Legal Research Refresher: Primary Legal Materials

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Legal Research Refresher Primary Legal Materials

• Daniel Perlin
• Reference Librarian
• Thursday May 8, 2008

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Primary Materials

• Introduction to Primary Materials
• Canadian Legislation
• Canadian Case Law

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Canadian Legislation

• Statutes
• How to track current legislation
• How to find history of a statute
• How to see if a statute is being judicially
  considered
• Regulations
• Where to find them

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Canadian Legislation continued

• How to track current legislation
• Parliament or Legislative Assembly websites
• Canadian Legislative Pulse
• Searching for history of statutes (amendments)
• Table of Public statues at end of most recent
  Statutes of Canada eg. Justice Canada (only for
  Federal statutes)
• Statute citator in print or online (Canada
  Statute Service)
• QL point in time (only back to 1998)
• E-laws
• Parliamentary Debates
• Eg. Privacy Act (next screen)

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History of Statutes

• 66. The Privacy Commissioner or any person acting
  on behalf or under the direction of the
  Commissioner is not a competent or compellable
  witness, in respect of any matter coming to the
  knowledge of the Commissioner or that person as a
  result of performing any duties or functions
  under this Act during an investigation, in any
  proceeding other than a prosecution for an
  offence under this Act, a prosecution for an
  offence under section 131 of the Criminal Code
  (perjury) in respect of a statement made under
  this Act, a review before the Court under this
  Act or an appeal therefrom.
• R.S., 1985, c. P-21, s. 66 R.S., 1985, c. 27
  (1st Supp.), s. 187.

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Canadian Legislation

• Statutes judicially considered
• Carswells Statutes Judicially Considered in
  print (next slide)
• QL
• Westlaw

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Regulations

• Where to find them
• Canada Gazette Part II (Federal)
• Ontario Gazette (each Province)
• E-laws
• Justice Canada
• How to do history of regulations
• Same principle as statutes Keep going back! Eg.
  Consolidated Index of Statutory Instruments in
  Canada Gazette Part II

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Canadian case law

• How to find unreported cases
• QL eg. Bank of Montreal v. Unified Homes Ltd.
  1990 O.J. No. 875
• WL
• All Canada Weekly Summaries in print, Best Case
• How to find cases by subject
• Canadian Abridgment in print and in WL
• QL
• WL

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Canadian Case Law

• How to note up cases
• QL Quickcite
• WL
• Canadian Case Citations in print (next slide)
• How to track current case law
• QL
• WL
• By a specific case
• Go to court websites

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