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157 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Legal terminology
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found in legal dictionaries like the Canadian Online Legal Dictionary and glossaries like that found in e-laws
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Political system
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parliamentary system with 2 levels that each break down further into two or three parts, the federal government is made up of the appointed senate, the elected House of Commons with 308 members and the crown, the provincial government is made up of the legislative assembly and the crown
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types of law
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case law and government legislation
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bills
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introduced to make new law, change a law or remove a law
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pre-legislative stages
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proposal, background material, formulation and drafting, 48 hour notic
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bill types
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public or government, private member's public bills, committee bills, private bills
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numbering bills
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consecutive in a session, PR for private members, S for senate, C for House of Commons
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legislative stages in Parliament of Canada for bills
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1. first reading - approved or killed
2. second reading - debated, edited, committees, approved or killed 3. third reading - ready to pass 4. consideration and passage by other level of legislature 5. royal assent 6. in force - 26 days or meeting of conditions |
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legislative stages of bill in Provincial Legislature
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1. Reading 1
2. Reading 2 – debate and committee 3. Reading 3 4. Royal assent 5. In force – proclamation made |
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committees for considering bills
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standing committee, committee of the whole house, select committee
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bill structure
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- number
- title - preamble - table of contents - clauses - commencement and coming into force pronouncements - short title - explanatory notes (not part of law) - schedules- |
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changes to statutes
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amended, repealed, judicial interpretation, under case law, declaration of constitutional validity (struck down)
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Organization of a Statute
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- statute title - long and short when federal
- source and chapter number - consolidation period- may not be there, particularly for SO - last amendment if amended - table of contents - not part of law, for navigating longer acts - definitions - scope or application of the act - powers of officials administering the act - other administrative matters - body of the act - Parts (I), sections (1) subsection ((1)), clauses ((a)), subclauses ((i)) - proclamation date/coming into force - schedules - at the end, additional info, that is part of the statute - regulation making powers |
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components of consolidated regulations
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information provided varies greatly, will always have act, title and number of regulation
- two titles and regulation number - consolidation period - notice of additional info - amendments, coming into force - last amendment - editorial notes - table of contents - parts, sections and subsections as needed |
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Bill citation
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Bill number, Title in italics, session number, legislature, jurisdiction, year, clause (sub clause)
- legislations is Parl or Leg Ontario, at the federal level the number is preceded by an S or C and has a dash between the number and letter, there is no dash between PR and number for a private members provincial bill, |
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Statute citation
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short title in italics, publication abbreviation and year, chapter number, section number (subsection number)
- ss indicated multiple sections and is followed by a number range, when resvised the chapter number is alphanumeric with a dash when federal. R.S.O. 1990, R.S.C. 1985 |
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Federal regulation citation
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SOR/year-number; consolidated: CRC, c number
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Provincial regulation citation
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O Reg ##/yr; consolidated: RRO 1990, Reg #
- title optional and in italics if included, RRO 1990, CRC (consolidated regulations of Canada) 1978 |
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Citing amendments
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as part of the resource they amend with words amended by or as am. preceding the citation, they are cited chronologically with most recent amendment last, like a regular citation but with no title
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history footnote
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the number refers to the corresponding provision in source law and the subsequent amendments to the provision, tell you when parts of the act were enacted, to read the history footnote know that it records the date first enacted followed by revisions, read it back to front
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online citations
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if statue or regulation is found online on one of the government sites then the online source is added at the end of the citation preceded by the word online
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Case law citation
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must understand to retrieve the full text of a case, used by lawyers to argue the strength of their case or the law itself, opposing council must find and refute claims by looking up the same laws, standard citation rules in the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation/McGill Guide (accepted authority on the topic)
Style of Cause, (year it was heard) v # Title of publishing law reporter (series) page number (court jurisdiction and level abbreviated) - numbered volumes within the year is shown with the year in square brackets while continuous numbering of volumes has the year in round brackets, the comma is before the square brackets and after the round ones, series are recorded as 2d, 3d and 4thm if the court where the case was tried is not evident in preceding info it appears at the end of the citation, the case is identified by the names of those party to the litigation, use one last name of the party on each side of litigation with the plaintiff first, , government agency name can be used if known, must be able to identify jurisdiction and court level from citation |
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Abbreviations in case law citation
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used heavily and found in many legal sources like Canadian Abridgment, more than one reporter may report a case and each has abridgements
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style of cause
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the name of the case in case law citation, ordered plaintiff, defendant
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Regina
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as an element of the constitutional monarchy, Canadian executive government authority formally vested in the queen, uses Regina in legal citation, used mainly for criminal cases prosecuted by the government though it may appear in civil cases in the place of queen or queen in right of
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parallel citations
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same style of citation in the order of official reporter, semi-official reporter, un-official reporter, court info can be in more than one place
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neutral citation
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case identifying information, comes after style of cause and before cited sources, excludes info dealing with the court reporter, take care with interpretation
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RSO
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revised statutes of Ontario
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SO
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Statutes of Ontario
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RRO
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revised regulations of Ontario
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RSC
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revised statutes of Canada
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SC
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statutes of Canada
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SCR
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supreme court reporter - official
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FC
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federal court reporter - official
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DLR
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dominion law reporter - national, only Canadian law report series reporting cases in all areas of law from the Supreme Court of Canada, federal and provincial courts
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WWR
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Western Weekly Reports - regional
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OR
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Ontario reporter - provincial
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CLLC
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Canadian Labour Law Reports
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BCLR
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British Columbia Law Reporter
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CCEL
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Canadian Cases on Employment Law - subject or topical
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CCC
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Canadian Criminal Cases - subject
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ONCA
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Ontario Court of appeals - subject
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CA
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court of appeals - subject
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Primary Law sources
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government legislation on websites, bills statutes and regulations, Case law – reporter series or law reports with the full text of case decisions, for government legislation they are the products of official bodies with the authority to make law, actual legal information
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Government Legislation websites
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Department of Justice, Canadian Legal Info Institute, e-laws, Legislative Assembly of Ontario
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Government Legislation Bill Sources
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provincial: Legislative Assembly of Ontario, federal: Parliament of Canada, Bills Ontario, First Reading, Second Reading and Third Reading in print
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Government legislation statute sources
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RSO (official), SO (official), SC (official), Canadian Gazette (Federal), Canadian Statute Citator (Federal), Justice Laws site (federal), Department of Justice (Federal), CanLII (federal), The Law Society of Upper Canada (Federal and Provincial)
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Canadian Gazette
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federal source, newspaper that lists bills after they get royal assent, source for newest Canadian legislation
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Canadian Statute Citator
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federal source, loose-leaf, right after receiving royal assent bills are recorded
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Justice Laws Website
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Federal Source, to consolidated statutes, regulations and annual and consolidated statutes
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Government legislation regulation sources
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Ontario Gazette, RRO, e-laws (consolidated statutes or regulations before 1990, by statute for regulations, H for history), Department of Justice
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Court reporters
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official, national, regional, provincial, subject or topical, important or semi-official, geographic
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Official court reporters
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Supreme Court Reports
Federal Court Reports |
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National Court Reporters
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DLR
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Regional Law Reporters
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WWR, Maritime provinces reports superseded by Atlantic Provinces Reports
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Provincial Reports
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Ontario Reports
British Columbia Law Reports |
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Subject or Topical
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Canadian Cases of employment law, Canadian Criminal Cases, Ontario Court of Appeals, Court of Appeals, Canadian Cases on the Law of Insurance, Business Law reports
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Unofficial or Semi-official reporters
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important source of published full text court decisions, produced by commercial publishers and sometimes called commercial reports, decide what is in and what isn't but they sometimes have agreements with the courts as to what needs reporting, every province in Canada has at least on unofficial or semi-official reporter
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Ontario Reports
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a semi-official reporter, published by Butterworths under the authority of the Law Society of Upper Canada
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Unreported Cases
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not published in law reporter series, includes most case, others will record details and they can be found on Quick Law, Lexis Nexis or by ordering copies from publishers of digest services who receive full text decisions from the court house (All Canadian Weekly Summaries)
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reported cases
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more significant case may be published in official and unofficial reporters, may be in more than one
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secondary sources
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print and online, find current regulations by searching and browsing, Ontario Gazette, e-laws, current consolidated law search, legislative tables, summaries, digests, commentaries on primary sources, Legal encyclopedia, case law digest, index to legal cases, text books, legal journals, for government legislation background resources and finding tools like legal encyclopedias, indexes, digests of cases, text books etc. ex. Canada Statute Citator
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Ontario Gazette
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regulations on the Gazette can be searched and browsed, look for earliest issue that mentions the regulation, there will be more than one regulation in an article, listed numerically, amendments require e-laws
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e-laws sections
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consolidated law (current collection of statutes and regulations that incorporate amendments and changes), source law (statutes as enacted and regulations as filed, original versions of law), repealed, revoked and spent law (statutes and regulations no longer in force), period in time law (current and historical versions of consolidated statutes and regulations). legislative tables (access to legislative history)
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Current consolidated law search
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in e-laws, searching statutes and/or regulations by keyword and title, legislative history is not available in the search results, nor is the section listing regulations
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Access in e-laws provided to
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current bills, Ontario Gazette, federal legislation
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legislative tables
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current consolidated public statues – legislative history overview, consolidated public statues – detailed legislative history, private statutes – legislative history overview (by chapter, section, session, schedule, region), consolidated regulations – detailed legislative history, legislative table of regulations (changes since last RRO)
Canadian Abridgement – main source of case law summary from all over Canada |
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Canadian Abridgment
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main source of case law summary from all over Canada, different types of law, main part of over 200 volumes, includes index for publication and subject index in each volume, includes Canadian Legal Literature Bibliography, case digests from 1809 to now, can find cases by subject search, style of cause search in Consolidated table of cases, or browse by keyword in general index
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Parts of Canadian Abridgement
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case law digests
key and research guide consolidated table of cases Canadian case citations Canadian statute citations General index Words and phrases judicially defined in the Canadian courts Index to Canadian Legal literature |
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Canadian Encyclopedic Digest
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legal encyclopedia published by Carswell, comes in print in the Ontario edition and the Western edition which covers the four western provinces, online the two are combined
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Parts in CED
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- volumes of broad legal topics (main work, alphabetical)
- general index - key and research guide - contents key - statutes key |
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Locations for Government legislation source law
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print
databases websites journals debates |
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Publishers of Secondary Case Law
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CCH Canada Limited
Canada Law Book Inc (DLR) Carswell Buttersworth Irwin LAw |
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Secondary online services and databases for case law
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Lexis Nexis (unreported cases)
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Dominion Report Service/Quick law
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Canadian Lexis Nexis with ICLL, Westlaw Canada (includes reported and unreported cases for all types of law but the decisions of boards and admin tribunals are not included), formerly in CCH Canada, not online in Quicklaw only
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CanLII
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Canadian Legal Information institute, statutes and regulations listed alphabetically, access to courts and their cases - can view full text, browsing of consolidated regulations of Ontario with regulation and attached act, access to case law and legislation, full primary text source, Best Case, Law Source
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Best Case
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legal database, access to Canadian Law Reports, reported and unreported digests, case history and judicial treatment
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Law Source
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legal database, legislation, case law, regulations and legal literature
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Law Library Associations
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lots of publications including union lists for libraries that tell what is available and where and are heabvily used by ILL; Canadian Association of Law Libraries, Toronto Association of Law Libraries, Law Society of Upper Canada
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Law Libraries
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Bora Laskin at U of T, Osgood Hall at York, Great Library
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Law Schools
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York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School, Queens University’s Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Law at U of T, Western, and Windsor
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Legal publications
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by the law society they are mostly directories and journals
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subject digests
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The Canadian Charter of Rights Decisions Digest, Weekly Criminal Bulletin
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Canadian Charter of Rights Decisions Digest
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provides descriptions and summaries of all points of the Charter law with references to corresponding cases and legislation
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Weekly Crime Bulletin
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provides a weekly digest of unreported criminal cases from across Canada, each bound volume provides subject access, index also gives one line summary of issues discussed in each case
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Secondary Case Law Sources
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publishers, online services and databases, law library associations, law libraries, law schools, publications, subject digests, specific court digest services, Canadian Weekly Summaries, indexes, text books, legal journals, encyclopedias, case law digests, bibliographies, directories
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Canadian Association of Law Libraries
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publishes the Canadian Association of Law Libraries’ Annual Directory, Canadian Law Libraries Journal and Periodical in Canadian Law Libraries: a Union List
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TALL
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Toronto Association of Law Libraries, Tall directory of Law Libraries
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Specific Court Digest Services
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Supreme Court of Canada Report Service, Federal Court of Canada Service
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Supreme court of Canada Report Service
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17 digest volumes containing full case digests including excerpts of all reported and unreported reasons for judgements of the Supreme Court of Canada
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Federal Court of Canada Service
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loose leaf service provides complete and up to date coverage of the Federal Court's acts and rules
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Canadian Weekly Summaries
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All Canada Weekly Summaries, Lawyers Weekly, unreported Canadian cases
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All Canada Weekly Summaries
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a weekly digest of unreported civil cases from across Canada. Print needs to be ordered from the publisher – Online: Lexis-Nexis
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Lawyers Weekly
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a weekly newspaper for Canadian lawyers that carries a digest of current unreported cases . Full-text versions are available upon request, for a fee. The digests are organized yearly into a Consolidated Digest volume.
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Indexes
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ICLL, Index to Legal Periodicals and Books
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Index to Canadian Legal Literature (ICLL)
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part of the Canadian Abridgment, fully bilingual, contains books, articles, government publications, audio-visual materials, continuing legal education materials, case comments. Available in print and online on QUICKLAW
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Index to Legal Periodicals & Books
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international scope, covers all areas of law, includes contents of 850+ legal journals, law reviews, books, yearbooks, publications from institutes, bar association universities and government publications. Available in print and as a database
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Bills
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precede laws introduce them, they are introduced by a committee chairman if they are committee bills, members of government if they are public bills and by the MP whose riding is affected in the case of private bills, proposed law or legislative initiative to introduce a law at federal and provincial level, stage before it becomes an act, statute or legislation, C is for the House of Commons, S is for Senate, most originate in the House, a proposed statute that has not been passed yet, it is introduced when a new law is needed or an existing law must be changed, amened or revoked, they are numbered within a session, PR if private and provincial
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Public or Government Bills
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introduced by Minister, matters of public policy, usually involve money, apply to the whole province, government bill is a public bill introduced by a member of the executive council, they are expected to have the support of the cabinet
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Private member’s bills
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not by a minister but an elected private member
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Committee bills
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also public, originate with one of the standing committees, by chairman and to do with issue under debate
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Private bills
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introduced by MPP to deal with the area where they live, confers particular powers, benefits or exemptions from general law, for a specific person or body of persons, including individuals, local authorities, organizations and private corporations but not the whole province
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Executive council
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propose government bills, the PM and cabinet members
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Customary law
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present in some countries, it is traditional common practice that becomes part of expected conduct
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Parliamentary system in Canada
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constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, federation meaning the responsibility for laws is shared among federal, provincial and territorial governments. There are 3 parts, the crown, the senate and the house of commons. Both levels must consider the law and the crown must approve it before it passes
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Provincial legislature
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Legislative Assembly of Ontario, only a lower house but the stages of the legislative process are similar to those at the federal level
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Parliamentary cycle
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term for the process, the LAO must be cited when dealing with the provincial level
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Parliament
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the legislature or legislative assembly, it is the period from the opening of the first session immediately following the general election to the end of the government’s term. Each is given a consecutive number and consists of one or more sessions, each session in parliament is numbered and begins with a throne speech that outlines what the parliament is trying to achieve in the session – what is happening and where they are going. There can be recesses without ending a session but if the government changes bills may be tossed
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Session
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federal and provincial government has parliament and sessions, a series of meetings in the legislature making up parliament, sessions may be divided into spring and fall periods called sittings, 1-4 in a parliament
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Act
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a bill which has been given first, second and third reading by the Legislature becomes law after receiving royal assent form the Lieutenant Governor or Governor General – also legislation or statute
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Amendment
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it is a proposed change or addition to existing law that seeks to modify a motion or a section of a law. Different amendments can be found in source law. Addition or alteration to existing statute or regulation, continuous process with all changes consolidates into a consolidated version, issued in complete form to include revisions. Statutes are amended by statutes, regulations by regulations, the law may make changes to one or more sections in the regulation or statute it amends
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cabinet
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governing body, made up of ministers of government departments and the Premier or Prime Minister
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Governor general
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represents the crown in Canada at the national level
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Lieutenant governor
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represents the crown in Canada at the provincial level, the person who is the provincial representative of the queen and the ceremonial head of state, opens, suspense and dissolves the legislative assembly and gives or withholds royal assent to bills passed by the legislative assembly
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BNA
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British North America Act, dominion of Canada as a sovereign nation, basis for constitution and legislative system
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Bicameral
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dual nature of Canada’s government, essential and defining feature of the classical notion of mixed government, bicameral legislatures usually require a concurrent majority to pass legislation, senate and house must approve then the governor general authorizes
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Case law
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published collections of legal decisions by the courts, law interpreted by the courts based on a judge’s decision, sets legal precedent, case is written record as to why a judge might decide so in a legal dispute, to be effective and consistent it must be present in hundreds of cases, lawyers and librarians deal with similar issues to those in the current case, important cases can be found in law reports/reporters, not all cases result in a written decision, the judge may make a ruling without explanation and the parties involved draft a court order. The most recent case decision is needed on an issue to insure an appeal has not changed anything
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Canadian Case Law
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the body of decisions written by Canadian judges or administrative tribunals
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Noting up
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ensuring a case decision is current
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Constitution
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a document which sets out the basic principles and laws of a nation, state or social group, these principles and laws determine the powers and duties of a government and guarantee certain right to the people under it. In Canada the British North America Act of 1867 created the basis of the federal system of government and laid down the division of powers between federal and provincial governments, renamed the Constitution Act, 1867 in 1982.
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Federal government
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the government of Canada
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Provincial government
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the government of the province, separate from the federal government
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House of Commons
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legislative body of Canada which proposes, debates and passes laws
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Judiciary (courts)
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branch of the government which enforces and interprets laws
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Legislation
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also law, act or statute, written laws passed by a parliament, a bill that has been passed by the Parliament or Legislative assembly after its third reading receives royal assent and becomes an act, law or foundation of a law
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Legislature/legislative assembly
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the group of elected representatives of a province or territory, its federal counterpart is the House of Commons
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Regulation
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secondary or subsidiary law always related to the specific existing law and created for the purpose of carrying out the purpose of the legislation and clarifying the details of the legislation, created by bureaucrats and approved by the cabinet but not voted on by legislature
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Royal assent
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the LG or GG approval given to a bill on the behalf of the Queen
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Orders and notice paper
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the bill appears on the agenda for the sitting of the house, different rules for different types of bills
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Title of a bill
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title under which it is introduced, when it receives assent it becomes and act and receives a short title
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In force
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a bill that has received royal assent and reached the in force date or conditions, also the date of proclamation
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Statutes of Ontario
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one of two sources where Ontario Statutes will appear, this source has laws that have been enacted since 1990, it is recorded in the volume of the year it became a law – available in print or on e-laws
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Revised statutes of Ontario
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one of two sources where Ontario statutes will appear, this source has laws that were enacted by 1990, it can be found in print or on e-laws
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Statute amendments
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can be found in the latest version of the statute, they are updated with each consolidated version of the statute. Sections, subsections and clauses of a statute can be altered, replaced or eliminated by consecutive amendments, sources determine if any amendments have been made to the original statute are the Ontario statute citator or e-laws
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Statues of Canada
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one of two sources where federal statutes will appear, annual volumes
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Revised statutes of Canada
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one of two sources where federal statutes will appear, consolidated statutes incorporating amendments and acts added since the last 1985 revision, the chapter number is preceded by a letter based on the name of the act
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Consolidated Law
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statutes with latest amendments, Statutes of Ontario and Revised Statutes of Ontario have grey shaded areas that are enacted statutes or filed regulations that do not come into force right away, they include an editorial note as to what brings them into effect, note and shading removed when in force
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Source law
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annual publications where the law appears for the first time
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Regulations
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another form of legislation, subordinate law always made for specific act, statutes convey regulation making powers, does not amend a statute, is the rules or details of how statutes are to be implemented or interpreted, may specify penalties for offences, must be filed with the Registrar of Regulations Office (lawyer hired by the government) to become law, written by bureaucrat and approved by cabinet then sent to the registrar, once registered it gets a regulation number, they are published in the Ontario Gazette, easier to amend regulations as they don’t need the whole legislative process
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e-laws
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database of Ontario statutes and regulations, both current consolidated law and source law but no bills, there is searchable help and assistance for each section of e-laws
Current Consolidated Law – browsable alphabetically by a statute title, browsing for a regulation (need the title of an act under which a regulation is made) , latest versions of statutes and regulations, + ( a plus sign) – displays regulations made under a particular statute, H – displays legislative history (amendments, revisions, repeals, etc.) |
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Source Law
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also called base law, provides access to: Public Statutes as enacted, private Statutes as enacted, regulations as filed, search by keyword or title and browse options (Chronologically by the year of enactment or filing, enter the year and all will be listed, date for receiving assent (connects to bill stage) but no info on last amendment)
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Period in Time Law
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provides access to historical and the current versions of statutes and regulations, earlier and current law, browse alphabetically by a statute title, search by keyword or title
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Repealed, Revoked and Spent Law
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statutes and regulations that are no longer in force
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Legislative Tables
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Tools that help us find legislative etc. history and information in the different tables, divided into public statutes, private statues and regulation, opening an option will have the title of the act, the source and the amendments, regulations listed under the act they are made for, provide quick access to information on:
- Amendments - Proclamations - Notices of changes to legislation - Correction notices - Responsibility/Authority |
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History Footnote
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numbers at the end of a provision is consolidated statute or regulation, the number refers to the corresponding provision in source law and the subsequent amendments to the provision – tells you when parts of the act were enacted
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Detailed legislative history
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all amendments to a statute and how they were amended, also in history section of current consolidated law
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Amendments in statute text
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last amendment at start of statute, history footnote
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Reading history footnotes
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first when enacted, followed by revisions, read back to front
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Lexis Nexis
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lists what database include their services on their site, started as lexis and expanded to nexis for business info, extensive coverage of legal info, goes back to the mid 10th century with full text case decisions, system of databases each with their own search port, has Canadian and US case law but Canadian is more limited
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Case law digests or summaries
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useful for finding info about legal cases, usually alphabetical by topic and provide brief summary of cases, provide citations for full-text versions of cases
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Selecting case digests
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consider the material digested, that is the types of cases included, jurisdiction or courts covered and areas of law covered consider indexing classification scheme, chronological coverage and additional research tools offered
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Westlaw Canada
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eCarswell legal database with comprehensive coverage of Canadian legislation and case law
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Textbooks for Law
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provide discussion of an area of law with references to corresponding cases and statutes, often site most important cases as examples, usually written by experts in a given area of law, leading Canadian publishers are Butterworths, Canada Law Book, Carswell, CCH Canada and Irwin Law.
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Legal Encyclopedias
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useful starting point for research as they have quick and current overviews of the law and organize and summarize the law by subject, they also provide references to relevant primary sources
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Legal Journals
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a good source of info since academics, lawyers and other experts in the field are authors of the articles, an easy way to find relevant journal articles is to search an index of legal periodicals, relevant full text journal articles can in turn lead to to other sources through bibliography and footnotes
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Geographic law reporter series
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access to full text court decisions by geographic region
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Law reporter series
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series of publications that contain judicial decisions from various courts, what is included and what is not depends on the scope of the reporter
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