Legal Encyclopedias provide general overviews of topics in law, as well as direction to relevant resources. They are accessible in print in the Canadian Room on the main floor of the Sir James Dunn Law Library.
2nd floor, aisle 34 and online via WestLaw Edge (law students only)
Relevant Volume: Constitutional Law- Vol 11
The Canadian Encyclopedic Digest (CED) is published by Carswell and is divided into a Western volume and an Ontario volume. Both include references to other provinces but there is a higher number of references to sources from Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta. The Sir James Dunn Law Library has print copies of the Ontario volumes only. The titles are organized topically into broad areas of law and broken down into subheadings for easy navigation and context. Entries provide brief summaries of the law as well as key authorities.
2nd floor, aisle 34 and online via Lexis Advance Quicklaw (law students only)
Relevant Volume: Constitutional Law- Charter of Rights and Freedoms/Division of Powers
Halsbury’s Laws of Canada, often referred to as simply Halsbury’s, is published by LexisNexis. The print version is published in editions that are updated approximately every 5 years, though some titles are updated more frequently. The titles are organized topically into broad areas of law and broken down into subheadings for easy navigation and context. Entries provide brief summaries of the law as well as key authorities.
2nd floor, aisle 33 and online via WestLaw Edge (law students only)
Relevant Volume: Constitutional Law
The Canadian Abridgment is a key research tool for identifying cases. It is a digest service that arranges the abstracts of cases reported by topics in alphabetical order. Each volume includes a list of all the abbreviations used, a list of all the cases cited, and then a detailed table of contents. If you have identified your topic areas, you should be able to locate cases indexed under that topic. If the abstract seems useful, you may use the citation information to locate this case in print or a database.
