Ask Us Law, Labour Guide

Legal Encyclopedias

Legal Encyclopedias

Legal encyclopedias contain narrative summaries of the law supported by references to case law and statutes. They are often the best place to start to gain a general understanding of the law in a particular area.

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

Electronically, CED is available in Westlaw Edge, while Halsbury's is available in Lexis Advance Quicklaw.

Canadian Encyclopedic Digest

• Available via Westlaw Edge (law students only) and in print in the reference section (available to all students)
• Helpful titles in print include Labour Law (vols. 35 and 36 in print)
  • Electronically, the Labour Law topic is broken down by jurisdiction, namely: Federal, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, and Saskatchewan.

Halsbury's Laws of Canada

• Available via Lexis Advance Quicklaw (law students only), the campus-wide version of Quicklaw (available to all students), and in print in the reference section (available to all students)
• Helpful titles include Labour (2020 Reissue)

Books

Books

To search for books at UNB Libraries, use UNB WorldCat. UNB WorldCat contains records of materials held at the Harriet Irving, Science and Forestry, Engineering, Hans W. Klohn, and Law libraries.

If you would like to browse the Law Library shelves, the following call number ranges may contain useful texts:

• KF 3389–3435 (collective bargaining)
• HD 7300 – 8847 (labour law)
• KF 3301–3450 (labour law)
• K1702–1841 (international law)

Items shown as LAW-RESERVE may be requested at the circulation desk on the first floor of the Law Library. Bring the book's call number with you to the desk. Items shown as LAW-STACKS are on the second floor, and LAW-REF materials are on the first floor in the reference section.

• Annotated Canadian Labour Code / LAW-STACKS: KF 3319 .S56.
• Canadian Labour Arbitration, 5th ed by Donald JM Brown & David M Beatty / LAW-RESERVE KF3424 .B7 2019.
  • Also available as an eBook via LabourSource in Westlaw Edge (note: all students can access LabourSource through UNB Libraries)
• Canadian Labour Law, 2nd ed by George W Adams / LAW-RESERVE KF3319 .A74 1993 and eBook.
• Canadian Master Labour Guide / LAW-STACKS: KF 3319 .C36.
• Clarke's Canada Industrial Relations Board by Graham J Clarke / LAW-RESERVE KF 3372 .A6 C52 1999.
• Collective Agreement Arbitration in Canada, 6th ed by Ronald M Snyder / LAW-STACKS KF3424 .P34 2017 and eBook.
• Evidence and Procedure in Canadian Labour Arbitration by Morley R Gorsky, SJ Usprich & Gregory J Brandt / LAW-RESERVE KF 3424 .G67 1991.
• Judicial Review in Labour Law by Richard J Charney &Thomas EF Brady / LAW-RESERVE KF 3372 .A6 C42 1997.
• Labour & Employment Law: Cases Materials, and Commentary, 9th ed / LAW-STACKS: KF 3318 .L32 2018.
• Remedies in Labour, Employment and Human Rights Law by James T Casey / LAW-RESERVE KF 3320 .ZA2 R46 1999b.
• Trade Union Law in Canada by Michael MacNeil, Michael Lynk & Peter Engelmann. LAW-RESERVE: KF 3390 .ZA2 M32 1994 and eBook.

Journal Articles & Databases

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 database. An index is essentially a list of articles by topic. Sometimes the article will be available full-text, but often you'll just be given a citation that you can use to track it down somewhere else.

Key Databases

• Index to Canadian Legal Literature
  • Available via Lexis Advance Quicklaw (non-law UNB/STU use the campus-wide version of Quicklaw)
  • Available via Westlaw Edge (law students only)
• Index to Legal Periodicals & Books Full Text
• Index to Legal Periodicals Retrospective
• LegalTrac
• Lexis Advance Quicklaw (non-law students use the campus-wide version of Quicklaw)
  • Click Law Reviews & Journals
• Westlaw Edge (law students only)
  • Click Articles and Newsletters
• HeinOnline
  • Click Law Journal Library

If you need help locating an article, contact a librarian for assistance.

Legislation & Case Law

Legislation & Case Law

Key Resources

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

• Lexis Advance Quicklaw (law students only)
  • Non-law students: use the campus-wide version of Quicklaw
• Westlaw Edge (law students only)
• CanLII
• Justice Laws (Government of Canada federal legislation)
• LEGISinfo (Parliament of Canada)
  • Includes information on federal bills, including status, speeches, links to Hansard debates, full-text versions of bills, and more from 35th Parl, 1st Sess (January 1994) to the current session
• Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick
• New Brunswick Acts and Regulations (NB Attorney General)
  • Includes current legislation, rules of court, the Royal Gazette, the status of bills, and more
• New Brunswick Court Index (Justice and Public Safety)
• New Brunswick Courts
• New Brunswick Court Docket List (NB Courts)
• New Brunswick Court Proceedings Transcript Fees & Request Form (Justice and Public Safety)
• Canadian Court Records/Dockets (Guide created by the Paul Martin Law Library, University of Windsor)

Statutes

he following statutes are related to labour law. For statutes not listed, search the databases listed above.

• Canada Labour Code, RSC 1985 c L-2
• Status of the Artist Act, SC 1992, c 33
• Wage Earner Protection Program Act, SC 2005, c 47, s 1
• Industrial Relations Act, RSNB 1973, c I-4
• Human Rights Act, RSNB 2011, c 171
• Public Service Labour Relations Act, RSNB 1973, c P-25
• Labour and Employment Board Act, RSNB 2011, c 182

Cases Digests

Along with searching the databases mentioned above, you should use a case digest to find case law. A case digest service indexes cases by topic, and each topic is broken down into several subtopics. With a case digest, you might find ten, twenty, or hundreds of cases on your research topic, saving you hours of time.

Two important case digests are the Canadian Abridgment Digests and the Canada Digest.

• Canadian Abridgment Digests
  • Available via Westlaw Edge (law students only) and in print in the reference section (available to all students)
  • Useful titles include Labour and Employment Law (vols 62–75 in print).
• Canada Digest
  • Available via Lexis Advance Quicklaw and the campus-wide version of Quicklaw (available to all students)
  • Click Case Summaries > All Canada Digests for a list of topics
  • Useful titles include
    • Canada Labour Arbitration Digest
    • Canada Labour Digest

Government Documents

Government Documents

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 library's 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.

Note: if you include site:canada.ca (and/or site:gc.ca) and filetype:pdf in a Google search, you 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 sites might be useful:

• Canada Industrial Relations Board: Information Circulars
• Collective Agreements for the Public Service (Government of Canada database)
• Collective Bargaining Information: Publications (Employment and Social Development Canada)
• Employment and Social Development Canada: Reports and Publications
• Government of Canada Publications Search
  • Federal search engine for government publications.
• Library of Parliament Research Publications
  • Non-partisan, reliable, and timely information and analysis on current and emerging issues, legislation, and major public policy topics from the Library of Parliament.
• Negotech (repository of collective agreements from Employment and Social Development Canada)
• New Brunswick Labour and Employment Board: Information Bulletins
• New Brunswick Human Rights Commission: Resources
• New Brunswick Post-Secondary Education, Training, and Labour: Publications

Websites & Blogs

Websites & Blogs

The following websites may be helpful for your research:

• Canada Industrial Relations Board
• Canadian Labour Congress
• Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources
• Collective Agreements for the Public Service (Government of Canada database)
• Collective Bargaining Information (Employment and Social Development Canada)
• International Labour Organization
• 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.
• Labour Studies Index (provides over 12,000 citations to journal articles, books, book chapters, theses, and other labour-related literature)
• Negotech (repository of collective agreements from Employment and Social Development Canada)
• New Brunswick Collective Agreement Retrieval System (CARS)
• New Brunswick Human Rights Commission
• New Brunswick Labour and Employment Board
• New Brunswick Post-Secondary Education, Training, and Labour
• United Steelworkers Historical Timeline

There are many blogs maintained by lawyers and law firms, and you can find many of them at lawblogs.ca, an open directory of Canadian blogging lawyers, law librarians, marketers, IT professionals, and paralegals. There are several blogs listed in the labour and employment law category that might be helpful.

Citing Your Sources

Citing Your Sources

Accurate, properly formatted footnotes and bibliographies are hallmarks of good academic research. When you cite your sources, you acknowledge the source(s) of any ideas you mention in your writing, accurately document your research, and provide your readers with the information they need to track down your sources. Failing to properly cite your sources is plagiarism.

There are many citation styles out there, but when it comes to citing Canadian legal materials, lawyers and law students use The Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation, 9th ed (LAW-RESERVE KF245 .C28 2018), aka: The McGill Guide.

The McGill Guide isn't available online; however, the University of British Columbia Law Library's legal citation guide can help you with common legal citation for most situations.

If you need to cite American or other foreign legal materials not covered in the McGill Guide, use The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation (LAW-REFDSK KF245 .B59).

If you have any questions about legal citation, contact Nikki Tanner, Reference/Instruction Librarian.