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Law, Labour Guide

Legal Encyclopedias

There are two main legal encyclopedias in law: the Canadian Encyclopedic Digest (CED) and Halsbury's Laws of Canada (Halsbury's). Both are available in print in the Law Library in the reference section on the first floor.

Electronically, CED is available in WestlawNext Canada, while Halsbury's is available in Quicklaw (campus-wide version) and Lexis Advance Quicklaw. Please note that only UNB Law students and faculty have access to Lexis Advance Quicklaw and WestlawNext Canada.

 

Canadian Encyclopedic Digest

In print, the CED has the following titles available:

  • Vol. 35: Labour Law
  • Vol. 36: Labour Law

Electronically, the CED has the following titles available:

  • Labour Law – Federal
  • Labour Law – Alberta
  • Labour Law – British Columbia
  • Labour Law – Manitoba
  • Labour Law – Ontario
  • Labour Law – Saskatchewan

Please make sure you check the currency of these titles in WestlawNext Canada, as some of the CED titles can be years out of date.

 

Halsbury's Laws of Canada

Both in print and electronically, there is a Labour (2016 Reissue) title available. The title code for the volumes is HLA.

Please check the currency of these titles. This resource provides information from each province in Canada, as well as federally.

 

There are other related titles available for both encyclopedias, such as employment and human rights.

Books

To search for books at UNB Libraries, use UNB WorldCat, the library's catalogue. UNB WorldCat contains records of materials held at the Harriet Irving, Science and Forestry, Engineering, and Law libraries, as well as the Hans W. Klohn Library at UNB-Saint John.

In UNB WorldCat, items shown as LAW-RESERVE may be requested at the Law Library's circulation desk on the first floor. Items shown as LAW-STACKS are on the Law Library's second floor, arranged by call number.

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If you would like to browse the shelves, the call numbers below house labour law texts:

  • HD 7300 – 8847
  • KF 3301 – 3450
  • K1702 – 1841 (international law)

 

The following looseleaf texts are in our reserve collection. Bring a book's call number to the circulation desk to check it out for three hours.

 

The following books are available in the stacks. Please use UNB WorldCat to find more materials.

 

Government departments and agencies publish a great deal of important law-related information. The Law Library's collection of printed government documents is located on the third floor. Use UNB WorldCat to search, or ask a library staff member for help.

The Harriet Irving Library also has government documents, which can be located through UNB WorldCat.

For government documents that are available online, try using UNB Libraries' Google Custom Search.

Journal Articles & Databases

If you already know the journal title, year, volume number and page number for an article, you may be able to access it electronically by searching for the journal's title in the UNB e-journals database. If we have the journal electronically or in print, it will be listed. You can also look up the journal title in UNB WorldCat.

Keep in mind that it can be best to start with an index rather than a full-text journal search. A few key indexes in law are listed below.

Key Resources

There are other indexes available in print and electronically, as well as more full-text journal databases. See a librarian for assistance. For more resources, please visit the Law Library website.

Cases and Legislation

Key Resources

The following databases and websites provide access to federal and provincial cases and legislation.

 

Statutes

The following statutes are related to labour law in Canada and New Brunswick.

Federal

Provincial

 

Cases and Decisions

Along with searching the databases mentioned above, one can use other products to find case law:

  • Canadian Abridgment Digests
    A digest service that indexes cases by subject. This is an extremely useful resource. There are Labour and Employment Law volumes available in print (vols 62–75) and electronically in WestlawNext Canada (UNB Law students and faculty only).
  • LexisNexis Labour Law Netletter
    A monthly current awareness service that provides short summaries of significant new Canadian decisions on labour law that have been added to Quicklaw. It is available electronically through Quicklaw (available to all UNB and STU students and faculty) and Lexis Advance Quicklaw (UNB Law students and faculty only).

Other labour reporters are available in stacks 252–256.

Websites & Blogs

Note: use Google search operators to focus your search, such as the site operator (site:) and the filetype operator (filetype:). For example, including site:gc.ca and filetype:pdf with your keywords will retrieve PDF documents from Government of Canada websites. This is a good way to find government reports, as they are usually in PDF format.

The following websites may be helpful for your research:

  • Canada Industrial Relations Board
    This tribunal makes decisions on complaints filed under the Canada Labour Code. Includes decisions of the board and the statutes it operates under.
     
  • Canadian Labour Congress
    The umbrella organization for organized labour in Canada. It brings together Canada's national and international unions. Includes links to various union councils and issues.
     
  • Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources
    At the University of Toronto, this program specializes in all aspects of employment and labour relationships. The site contains articles, a link to the CIRHR library, and links to other useful resources.
     
  • Lancaster House
    A labour and employment law publisher with news and articles on labour and employment law from Canada, and some from overseas. While some information is only accessible with a subscription, some information is freely available.
     
  • NATLEX
    A database of national labour legislation from around the world.
     
  • New Brunswick Labour and Employment Board
    "The New Brunswick Labour and Employment Board is an independent, quasi-judicial tribunal responsible for adjudicating employment and labour matters" pursuant to several pieces of legislation.
     
  • New Brunswick Post-Secondary Education, Training, and Labour
    The New Brunswick department responsible for labour issues in the province.
     
  • New Brunswick Human Rights Commission
    "The Human Rights Commission forwards the principles of equality found in the New Brunswick Human Rights Act by promoting an understanding, acceptance and compliance with the Act."
     
  • International Labour Organization
    "The main aims of the ILO are to promote rights at work, encourage decent employment opportunities, enhance social protection and strengthen dialogue on work-related issues."

 

There are many blogs maintained by lawyers and law firms, and you can find many of them at lawblogs.ca. The following are a few blogs that might be helpful for labour law research:

  • Perry Work Report
    Available from Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources at the University of Toronto. The last six months are only available for purchase, but issues from six months and earlier are free to all.
     
  • Law of Work (formerly Doorey's Workplace Law Blog)
    Created by a professor at York University, this blog deals with labour and employment law issues in Canada and around the world.
     
  • Employment & Human Rights Law in Canada
    About employment and human rights law, and technology in the workplace in Canada.
     
  • First Reference
    News and discussions on human resources, employment and labour law, accessibility standards, and payroll in Canada.

Citing Your Sources

Accurate, properly formatted footnotes, reading lists, and bibliographies are hallmarks of good academic research. Through citing, you acknowledge the source of any ideas you mention in your writing, document your research, and provide the information your readers need to track down your sources. Numerous citation styles exist.

The citation style used by lawyers and law students for Canadian legal materials is:

There is no online version of this guide at the present time; however, the University of British Columbia Law Library has put together a legal citations subject guide, which is available freely on the internet. 

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