Starting Your Research

This research will be most fruitful when conducted in an Academic Law Library. However, a public library may have many resources also.

Before heading to the resources that are given below, make sure that you have defined your topic. Creating a search strategy where you lay out the keywords and subject headings you would like to use and the relevant sources may reduce the time you spend searching and increase your success.

Relevant Subject Headings

These subject headings can be used to conduct an effective subject search. Choose the ones that seem the most relevant for your needs.

Keywords

The keywords should be combined to create the most relevant keyword search for your needs.

Example Keyword Combinations

Definitions

Bills

Bills are the stage of statutes before they become law. They are proposals for new laws. They can be useful to find out how the law might change in the short-term.

This link provides direct access to all printed versions of the bill.  Bills may be printed on as many as four occasions: 

• First Reading,
• As Reported By The Committee,
• Third Reading "As Passed Copy", and
• Royal Assent.

Not all bills are printed at each stage listed above and it is not uncommon for a bill not to be printed as reported by the committee where there are not significant amendments proposed by the committee.

Statutes

Statutes, often referred to as Acts, are the primary legal authority created by the federal Parliament and by provincial governments. It is important to understand that statutes are enacted, amended, and revised in a time-ordered sequence. They are identified by this time sequence. When a set of revised statutes becomes law, it is unnecessary to refer back to earlier statutes in most cases.

Statutes are used to:

·   Change or reform the case law

·   Codify a convoluted area of case law

·   Deal with areas previously untouched by case law.

Regulations

Regulations are subordinate legislation. They are created by an official person or body to whom a limited authority to legislate has been granted or delegated by an Act of Parliament or of a Legislature.

When finding regulations, knowing the enabling Act can be useful.

Case Law

Case Law is a system of a system of jurisprudence based on judicial precedents rather than statutory laws. Jurisprudence is the law and the principles that lead courts to make the decisions they do.

Resource Descriptions

Canadian Legal Information Institute

http://www.canlii.org/eliisa/

CanLII (Canadian Legal Information Institute) is a public and free Canadian virtual law library of primary law materials. The site currently provides access to case law originating from competent Canadian judicial and governmental authorities, courts, Queen's printers, law society library services, etc. CanLII usually publishes decisions within 24 to 48 hours following public availability. All documents are accessible by jurisdiction and collection and may be browsed alphabetically by style of cause or chronologically by date of judgment, or the full text may be searched using simple or advanced queries. Also available is an electronic bulletin (InfoCanLII) providing details about the growth of CanLII’s present collections and the integration of new collections into CanLII.

The Advanced Search is quite powerful. It can search by word and phrases, citations, and decision date. Further, searches can be restricted by jurisdiction, legislation type, and case law collection type. It is user-friendly and contains full-text documents.

The Great Library

http://library.lsuc.on.ca/GL/home.htm

The Great Library is the library for the Law Society of Upper Canada. On its website, a variety of legal research tools are available, some to the general public. The tools available to the public include ‘Case Law & Legislation Online’ and ‘Legal Research Guides’. The ‘Case Law & Legislation Online’ provides annotated links to case law available on the Internet.

Department of Justice

http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/index.html

The Department of Justice gathers Federal Statutes and Regulations on its site.

The bilingual website of the Department of Justice Canada makes available searchable databases of the laws of Canada, including statutes and regulations consolidated to August 31, 2004, annual statutes for 1995 through 2004, and lists of non-statutory regulations and repealed acts.

The consolidated statutes and regulations can be browsed by title or subject and searched by keyword or by using advanced searching templates. Quick links to major statutes, including the Criminal Code and the Income Tax Act, and constitutional texts are also provided, as well as an index of statutory instruments consolidated to August 31, 2004, a table of public statutes and responsible ministers (1907 to August 31, 2004), and a table of private acts (1867 to August 31, 2004).

LEGISinfo

http://www.parl.gc.ca/LEGISINFO/index.asp?Lang=E

The website of the Library of Parliament. It allows a researcher to search for bills, whether from the Senate or the House of Commons.

LEGISinfo is an essential research tool for finding information on legislation currently before Parliament.  This tool provides electronic access to a wide range of information about individual bills, such as:

• the text of the bill at various stages;
• government press releases and backgrounders (for government bills);
• legislative summaries from the Parliamentary Information and Research Service;
• important speeches at second reading;
• votes; and
• coming into force data.

Ontario e-Laws

http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/

The Ontario e-Laws website makes available searchable consolidated versions of most of Ontario's public statutes and regulations (exceptions are listed in the Table of Unconsolidated and Unrepealed Public Statutes and Table of Unconsolidated and Unrevoked Regulations). The consolidated law can be browsed by title and searched by keyword or by using Boolean or proximity search methods. Also available is source law, including statutes as enacted and regulations as filed since January 1, 2000. The source law can be browsed by title or searched by keyword. Consolidated statutes and regulations are generally up to date within 10 business days and source law within two business days. Notices of currency found at the beginning of each consolidated statute and regulation are usually up to date to within two business days. For more current amendment information, users are directed to the Table of Public Statutes (Legislative History) or the Table of Regulations (Legislative History). The site also includes Reference Tables to assist in checking for recent changes in the law.

WestlaweCARSWELL

http://www.westlawecarswell.com/lawsource/

WestlaweCARSWELL provides online access to the contents of Carswell's legal products, including the Canadian Encyclopedic Digest, the Canadian Abridgment, Carswell's law report series, as well as unreported cases, selected legislation, finding and updating tools (KeyCiteCanada, Index to Canadian Legal Literature), and journals. Under the Westlaw tab, users have access to U.S. case law and legislation from the state and federal levels, as well as American law reviews and other secondary sources.

Quicklaw

www.quicklaw.com

Quicklaw offers access to an extensive collection of databases including case law from all Canadian jurisdictions, administrative tribunal decisions, legislation and legal commentary in the form of texts, journals, newsletters, and indexes. In addition to Canadian materials, Quicklaw includes American case law and legislation and selective U.K. and Commonwealth judgments. Decisions are in the form of digests or full text. They may be either electronic versions of printed reports (e.g., Dominion Law Reports, Ontario Reports) or unreported current judgments as received directly from the courts.

Index to Canadian Legal Literature

(Thomson Carswell)

An index and bibliography of Canadian legal literature classified according to Library of Congress Subject Headings. "Provides comprehensive access to all the secondary literature of interest to the Canadian legal community." In addition to articles, case comments and annotations from more than 200 Canadian legal and law-related publications, ICLL indexes monographs, individual essays from edited collections, federal and provincial government publications, and the publications of law faculties and legal research institutes and associations, including theses, Continuing Legal Education materials, Public Legal Education materials, including audio-visual materials. Coverage begins in 1985.

Finding Legislation

Legislation includes Statutes or Acts, Regulations or Rules, and Bills. The best places to find legislation is usually a legal website, a government website, or a commercial publisher’s website.

Digests

Canadian Encyclopedic Digest (Ontario) Titles

The Canadian Encyclopedic Digest is available at most law libraries. It is also available online through WestlaweCarswell if your library has a subscription.

Animals are contained in Volume 1A of the CED (Ontario). If you wanted to know about western provinces, the CED (Western) contains animals in Volume 2. For both editions, the relevant title is title 6 – Animals.

Under Title 6 – Animals, there are 13 classifications. These are listed below. Classification XII – Distress and Prevention of Cruelty is the most of interest to this project. However, Classification IX – Dogs can also be relevant.

Webpages

Federal & Provincial Legislation

Canadian Legal Information Institute

www.canlii.org

CanLII usually publishes decisions within 24 to 48 hours following public availability. All documents are accessible by jurisdiction and collection and may be browsed alphabetically by style of cause or chronologically by date of judgment, or the full text may be searched using simple or advanced queries. Also available is an electronic bulletin (InfoCanLII) providing details about the growth of CanLII’s present collections and the integration of new collections into CanLII.

The Advanced Search is quite powerful. It can search by word and phrases, citations, and decision date. Further, searches can be restricted by jurisdiction, legislation type, and case law collection type. It is user-friendly and contains full-text documents.

The Great Library

http://library.lsuc.on.ca/GL/research_law_ca_legis.htm

This page provides annotated links to Canadian federal and Ontario legislative material and quick links to provincial and territorial legislative material available on the Internet. Statutes and regulations for Canada and most of the provinces and territories are also available on CanLII.

Federal Legislation Only

Department of Justice

http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/index.html

The Department of Justice gathers Federal Statutes and Regulations on its site.

The consolidated statutes and regulations can be browsed by title or subject and searched by keyword or by using advanced searching templates. Quick links to major statutes, including the Criminal Code and the Income Tax Act, and constitutional texts are also provided, as well as an index of statutory instruments consolidated to August 31, 2004, a table of public statutes and responsible ministers (1907 to August 31, 2004), and a table of private acts (1867 to August 31, 2004).

LEGISINFO

http://www.parl.gc.ca/LEGISINFO/index.asp?Lang=E

The Parliament of Canada publishes Bills on its site. The Search function in LEGISINFO performs searches for bills by bill number or by words found in the title of the bill. 

Ontario Legislation Only

Ontario e-Laws

http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/

The consolidated law can be browsed by title and searched by keyword or by using Boolean or proximity search methods. Also available is source law, including statutes as enacted and regulations as filed since January 1, 2000. The source law can be browsed by title or searched by keyword. Consolidated statutes and regulations are generally up to date within 10 business days and source law within two business days.

Notices of currency found at the beginning of each consolidated statute and regulation are usually up to date to within two business days. For more current amendment information, users are directed to the Table of Public Statutes (Legislative History) or the Table of Regulations (Legislative History). The site also includes Reference Tables to assist in checking for recent changes in the law.

Databases

Below are the appropriate database codes for each legislation type.

Finding Case Law

Digests

Canadian Abridgement

The Canadian Abridgement is available at most law libraries. It is also available online through WestlaweCarswell if your library has a subscription.

The Canadian Abridgement encompasses a variety of research tools. It contains case law digests, Canadian Case Citations – cases judicially considered, Canadian Statutes Citations – statutes judicially considered, and the Index to Canadian Legal Literature.

The Canadian Abridgement (CA) provides digests on reported decisions from all courts across Canada. The advantage of the CA is that with one index, a researcher can cover Canadian case law from the beginning of Canadian courts.

Relevant Canadian Abridgement Classification & Keywords

Classification A6 contains case law material relevant to Animals. For the purpose of this research, A6 II (Injury to Animals) is most relevant.

Finding relevant case citations

Review the digests in both the hardbound volume(s) and in the soft cover volume in order to retrieve the relevant case citations. The next step is then to retrieve the relevant cases, for which the following sources are of use.

Web Sites

Canadian Legal Information Institute

http://www.canlii.org/eliisa/

The Advanced Search is quite powerful. It can search by word and phrases, citations, and decision date. Further, searches can be restricted by jurisdiction, legislation type, and case law collection type. It is user-friendly and contains full-text documents.

See Databases below for search tips.

The Great Library

http://library.lsuc.on.ca/GL/research_law_ca_cases.htm

This page provides annotated links to case law as well as case-related services and information available mainly on the websites of Canadian courts and administrative tribunals. Also included are links to the websites of Provincial courts. It also links to CanLII, which provides a comprehensive collection of Canadian primary legal materials on the Internet.

Databases