Electronic McGill Cite Guide, Westlaw Next, and new La Reference

Since this week, we have access to the new platforms with improved user interfaces for the Westlaw Next Canada and La Reference (former DCL/ REJB).

One of the most important new features of the Westlaw Canada Next is the access to an electronic version of the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation (8th edition).

All the links in the Law Subject guide and on the Law Library branch page have been updated to lead to the new platforms.

Quelques sources de l’histoire de droit

Bibliographie d’histoire du droit en langue française, la banque de données bibliographique, est proposée par le Centre lorrain d’histoire du droit (C.L.H.D.) de l’Université de Nancy 2.

Portail numérique d’histoire du droit se propose de rassembler et de mettre à la disposition des chercheurs et enseignants en Histoire du droit toutes les informations pratiques, liens utiles et ressources électroniques diverses destinés à faciliter leur travail de recherche et d’enseignement, et d’assurer, autant que possible, la publicité des événements qui s’inscrivent dans le cadre de cette discipline.

Jus Politicum est une revue et une encyclopédie électronique consacrée au droit politique. Ce site se propose d’être un lieu de dialogue entre juristes, philosophes, historiens et politistes, ainsi qu’un point de rencontre entre cultures nationales, comme en témoignent la diversité de ses organes éditoriaux, ainsi que ses trois langues de travail de la revue (français, anglais et allemand).

Clio@Thémis, la revue fondée à l’initiative de plusieurs chercheurs au Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), associant des enseignants-chercheurs des Universités, souhaite contribuer au développement des débats et échanges scientifiques sur l’histoire du droit. Nomôdos est le blog d’actualités de Clio@Thémis, e-revue d’histoire du droit. 

Le portail Fontes Historiae Iuris contient les inventaires et analyses d’archives des cours de justice françaises et européennes d’Ancien Régime et les ouvrages numérisés en histoire du droit et de la justice. Les ouvrages sont classés selon la typologie des sources du droit (Législation, Doctrine, Coutumiers, Recueils d’arrêts, Dictionnaires, Encyclopédies et Lexicographies).

Essentiels du droit français donnent accès à une sélection de titres fondamentaux numérisés à partir des collections patrimoniales de la BnF et consultables dans Gallica. Le corpus est structuré par type de sources du droit correspondant aux axes de la politique documentaire de numérisation en sciences juridiques de la BnF : sources constitutionnelles, sources législatives et réglementaires, jurisprudence, doctrine, sources du droit coutumier et du droit local.

Gallica est la bibliothèque numérique de la Bibliothèque nationale de France. En libre accès, elle regroupe des livres numérisés, des cartulaires, des revues, des photos et une collection d’enluminures.

HathiTrust is a partnership of academic & research institutions, offering a collection of millions of titles digitized from libraries around the world.

New VPN

Beginning in July 2014, McGill has a new, more secure VPN server. You must go through the steps to install the Cisco AnyConnect VPN client on your computer (a one-time procedure). Thereafter, you only need to click the AnyConnect icon and sign in using your McGill Username and Password. You can then access McGill internal resources, such as departmental and personal files. You can find more about the new VPN here.

Dictionnaires de droit privé en ligne

Depuis les années 1980, le Centre Paul-André Crépeau de droit privé et comparé a publié les dictionnaires de la terminologie du droit privé québécois issues du projet de recherche Dictionnaires de droit privé et lexiques bilingues. A présent, le Centre offre sur le site web trois dictionnaires en accès gratuit : le Dictionnaire de droit privé (2ème éd.), le Dictionnaire de droit privé des obligations ainsi que Le dictionnaire de droit privé de la famille, dans leurs versions française et anglaise. Dans les projets du Centre est de rajouté au site Le Dictionnaire de droit privé – Les Biens quiest paru en format papier en 2012 et la deuxième édition du Dictionnaire de droit privé de la famille qui paraitra bientôt.

Ces dictionnaires sont des outils de référence uniques  et essentiels pour l’ensemble des juristes québécois, pour les traducteurs juridiques, et pour les juristes travaillant en droit comparé. En exprimant le droit privé dans les langues anglaise et française, les Dictionnaires de droit privé / Private Law Dictionaries sont des outils de connaissance originaux qui tiennent compte du fait que le droit privé québécois évolue dans un cadre linguistique et juridique unique au monde. Ils constituent les seuls ouvrages de terminologie juridique pouvant prétendre refléter la spécificité bilingue et bijuridique de la culture juridique québécoise.

Le Capital au XXIe siècle

Can you imagine a book about economics being the number 15 on the best-sellers list of the Amazon? It is something rather hard to believe, but it is happening now with the Thomas Piketty book Le Capital au XXIe siècle. Published in French in 2013, and in English translation, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, in 2014, it had the first printings sold out almost immediately. Guardian is writing about Piketty-mania and reviews it for the readers who are not sure they can get through all 800 pages of economic wisdom; CBC sees its influence in the Ontario provincial elections; the Economist, Washington Post, New York Times, and many others publish articles and opinion pieces about Piketty and his theory… This list can be endless. Just take a look at the footnotes to French and English versions of this Wikipedia article – it will give you an understanding of the scope of the hype…

I hope that I have your attention now. We have just got a copy of the French edition of Le Capital au XXIe siècle at the Law Library and an English edition is expected shortly. Enjoy!

New Exhibit: Thought and Action: Fragments of Professor Roderick Alexander Macdonald’s (1948-2014) Life in the Law.

photoTo honour the life and work of the late Professor Roderick Alexander Macdonald who passed away on Friday, June the 13th, the Nahum Gelber Law Library opens a new exhibit: Thought and Action: Fragments of Professor Roderick Alexander Macdonald’s (1948-2014) Life in the Law.

A teacher, first and foremost, Roderick A. Macdonald will be remembered as one of the most important scholars and thinkers in McGill University’s history. He was a mentor and inspiration to generations of students and law professors, and a transformative force at the Faculty of Law, the University, in Canadian society, and in the broader world. Read the full obituary here.

The exhibit was prepared by Svetlana Kochkina, Librarian at the Nahum Gelber Law Library. 

New Edition of the Red Book is Here!!!

New, 8th, edition of the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation, a.k.a. McGill Cite Guide or Red Book is published.

What’s new for the 8th edition:

  • A new section in the General Rules giving guidance for citing to online sources
  • A new section providing a rule for “point in time” citations for legislation
  • A the section on the Government Documents rules was reorganised to provide clarity, especially for Non-Parliamentary Documents
  • A greatly expanded section on online sources, including forms for blogs, twitter, and online video (including a pinpoint form)

At present, we have 3 copies of the new Red Book available: two on Law Library reserve and one in the Reference collection. More copies are expected to arrive by the beginning of the 2014 – 2015 school year.

Bill 52, An Act respecting end-of-life care

Yesterday, Quebec has become the first province to legalise doctor-assisted death as part of comprehensive end-of-life legislation. Bill 52, An Act respecting end-of-life care, received broad support from nearly 80 per cent of MNAs of the National Assembly. If you are interested in learning more about the legal and ethical issues of euthanasia and the state of right-to-die legislation at different jurisdictions, the McGill Library offers a wide range of publications on the subject.

Changes in Access to Electronic Resources

The McGill Library is making important changes in the access to electronic resources.

On Wednesday, June 4, 2014, the electronic resources (e-books, e-journals, databases, open access resources) will be removed from the Classic Catalogue.

  • The Classic Catalogue will continue to contain all the items in our local collections, including print books and journals, DVDs, microform, etc.
  • E-resources will be removed from the following sub-catalogues: full, audio-visual and journal titles
  • The McGill Theses sub-catalogue will not be affected by this change, and will still contain both print and electronic materials.
  • eExams will not be affected by this change, and will continue to be available as they were before.
  • Course Reserves will still display e-resources on reserve for McGill courses.
  • You can continue to access all our e-resources through WorldCat.

On Monday, June 9, 2014 the eResearch Gateway will be taken off-line.

  • The eResearch Gateway was an alternate way of searching for articles, databases, and other electronic resources. This functionality is now provided for the most part by WorldCat and the Library’s subject guides.
  • The Law Subject guide includes all the legal databases to which the McGill Library is currently subscribing.
  • If you have used saved articles using the My Research feature, you’ll need to export those article references before June 9. You can find more information about how to export the articles here.

In June, our link old resolver (“Find It”) will be migrated to OCLC’s WorldCat Link Resolver service.

  • For the most part, the change in link resolver will happen automatically and will not require any intervention on your part.
  • If you use Google Scholar to search for articles, you will need to configure it to use the new WorldCat Link Resolver to access articles that are available through the Library. You can find the information about configuring the Google Scholar here.

If you have any questions regarding upcoming changes, please do not hesitate to contact any of the liaison librarians for Law.

Article: Peter W. Hogg, Canadian Constitutional Law.

If you read only one book while at the Law school, which I hope is not the case :), it must have been the “Constitutional Law of Canada” by Peter W. Hogg.  His recent article published in the International journal of legal information, tells the story behind the creation of this most-cited book in decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada.