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Law, Cybercrime Guide

Reference Sources

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 WestlawNext Canada, while Halsbury's is available in Lexis Advance Quicklaw. 

 

Canadian Encyclopedic Digest

In print and electronically, the CED has Internet Law titles available (title 88 in vol 34 in print).

Please make sure you check the currency of these titles in WestlawNext Canada, as some of the CED titles can be years out of date.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 Technology and Internet title available. The title code for the volume is HTE.

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

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. An index is a systematic listing of journal articles by topic. A few indexes in law are listed below, followed by key legal databases.

Law Databases:

There are other indexes available in print and electronically, as well as more full-text journal databases. Contact a law librarian for assistance.

Books

To search for books at UNB Libraries, use UNB WorldCat, the library's catalogue. UNB WorldCat contains records of materials held at all of UNB's libraries (including UNB Saint John).

Items shown as LAW-RESERVE may be requested at the circulation desk on the first floor of the Law Library. Items shown as LAW-STACKS are on the second floor, and LAW-REF materials are on the first floor in the reference section.

The following books may be useful in your research:

Cases & Legislation

Key Resources

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

 

Statutes

Search the databases above for applicable legislation.

 

Cases and Decisions

Along with searching the databases 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 Information Technology volumes in print (vol 54) and electronically in WestlawNext Canada (UNB Law students and faculty only). Be sure to also check the Criminal Law volume electronically and in print (vols 28A–28D6).
  • Canada Digest
    A digest service similar to the Canadian Abridgment. Useful titles include Canada Information Technology Digest and Canada Criminal Digest. It is available electronically through Quicklaw (campus-wide version available to all UNB and STU students and faculty) and Lexis Advance Quicklaw (UNB Law students and faculty only).
  • Case Reporters
    If you wish to browse the print reporters, there are topical law reports on the second floor. Note: much of this content is retrospective. For current cases/decisions, please use electronic databases (i.e.: WestlawNext Canada, Lexis Advance Quicklaw) when available.

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: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:

Websites & Blogs

The following websites may be helpful for your research:

There are many blogs maintained by lawyers and law firms, and you can find many of them at lawblogs.ca. There are several blogs listed in the Internet, Technology, and Criminal categories that may be helpful.

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