Legal Research and Writing - Reference Tools

Reference Tools

There are a number of good free law-related reference tools online. Included below are links to these free resources, along with selected links to various subscription references tools (you will require your own subscription/password):

1)     Search engines / Internet directories
2)     Legal Dictionaries / Words & Phrases/ Abbreviations
3)     Legal Citation
4)     Legal Directories
5)     Corporate information
6)     Miscellaneous Reference Tools
7)     Forms & Precedents
8)     Current Awareness Tools
9)     Web Guides for Legal Research
10)   Law Reform Commission Reports

1) Search engines / Internet directories [top]

Meta search engines

2) Legal Dictionaries / Words & Phrases / Abbreviations [top]

Words & Phrases (Westlaw Canada)
Canadian Legal Words & Phrases (LexisNexis Quicklaw)
Sanagan's Encyclopedia of Words & Phrases (Carswell ereference library)

Black's Law Dictionary (Westlaw Canada)

Index to Cardiff Legal Abbreviations

3) Legal Citation [top]

Queen's Law: Legal Citation
UWO: Legal Citation
Douglas College Guide to Legal Citation
Canadian Citation Committee, The Preparation, Citation & Distribution of Canadian Decisions
USA: Basic Legal Citation (Peter Martin, Cornell)
UK: Oxford Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA), 4th ed (PDF, 58 pages)
Australia: Australian Guide to Legal Citation (AGLC)

4) Legal Directories [top]

Law Society of Upper Canada, Lawyer and Paralegal Directory
Law Society of BC, Lawyer Lookup
Law Society of Alberta, Lawyer Search
Law Society of Manitoba, Lawyer Lookup

Experts

General phonebooks

5) Corporate [top]

Commercial Databases

6) Miscellaneous Reference Tools [top]

7) Forms & Precedents [top]

There are not really any good or reliable law-related forms and precedents online for free. As such, below are links to various commercial subscriptions:

O'Briens Forms and Precedents
Canadian Forms and Precedents (LexisNexis Quicklaw)
Williston & Rolls Court Forms (LexisNexis Quicklaw)
Litigator Precedent Databases (Westlaw Canada - Litigator Tab)

8) Current Awareness Tools [top]

For law-related blogs, see the Law Blogs section on this site

For newspapers, see the Newspapers section on this site.

9) Web Guides for Legal Research [top]

Research Resources

Practice Portals

10) Law Reform Commission Reports [top]

Most common law jurisdictions have law reform commissions which are typically government sponsored to examine laws and make recommendations for changes in the law. Although law reform commissions had their "heyday" in Canada in the 1970's, some are still active and even the older reports are useful for historical research:

	CA:		Law Commission of Canada (archived)
	CA:		Uniform Law Conference of Canada
	CA:		CBA Legislation and Law Reform Committee
	BC:		BC Law Institute
	AB:		Alberta Law Reform Institute
	SK:		Law Reform Commission of Saskatchewan
	MB:		Manitoba Law Reform Commission
	ON:		Law Commission of Ontario (current)
	ON:		Law Reform Commission of Ontario (archived via Open Library)
	NS:		Law Reform Commission of Nova Scotia
	NB:		Law Reform - New Brunswick

A useful database of law reform commission reports is available online from the BC Law Institute in their Law Reform Database (where individual reports in the database are available online, links are provided to those reports).

For links to other jurisdictions, see the list of links from the BC Law Institute for the following jurisdictions:

For an excellent overview of law reform agencies, see:

Gavin Murphy, "Law Reform Agencies" (Department of Justice, 2004)
(Catalogue No J2-247/2004E-PDF)
(HTML: EN / FR) (PDF: EN / FR) (126 pages)

WH Hurlburt, "Law Reform Commissions in the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada" (Edmonton: Juriliber, 1986) (publisher's listing here)

In addition, the following is a selected list of academic journal articles discussing the role of law reform in Canada:

Michael Kirby, "Forty Years of the Alberta Law Reform Institute: Past, Present, Future" (2009) 46 Alta L Rev 831 (available here on HeinOnline by subscription)

Roderick A Macdonald, "A Lamentation for Law Reform" (2009) 46 Sup Ct L. Rev (2d) 447

Roderick A Macdonald, "Jamais deux sans trois ... Once Reform, Twice Commission, Thrice Law" (2007) 22 Can JL & Society 117 (available here on HeinOnline by subscription)

Roderick A Macdonald & Hoi Kong, "Patchwork Law Reform: Your Idea is Good in Practice, but it Won't Work in Theory" (2006) 44 Osgoode Hall LJ 11 (available here on HeinOnline by subscription)

Andrew Burrows, "Some Reflections on Law Reform in England and Canada" (2004) 39 Can Bus LJ 320 (available here on HeinOnline by subscription)

Roderick A Macdonald, "Law Reform and its Agencies" (2000) 79 Can Bar Rev 99 (available here from the CBA for members or by subscription)

Peter North, "Law Reform: Problems and Pitfalls" (1999) 33 UBC L Rev 37 (available here on HeinOnline by subscription)

WH Hurlburt, "The Origins and Nature of Law Reform Commissions in the Canadian Provinces: a Reply to 'Recommissioning Law Reform' by Professor RA Macdonald" (1997) 35 Alta L Rev 880 (available here on HeinOnline by subscription)

Roderick A Macdonald, "Recommissioning Law Reform" (1997) 35 Alta L Rev 831 (available here on HeinOnline by subscription)

Louise-Philippe Pigeon, "The Necessity of Law Reform" (1947) 25 Can Bar Rev 955 (available here from the CBA for members or by subscription)

In addition, Manas Media has a collection of over 7200 microfiched law reform publications from 37 jurisdictions indexed by 6 major categories and 61 subcategories.