Useful websites provided by Rutgers University.
• Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics Profile Series: Produced by Statistics Canada.
• Canadian Criminal Justice Association: "An independent national voluntary organization working for an improved criminal justice system in Canada."
  • Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice: Produced by the CCJA.
• Centre of Criminology Library: University of Toronto's resources, including e-resources, a criminology research guide and scholars and statistics.
• Juristat: Reports issued by Statistics Canada with statistics and analyses about Canada's justice system
• Organized Crime and Corruption Databases: Searchable databases from the Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security at York University.

Criminal Justice: International

• International Centre for the Prevention of Crime: promoting research-based policies and practices that work to prevent crime and build community safety.
• Organized Crime and Corruption Databases: Searchable databases from the Nathanson Centre on Transnational Human Rights, Crime and Security at York University.
• Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics: Criminal justice in the U.S.
• United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime: Information on such international topics as human trafficking, illicit drugs, and corruption.
• World Criminal Justice Library Network: A good starting point. Produced by Rutgers University. Includes links to criminal agencies by country, statistical resources by country, subject bibliographies of links, list of indexes and databases and more.