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Law Guide

Find Reference Sources

Find Reference Sources

The following electronic and print resources will assist in answering many basic law-related questions.

Print materials are located in the reference section of the Gerard V. La Forest Law Library, located on the second floor of the Law Building on UNB Fredericton's campus. To find additional reference materials, check the UNB Libraries WorldCat Catalogue.

Key Resources

Dictionaries

Words & Phrases

Legal Encyclopedias

  • Canadian Encyclopedic Digest
    • Available via Westlaw Edge (law students only) and in print in the reference section (available to all students)
  • Halsbury's Laws of Canada
  • JurisClasseur Quebec
  • American Jurisprudence (2d) (American)
  • Corpus Juris Secundum (aka: Corpus Juris) (American)
  • Halsbury's Laws of England

Find Books

Find Books

To search for print and eBooks 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.

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.

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Find Articles

Find Articles

The Gerard V. La Forest Law Library subscribes to a wide variety of law journals and legal periodicals, both online and in print.

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

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

Find Cases & Legislation

Find Cases & Legislation

The Law Library's print collection includes Canadian cases from courts, boards, and commissions, as well as legislation passed by Canadian federal, provincial, and territorial governments. If you need to find cases or legislation in print, please visit the Law Library on the second floor of the Law Building.

Some resources (Westlaw Edge, Lexis+) are for law students and faulty only. However, all UNB and STU students and faculty have access to the campus-wide version of Quicklaw, a comprehensive legal research database that provides access to cases, legislation, journals, newsletters, and other legal commentary.

Key Resources

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

Find Government Documents

Find 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' Government Documents 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.

Key Resources

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.

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