News from the law library
Posts dealing specifically with legal research, for example, legal research instruction sessions and resources and news about legal research tools
Stop by the library for a LexisNexis training session!
The event will be held virtually over zoom and live-streamed in the Law Library computer classroom – FRA192 on Wednesday September 29th, 2021 from 12:30-1:20pm.
Meet the LexisNexis student rep, get registered to use Quicklaw and learn about the STAR Rewards program.
This month Thomson Reuters launched the new Westlaw Edge platform.
The new platform is a minor update from the current platform and maintains similar structure, content, and interface. The update includes the following new features and tools:
You will continue to log in to Westlaw using the same sign-in credentials and any search history, folders, alerts, client IDs, etc that you have in your current WestlawNext account will be retained in the new platform.
Visit us at the reference desk or send an e-mail to lawref@uvic.ca for any questions!
A new archive of the Canada Gazette from 1841-1997 is now available online on the new Library and Archives search platform. The previous version “A Nation’s Chronicle” has been unavailable for the past few months and has now migrated onto the new platform. The issues of the Gazette are available as PDFs. More current issues of the Canada Gazette (1998-present) are available on the Canada Gazette website.
The Canada Gazette (from 1947 onwards) is split into three parts. Part 1 contains public notices, official appointments and proposed regulations. Part 2 contains newly enacted regulations, government proclamations and orders in council. Part 3 contains public Acts of Parliament, and proclamations and orders in council related to those acts. Prior to 1947, all of those types of notices were published together. Having access to the digitized Canada Gazette archives is very useful when doing historical legislative research.
To search specifically in the Canada Gazette, click on “Advanced Search” in Collection Search, and click on “Additional search options”. Under database, select “Canada Gazette 1841-1997”. The other search options are similar to the previous search interface, including narrowing the search by series i.e. 1841-1869 (Province of Canada) or Part II (1947-1997), by specific date or date range, volume, issue number or issue type. Keyword searching is also available in the “all these words” field at the top of the search page.
UVic Law Library has a series of tutorial videos on Legislative research, which includes how to use the Canada Gazette.
If you have any questions on using the Canada Gazette or doing historical legislative research, please contact the law librarians at lawref@uvic.ca.
Attention graduating law students! You may register with LexisNexis to extend your access to resources for 6 months after you graduate. The new Law School Graduate Program provides you with complimentary access to the following resources effective upon your graduation date:
Register online at: https://www.lexisnexis.ca/en-ca/academic/law-school-graduate.page
Do you have a major paper coming up? Are you overwhelmed with managing your list of sources or struggling to remember how to get started with academic research?
Then come to one of our lunch hour workshops presented by law librarians Sarah and Emily. Sessions will be happening on Zoom, no preregistration required.
March 1 — 12:30-1:30
Zoom: https://uvic.zoom.us/j/86870893329?pwd=VkNSa1RYZ09GL0tQRzVqSlZxQ3NwZz09
This session for graduate and upper year law students covers how to identify and evaluate scholarly resources (both in law and in other disciplines), as well as demonstrates various different search strategies to find scholarly sources in the library collection.
March 3 — 12:30-1:30
Zoom: https://uvic.zoom.us/j/81321790297?pwd=ejYrQkpwV0hqQnd2cVNMblBZQ09lQT09
This session for graduate and upper year law students provides a hands-on introduction to citation management with Zotero, a powerful open-source tool to simplify your research and writing. Using Zotero you can collect, organize, and annotate citations from online and print sources, collaborate with research groups, and automatically format bibliographies in the McGill Guide and others styles.
Both sessions will be recorded and made available online.
Do the LRW research tutorials seem like a distant memory? Are you staring at your open memo not knowing where to start?
Then come to one of our lunch hour research refresher sessions presented by law librarians – Alex, Sarah, and Emily. Sessions will be happening on Zoom, no preregistration required.
Week 1 : Emphasis on secondary sources and resources for researching Canadian state law
February 2 and 3 from 12:30-1:20pm (same session each time)
https://uvic.zoom.us/j/84042607395?pwd=MkkreXB5ZzE5TzRGWXZ4QnNEOG9wQT09
Week 2: Emphasis on citation
February 10 and 12 from 12:30-1:20pm (same session each time)
https://uvic.zoom.us/j/81738909938?pwd=VmVYRWRJRWszZlRLbk5tTGNGRFNXUT09
A refresher for researching indigenous laws will be held during class time on February 5 for JD/JID stutdents.
The law library also has a legal research and writing guide: https://libguides.uvic.ca/lrw that you may find helpful as you are working on your open memo assignment. There you can find a research strategy overview, links to a sample research plan, and primary and secondary legal research starting points.
If you have any questions… remember, we’re here to help you. Ask us!
Annotated acts provide section by section commentary and are a great way to get a feel for the intent of a legislative provision, and to see how it has been considered by the courts.
Lexis Advance Quicklaw has launched a new annotated legislation feature. This is organized by jurisdiction and includes expert commentary, annotations, and explanatory notes for selected acts.
You may find other annotated acts in our collection through the library catalogue and our key legal treatises and textbooks guide. For legislation without an annotated act you may achieve similar results by noting up a section of legislation in Quicklaw, Westlaw, or CanLII.
For assistance contact us at lawref@uvic.ca.
CanLII is an excellent resource for freely accessible legislation and case law in Canada, as well as for secondary sources such as ebooks, law journal articles, and case comments. CanLII has recently updated and added new features to enhance the user experience.
Missing some of your favorite titles while you’re working/studying from home?
The law library is pleased to share that we now have access to over 150 full-text textbooks and loose-leaf through Lexis Advance Quicklaw Academic Plus.
In addition to a number of key Canadian legal treatises, you will also find new forms and precedents, Canada Quantums, Halsbury’s Law of England, and other international primary law materials.
Access content through your account in LexisAdvance Quicklaw – either by searching for the title or by browsing by Practice Area or Content Type > Commentary & Textbooks.
Researchers can browse by chapter or section using detailed table of contents or keyword searches can be conducted. Case law references are linked to the full text of the decisions.
Links to key Canadian legal treatises are also available through our Key Legal Treatise and Textbook Guide.
New! – Non-law students and faculty may now access this content with their netlink ID in LexisAdvance Quicklaw Plus.