Category Archives: legal research

Post-1907 decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada available on CanLii

Posted on by
Comment

Legal researchers can now access on CanLII a collection of over 9,000 decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada dating back to 1907. These decisions are fully integrated and cross-linked to any subsequent case on CanLII in which they are referenced. The addition of a 1,600 cases ensures that CanLII users will have access to all judgments published in the Supreme Court Reports since 1907.  More comprehensive collection of 1876-1907 cases can be found at the Supreme Court of Canada website.

Call #? Cutter? What does it mean?

Posted on by
2

A call number is a group of numbers and letters put together to tell you where you can find your book, DVD, map, or (sometimes) journal in the library. A call number is located at the bottom of the book spine. To find a call number for a book, you have to look it up in our online catalogue. Call numbers serve two purposes: first, they provide a unique location “address”, for every item within the library; second, they group items by subject, so that when you browse the shelves, you will find books on the same subject next to each other.

Call numbers are assigned not randomly but according to a classification system. In the Law Library, we have books in Library of Congress (LC) (at the 1 – 5 floors) or Cutter (in the basement) classification systems. It can be difficult to understand LC call numbers if you are not used to them, so you may wish to take a look at this small video that could help you to read a LC call number.

You may have noticed that in the Law Library, the majority of books have a call number that starts with K. This is due to the fact that letter K is assigned to “law” as a subject in the LC classification system. Any letters and numbers that you see after K denote a specific sub-subject, e.g. KE 470- 474 groups books on Law of Canada – Conflict of laws. You can consult this Tip-Sheet to see the break-down of the class K by topic.

Making of Modern Law databases

Posted on by
Comment

As of now, McGill Library provides access to three Making of the Modern Law databases:

The Making of Modern Law: Legal Treatises 1800-1926 
The Making of Modern Law: Legal Treatises 1800-1926 provides digital images on every page of 22,000 legal treatises on US and British law published from 1800 through 1926. Full-text searching on more than 10 million pages provides researchers access to critical legal history in ways not previously possible.

The Making of Modern Law: Primary Sources 
We use the term primary sources not in the historian’s sense of a manuscript, letter, or diary, but rather in the legal sense of a case, statute, or regulation. Designed to complement The Making of Modern Law: Legal Treatises, this archive offers online access to state and municipal codes, documents relating to constitutional conventions, and other resources in American legal history.

The Making of Modern Law: Trials 1600-1926 
Based on holdings of the law libraries of Harvard and Yale, and the Library of the Bar of the City of New York, the product offers online access to these important collections.

You can access the databases by clicking on Legislation and cases- foreign jurisdictions
in the Law subject guide

 

Canada Supreme Court Reports in Hein Online

Posted on by
Comment

Another new addition to the Hein online is the collection of Canada Supreme Court Reports, official bilingual series published under authority of the Supreme Court Act. This collection includes more than 9,400 cases which include background information, statutes and regulations, authors cited, analysis and the decision. At the moment, we cannot make a direct link to this collection in our subject guide, so to access Canada Supreme Court, click on the Hein Online link in the Law subject guide http://www.mcgill.ca/library/library-findinfo/subjects/law/ under the heading Quick Links.

Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals in Hein Onlin

Posted on by
Comment

As of recently, Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals is available through Hein Online platform. The interface and search capabilities have improved, and the index can be browsed by subject and publication title. At the moment, we cannot make a direct link to this database in our subject guide, so to access Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals, click on the Hein Online link in the Law subject guide http://www.mcgill.ca/library/library-findinfo/subjects/law/ under the heading Quick Links.