Law Online: Legal Research and the Internet

“The Internet is a global network of networks enabling computers of all kinds to directly and transparently communicate and share services throughout much of the world. Because the Internet is an enormously valuable, enabling capability for so many people and organizations, it also constitutes a shared global resource of information, knowledge, and means of collaboration, and cooperation among countless diverse communities.” Internet Society: http://info.isoc.org/internet/
These computer networks around the world can all exchange and share information by using TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) the language of computer communication. It began in the 1960s as a US Defence Department initiative to establish a communications network between universities and the military – the ARPANet. The National Science Foundation (NSF) established its own research and academic network – NSFNet. This network replaced ARPANet. The NSF backbone was shutdown in 1995 and a transition made to a new privatised network.
In Canada, CA*Net has been the national backbone network since 1990. By the early 1990s, the regional networks in Canada were interconnected. At this point Internet II and CA*Net II are under development to allow higher volume and higher speed transmission. Generally, see: the Canadian Information Highway Council and general orientation to the Internet see: http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/SSG/ih01641e.html
the Internet's growth rate has been astonishing:

1983: 500 hosts
1987: 20,000 hosts
1992: 1,000,000 hosts
1994: 4,000,000 hosts
1996: 12,900,000 hosts
1997: 19,540,000 hosts
1998: 29,670,000 hosts

2. What is the World Wide Web?

· In 1969 Tim Berners-Lee from the European Particle Physics Laboratory (CERN) proposed a more user-friendly method to search and organize Internet research resources: the World Wide Web. He developed two key concepts: HTTP (Hypertext transport protocol) and HTML (hypertext mark-up language).

· HTTP establishes links between documents on the same or different Internet computers to allow easy movement between resources or sites.

· HTML allowed documents created in different formats to be read across different formats. Originally, it was limited to text but with Hypertext and Hypermedia, graphics, sound and video capacity has been introduced.

· The WWW has now taken over as the main Internet service replacing Gopher, Archie, Veronica etc. as ways to search for and mount information on the Internet.

· The introduction of a software program called Mosaic was a key development: “NCSA Mosaic provided an easy-to-use, graphical interface to the web that behaved the same on UNIX, Macintosh, and Windows computers. When Mosaic was released in the spring of 1993, there were about 130 web sites on the Internet. By November 1994, this number had increased to more than 10,000. While other browser programs such as Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer are now more widely used, NCSA Mosaic has been a critical factor in the growth of the World-Wide Web.” See, http://www.gactr.uga.edu/exploring/netweb.html.

3. Internet Addressing: Save time by knowing the protocols

· If you know internet addressing protocols, you can often correctly guess the web site address you are looking for and save time.

· Internet addresses tend to be predictable. They are controlled by the Domain Name System (DNS) administered by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA).

· Like a library catalogue system, internet addresses contain information about the server, the type of site, the specific file name and subfiles containing material.

a. Web:

Each address has three parts:

www: the world wide web protocol; (some sites also access directly via http:// without the www…)
server name. For convenience servers which are numbered, have alphanumeric ‘skins’ to make them more user friendly; and
domain extension: eg. ca: the Canada domain.

Most web pages automatically open at the home page. The address for this page is generally to an html document placed on the server; eg. Index.html

Four Quick Tips:

All Canadian Universities are at the dot.ca domain: www.dal.ca; www.uottawa.ca, www.ucalgary.ca, www.ubc.ca (if the university is also a city, put an “u” in front of the name)
All major US universities are at the dot.edu domain: www.harvard.edu, www.stanford.edu
Most UK and New Zealand universities are at “name.ac.domain” eg. Auckland.au.nz. Australian universities are at name.edu.au. However, their names vary: unimelb for University of Melbourne; usyd for University of Sydney etc.
Most Canadian government sites are at name.gc.ca: www.parl.gc.ca.
If there is a problem with an address, you can 'back up' through its levels back to the home page. Eg. www.carleton.ca/law -- you can delete /law to get to the Carleton home page.

Domain names are broken down as follows:

EDU Educational sites in the U.S. and Australia (three or four year degree granting only)

COM Commercial sites in the U.S.

GOV U.S. Government sites

NET Network administrative organizations

MIL U.S. Military sites

ORG Organizations that don't fit into other categories (frequently non-profit organizations)

NET for networks, but can be registered as per .com

INT Organizations established by International Treaties or between gvts

CA Canada ... recently opened up; was only federally incorporated now much more liberal rules.

AU, FR, (other counties have their own country code;

b. Email:

Every Email address has three parts –

a user name,
an "at" sign (@); and
the address of the user's server.

The best way to read an Internet address -- and, for that matter, a domain name -- is from right to left: the persons name and the person’s server. Eg. bdawson@ccs.carleton.ca

Once you know the convention for a domain (eg, Carleton), you can guess the correct email address. Eg. Looks like first initial and then last name; probably a limit of 8 characters. Carleton also has a ‘postmaster readdress system’ – firstname_lastname@carleton.ca and it will be redirected to one of the many ‘on campus’ email servers (eg. Ccs. or pigeon or chat)

II. First Approaches to Internet Legal Research

1. You Still Need To Know How To Do Legal Research! Or, Is the Web the Best Method/Source?

Carleton University reference library Judy Senecal in her guide to web searching points out that the web may not be the best source for the information you need and, if it is, serious questions of evaluation of the quality of material arise:

One of the first things you should ask yourself is "What is the best source for the information I need? What kind of information do I need?" Although the Web contains vast amounts of information, always remember that there are other sources of information out there. There is still valuable information that may only be found in books or journal articles that are not found on the web.

If you have decided that the Web is where you need to look, consider the following:

· When you use more traditional library resources in doing research that information has undergone a process of evaluation before you even see it. Consider a book: First, the book has to make it to publication. This would imply that there has been an editor involved who will catch errors, suggest improvements, … and that the book has been deemed important enough to publish (in the sense that it offers up new information, has reliable sources…) Secondly, there has most likely been some sort of evaluation by a librarian before the book has been ordered for the library: were there good reviews of the book? Is the author known in his/her field? Does the book present viewpoints balanced by other books in the library to give an over all picture of the topic? Is the book intended for a university level audience?… So, by the time you as a student pick up the book, some evaluation has been done. (Which isn’t to say that you shouldn’t also be looking at the information with a critical eye.)

· With the Internet, on the other hand, there is no evaluation of the information before it gets into your hands: anyone with a computer and connection to the Internet could in theory put up whatever information they want (very little regulation of the Internet is in place). It thus becomes even more important for you to think critically and evaluate the information you find on the Web.

Full text: www.library.carleton.ca/refserv/training/websrch.html

Note: This is an excellent and informative tutorial.

It is well to recall that:

· Computers are still literal; searching tools are variable.

· Paper still has a role (browsable; historical record/stable; principles of research and knowing what it is you have located apply)

· Authorship and authorization is essentially unchecked/uncheckable; quality of site indicates, but with hypertext linkages, can be taken to other sites which do not share the imprimateur of the original; sites can be ‘fake’;

· Commercialism has driven the Net to become successful and raised concerns about it -- can pay for internet addresses, can pay to be listed first, sites can be influenced by advertising and sponsorship

· There is a huge issue about regulating the Internet for content and access;

· Documents/material found may be incomplete; few built in tools to check for completeness or if the material is up to date. Still need to cite correctly and avoid the temptation to plagiarise!

· In something of a flip-side, too much may be located -- there is an overwhelming amount of potential information; some is junk and actively misleading or ideological

· You still need to be able to read and analyse it; still need to bear in mind the research principle of efficiency; still need to apply the ideas of strategy and research design whilst using your curiosity to explore the seemingly limitless resources

2. Quality: Is the Information Any Good? Evaluating Information

The first two steps to ensuring you get good internet material are ‘planning steps’:

Pre-evaluation: what are you looking for? What is your purpose in researching
Selecting ahead of time sources which are likely to be reliable.

Assessing the reliability of sources can follow “The CARS Checklist (Credibility, Accuracy, Reasonableness, Support)”

Robert Harris suggests the following:

“Source Selection Tip: Try to select sources that offer as much of the following information as possible:

· Author's Name

· Author's Title or Position

· Author's Organizational Affiliation

· Date of Page Creation or Version

· Author's Contact Information

· Some of the Indicators of Information Quality.”

See: http://www.virtualsalt.com/evalu8it.htm

Judy Senecal offers the following factors you should consider (from J. Senecal’s web search page, supra):

Author’s credentials:

Who wrote the page?
Is she a known figure in the field?
Is he previously published?
Does she provide contact information such as e-mail address or phone number in case you want to verify the information?

Accuracy/Quality:

§ Is the information from a recognized organization/government?

§ Is it a commercial site trying to sell you something?

§ Has the information passed through any peer reviewing process?

§ Is the information well documented, with references giving?

Intended audience:

§ Is this web page intended for grade school or high school students? If so, it may not be the best site to refer to when writing a university level research paper

Currency:

§ How current is the information? How current do you need it to be?

Objectivity/Point of view: Are there any strong biases expressed? What part of the world is the author from?

You might find it interesting to take the following “interactive tutorial

on evaluating the quality of Internet resources” from The Internet Detective –

http://sosig.ac.uk/desire/internet-detective.html

(This site describes itself as "an informal but comprehensive online tutorial designed to teach the skills required to critically evaluate the quality of information found on the Internet. The tutorial includes interactive quizzes, worked examples and practical hint and tips" (note: the site requires you to register but there is no fee)

Evaluating Web Resources: The Wolfgram Memorial Library Widener University.

http://www2.widener.edu/Wolfgram-Memorial-Library/webevaluation/webeval.htm

(Provides checklists of factors to consider by type of web site, links to example pages, bibliography...)

3. Citation:
How do I cite it (no, the information isn’t public domain and plagiarism is still an academic offence….)

The Carleton University Library has this one covered: go to http://www.library.carleton.ca/refsrv/citing.html and PAY ATTENTION!

Another excellent site is: http://www.ifla.org/I/training/citation/citing.htm which is from LIBRARY & INFORMATION SCIENCE: Citation Guides for Electronic Documents

4. Research Options on the Internet

In addition to familiar WWW home pages (data and links) there are at least 5 other research applications of the Internet for legal research. These include:

a. Email (communicating one – one)

b. Telnet (accessing other computer databases, normally library catalogues)

c. FTP: file downloads.

More information (a little dated now)

http://www.netsquirrel.com/roadmap96/syllabus.html

d. Discussion groups/News Groups

These can be particularly useful for legal research. Groups start with one of a series of broad topic names

For Law the following links connect to law discussion groups:

www.lib.uchicago.edu/~llou/lawlists/info.html (information and guide to finding lists; list)

www.lib.uchicago.edu/~llou/lawlists/lawlists.txt (continuously updated)

Finding lists related to your research:

You can find discussion groups by KEYWORD at http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/law-lists

e. Other access points via the Internet

Sign up for Quicklaw. It has a lot of diverse material (not just case law!). It gives you fast access to breaking legal developments in Canada and gives you access to a range of US material.
Sign up for Lexis.com. This is an amazing repository of current research literature in Canada, US and elsewhere.

5. Which Research Strategy?

I recommend that you utilize at least three strategies (from most general to most specific):

Use search engines (likely this is what you do: like casting a fishing line into the ocean hoping to catch the right information…. As you know, this can waste a lot of time and you can miss a lot of material).
Use gateway/portal sites that are focused on law/legal studies (more efficient).
Use specific sites. Get to know where things are and go straight there (most efficient of all, but you have to know what you are looking for!).

PART 2: APPLICATIONS

III. Legal Research Processes

1. STRATEGY ONE: SEARCH ENGINES

“Search engines do not index all the Web. Many, in fact, do not index entire Web pages. Moreover, studies show that engines using spiders (software that crawls the Web) cannot keep pace with the growth of the Web. When you use one engine to conduct research, you query less than 17% of the data available on the Web.” (www.virtualchase.com)

When to use: when you want to search globally in order to explore a topic; at least use ‘advanced search features’ to be more efficient and targeted.
Limitations: not very specific, hard to be sure you’re zeroing on what you need or the best information, they don’t pick up everything (see invisible web below).

a. Overview of Search Engine Options:

· You all know about the main commercial sites (listed below); they’re okay but they aren’t good enough for academic legal research:

Yahoo: www.yahoo.com (or, for Canada: www.ca.yahoo.com );
AltaVista: www.altavista.com
Canada.com: www.canada.com

· Better general search engines for research include:

Google: www.google.com (use advanced search)
Northern Light: www.northernlight.com (has a power search option for filtering and focusing)

· To overwhelm yourself with the options, visit: http://www.pandia.com/powersearch/index.html

· Keep on top of search engines: www.searchenginewatch.com

· And, ideally, use a product like Copernic that will save time by conducting multiple searches and filtering out repetitions and garbage: get a free download at www.copernic.com

b. Law Search Engines

There are some law-specific search engines.

Australasian Legal Information Institute

CataLaw

Cornell University Legal Information Institute

FindLaw - LawCrawler

FindLaw: Internet Legal Resources

Index by subject for Law from the WWW Virtual Law Library

Meta-Index for U.S. Legal Research

National Criminal Justice Reference Service (U.S.)
The National Criminal Justice Research Service is an American information clearinghouse for people around the country and the world involved with research, policy, and practice related to criminal and juvenile justice and drug control.

Network for Research on Crime and Justice/Réseau de recherche sur la criminalité et l'appareil judiciaire

University of Manitoba – Research Tools & Law Links

c. Developing a Search Strategy:

· Look for a “power” or advanced search mode to allow you to tailor your search and filter for what you want.

· Read the information on ‘how the search engine’ processes information; can you do a boolean search? A helpful overview of the main search engines is at: http://www.pandia.com/q-cards/index.html. Another good overview is at: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/SearchEngines.html

· A general tutorial: A tutorial is located at: http://www.pandia.com/goalgetter/index.html

· An excellent ‘search strategy’ is posted by the University of California at Berkeley: “The Five-Step Search Strategy”: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Strategies.html

DO:

Step #1. Analyze your topic to decide where to begin

Step #2. Pick the right starting place

Step #3. Learn as you go & VARY your approach with what you learn.

Step #4. Don't bog down in any strategy that doesn't work.

Step #5. Return to previous strategies better informed.

DON’T

Because of their inefficiency and often haphazard and frustrating results, we do not recommend either of the following two approaches to finding Web documents:

d. Selecting a Search Engine:
From: http://www.virtualchase.com/howto/engine.html

“Want to search the Web, but don't know which engine to use? Have a search engine you like, but sometimes it just doesn't deliver satisfactory results? Use this guide to selecting the "best" finding tool.

LOOKING FOR SOMETHING SPECIFIC
(a home page, a title, a company, a trade association, a government agency, primary law, a court, a person, etc.) Use Google.

LOOKING FOR CURRENT NEWS
(best if news is less than 30 days old) Use AltaVista News, Daypop, Moreover.com, Pandia Newsfinder, Northern Light, or RocketNews. For additional specialty engines, see News Searching Resources at Search Engine Showdown.

LOOKING FOR VAST COVERAGE
("Vast" on the Web probably means less than 50% of the Web because of the limitations of current search technology.) Use all engines for broadest coverage. Find a list of linked engines in the Search Engine Guide on The Virtual Chase.

LOOKING TO SCAN THE WEB
(a general feel for coverage) Use a metasearch service. Find several in the Search Engine Guide on The Virtual Chase.

LOOKING FOR A CURRENT DOCUMENT
(documents released or published recently or on the present day) First try Pandia Newsfinder, RocketNews, AltaVista News, or Moreover.com. If people are likely to talk about it, try Google Groups or Daypop. If it's a popular document or press release, try Yahoo Press Releases or Northern Light. If it concerns a social policy issue, try Policy.com. Also, try the home page of the source or the home page of a government agency, trade association, or advocacy group interested in the issue.

LOOKING FOR GOVERNMENT INFORMATION
(primary law, guidance documents, memoranda, reports, etc.) Use Google Uncle Sam or Northern Light. At Northern Light, limit the query to government sites (see Power Search). Also, to locate a government source, try Louisiana State University's U.S. Federal Government Directory or Piper Resources State and Local Government guide.

LOOKING FOR STATISTICS
Use a specialty finding aid like the University of Michigan's Statistical Resources on the Web, FedStats, the Census Economic Briefing Room, or American Factfinder. Also consider government agencies devoted to gathering and publishing statistics (e.g., National Center for Education Statistics, National Center for Health Statistics, Census Bureau).

LOOKING FOR A DATABASE
(special literature searches -- medical, general, psychological -- statistics, public records, etc.) Try guides prepared by librarians like Librarians' Index to the Internet, Resource Discovery Network, Direct Search, INFOMINE, Invisible-Web.net, or the subject guides on The Virtual Chase.

LOOKING FOR SUBSTANTIVE STARTING POINT
(broad coverage of a topic) Try guides prepared by librarians or topic experts like Librarians' Index to the Internet, Resource Discovery Network, INFOMINE, Scout Archives, or the subject guides on The Virtual Chase. Also, remember that the Web sites of government agencies, trade associations, advocacy groups, and special libraries (e.g., National Library of Medicine, National Library of Education, National Agricultural Library) make good general starting points.

Links for this article ...

American Factfinder <http://factfinder.census.gov>
AltaVista News <http://news.altavista.com>
Census Bureau <http://www.census.gov>
Census Economic Briefing Room <http://www.census.gov/cgi-bin/briefroom/BriefRm>
Daypop <http://www.daypop.com>
Direct Search <http://www.freepint.com/gary/direct.htm>
FedStats <http://www.fedstats.gov>
Google <http://www.google.com>
Google Groups <http://www.google.com/grphp>
Google Uncle Sam <http://www.google.com/unclesam>
INFOMINE <http://infomine.ucr.edu>
Invisible-Web.net <http://www.invisible-web.net>
Librarians' Index to the Internet <http://www.lii.org>
Moreover.com <http://www.moreover.com>
National Center for Education Statistics <http://nces.ed.gov>
National Center for Health Statistics <http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/>

National Agricultural Library <http://www.nal.usda.gov>
National Library of Education <http://www.ed.gov/NLE/>
National Library of Medicine <http://www.nlm.nih.gov>
News Searching Resources <http://www.searchengineshowdown.com/news/>
Northern Light <http://www.northernlight.com/news.html>
Northern Light Power Search <http://www.northernlight.com/power.html>
Pandia Newsfinder <http://www.pandia.com/news/>
Piper Resources State and Local Government <www.piperinfo.com/state/index.cfm>
Policy.com <http://www.policy.com>
Resource Discovery Network <http://www.rdn.ac.uk>
RocketNews <http://www.rocketnews.com>
Scout Archives <http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/archives/>
Search Engine Guide on The Virtual Chase <http://www.virtualchase.com/Search_Engines/index.html>
Statistical Resources on the Web <http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/stats.html>
U.S. Federal Government Directory <http://www.lib.lsu.edu/gov/fedgov.html>
Yahoo Press Releases <http://biz.yahoo.com/pr.html>”

Tutorial: take the tutorial on searching at http://www.pandia.com/index.html, go to: http://www.pandia.com/goalgetter/index.html

e. The Hidden (or invisible) Web:

Don’t forget what is called “the invisible web”… getting below the meta tags and finding the other stuff (think ‘databases’)

· For information on the invisible or hidden web, read: , http://www.searchenginewatch.com/sereport/00/08-deepweb.html

· To search the invisible web: http://websearch.about.com/cs/invisibleweb/index.htm

· What is it? How to search it? See: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/InvisibleWeb.html

Exercise:

1. Think of a topic related to an essay or research project this semester.

2. Identify one particular aspect of the topic (narrowing the topic)

3. Construct a search strategy (using different styles: boolean, phrase etc.)

4. Use three different search engines to see what information you can get on the query. Compare the results. Which search engine do you like better and why?

5. Explore around the engine homepage itself. What kinds of information are available on the page? Go into one or more of these ‘add-ons’ looking for something currently in the news.

2. STRATEGY TWO: USE PORTAL AND GATEWAY SITES

These are particularly rich sites (linkages etc.). Using them (once you get to know what they have) can be faster and more efficient than using search engines. Many now have search features. Some focus on US, Canada or other countries. Think of them as Research or Law “Yahoos” …

a. Excellent General Gateways

Librarians’ Index to the Internet http://lii.org

Carleton Library: www.library.carleton.ca (use the MADGIC link and the RESEARCH RESOURCES LINK)

National Library of Canada: http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/ehome.htm

Library of Congress (US) www.loc.gov

Law Library of Congress http://memory.loc.gov/lawweb/public/htdoc/index.html

US Archival Material http://www.archives.gov/research_room/arc/index.html

b. Law Portals (government, academic)

Global Legal Information Network: http://www.loc.gov/law/glin/GLINv1/

The Guide to Law Online, prepared by the U.S. Law Library of Congress for the Global Legal Information Network (GLIN), is an annotated hypertext guide to sources of information worldwide on government and law available online without charge. It includes links only to the most useful and reliable sites for legal information available for each of the world's nations, although none of these sites have yet qualified for full GLIN recognition for the completeness, accuracy and officially certified authenticity of the legal texts they provide. As such sites come online, they will be linked directly to the GLIN database and will additionally receive special recognition in the Guide.

The Continuing Legal Education Site (BC) is a first rate guide to subject ‘portals’ e.g. aboriginal online, intellectual property online. http://www.cle.bc.ca/links/pages/index.html

Academic Info Net has a gateway on “Law and Legal Research”:
http://www.academicinfo.net/law.html

Department of Justice: Access to Justice Network:
www.acjnet.org

The University of Montreal hosts a Canadian “Virtual Law Library”: http://www.lexum.umontreal.ca/index_en.html

Canadian Law locator http://jurist.law.utoronto.ca/legalresearch.htm

This is a particularly useful guide to link you to very extensive legal research guides online.

Legal Research Institute http://www.law.cornell.edu/topical.html

Law Library Resource Exchange http://www.llrx.com/guide/

WashLaw (Washburn Law School) http://www.washlaw.edu/

c. Leading Commercial Portals in Law -- include:

All Law www.alllaw.com

Catherine Best’s Guide to

Canadian Legal Research http://legalresearch.org/

Law.com www.law.com

Internet Legal Resource Guide: http://www.ilrg.com/

A categorized index of more than 4000 select web sites in 238 nations, islands, and territories, as well as more than 850 locally stored web pages and downloadable files, this site was established to serve as a comprehensive resource of the information available on the Internet concerning law and the legal profession, with an emphasis on the United States of America. Designed for everyone, lay persons and legal scholars alike, it is quality controlled to include only the most substantive legal resources online. The selection criteria are predicated on two principles: the extent to which the resource is unique, as well as the relative value of the information it provides

HeirosGamos www.hg.org

The Law Engine www.thelawengine.com

d. Social Science Gateways

Craig McKee: www.socsciresearch.com

You could call this the ‘portal of portals’ – an exhaustingly exhaustive set of links to many social science subject areas including law and law enforcement.

SOSIG http://www.sosig.ac.uk/

The Social Science Information Gateway (SOSIG) is a freely available Internet service which aims to provide a trusted source of selected, high quality Internet information for students, academics, researchers and practitioners in the social sciences, business and law. It is part of the UK Resource Discovery Network.

e. Criminal Justice

The Officer: http://www.officer.com/

Although written for the police professional, this site will be very useful to anyone needing criminal justice information. The criminal justice resource directory links to US federal and constitutional law sites, law libraries, and criminal justice resources by state. Criminal justice issues by topic include computer laws, hate crimes, terrorism, prison issues, and firearms law. Links to international and foreign criminal justice issues are also provided.

f. International Law

An excellent portal or gateway is http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/~llou/forintlaw.html

Research Guides include:

International Women’s Rights:

DIANA (U of Toronto, Law) http://www.law-lib.utoronto.ca/diana/sitemap.htm
This is a superb database with links to documents, cases, articles etc.

Domestic Implementation of International Law: www.lawsite.ca/IAWJ
A site maintained by Professor Dawson (and in need of an update):

Exercises

Go to at least one gateway in each category. Explore the table of contents.

Use at least one gateway in each category to find links to

Using your research topic, use one gateway or more gateways to find relevant information. Compare this information with the information you found using the search engine strategy.

3. STRATEGY THREE: USING SPECIFIC SOURCES AND SPECIFIC SITES

a. Case Law

Supreme Court of Canada http://www.lexum.umontreal.ca/csc-scc/en/index.html

Human Rights Decisions lexum is the best link.

By Province lexum again

Tribunals ditto: see pinpoint : http://www.lexum.umontreal.ca/bv/classification1.cfm?categorie=8&classement=1&lan=En
Note: this link is dynamic and thus, likely expired …)

Searchable locator: Jurist http://jurist.law.utoronto.ca/locate.htm

b. Legislation and Bills

Federal: http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/index.html

Bills http://www.parl.gc.ca

Committees: ditto

Ontario Provincial http://www.ontla.on.ca

Jurist will take you to other Canadian provinces….

Tip: Go to the legislative libraries for more information on bills and debates:

Ontario:                                http://www.ontla.on.ca/library/libraryindex.htm
                                                      (very nifty “issues gateways” and backgrounders)

Federal:                                http://www.parl.gc.ca/common/library_prb.asp?Language=E (Research Branch)

c. Parliamentary Business

House of Commons www.parl.gc.ca

Ontario http://www.ontla.on.ca

Hansard www.parl.gc.ca/cgi-bin/hansard/e_hansard_master.pl

Documents www.nlc-bnc.ca/cangov/egovinfo.htm#key federal documents

d. Periodicals and Commentary

Use Quicklaw and Lexis-Nexis for the most searchability. Use Uncover service at Carleton Library and don’t forget about Current Contents on the Library catalogue.

In addition:

Jurist Canada http://jurist.law.utoronto.ca/lawrev.htm (direct links to Canadian Law journals)

University of Toronto Law Library:
http://www.law-lib.utoronto.ca/resources/locate/journals.htm (very, very good source)

Findlaw www.findlaw.com/03journals/index.html (US emphasis)

WashLaw www.wuacc.edu

Heiros Gamos www.hg.org (Journals)

Cornell www.law.cornell.edu/journals.html

U of T
www.law-lib.utoronto.ca/resources/journals.htm

USC
www.usc.edu/dept/law-lib/legal/journals.html

e. Statistics

Justice Canada: Stats http://canada.justice.gc.ca/en/ps/rs/

Statistics Canada www.statcan.ca

York U Research Meth and Stats
http://www.pscw.uva.nl/sociosite/topics/research.html

Research Data from Stats Can http://www.kerlins.net/bobbi/edresearch/statcan/

Conclusion

Good luck – I hope this overview will assist you in becoming confident and efficient ‘internet law researchers’.

Be a reflective researcher – learning as you go along and adjusting your approach.
Be a constant learner – keep up to date. This is v. important with such a dynamic medium as the web.
Be an ‘accumulating’ knower – it will take a while to get to know sites and approaches – but, like ‘learning the law’, learning the internet will come with practice!