Political Science Research Guide: Legal Resources

Canadian and International Legal Databases

• LexisNexis Database. 
  Indexes Journal Articles,Treaties, Legal Cases, Statutes, Rulings, and Regulations 
  • To access Canadian Case Law, or Canadian Legal Journals from this database, you must first select International Legal - then Canadian Cases OR Canadian Law Journals.  
  • To access Canadian Laws, select International Legal - Canadian Legislation.
  • To access International Treaties select Sources - Browse Sources - and select Treaties and International Agreements.
     
• HeinOnline 
  A premier online database containing more than 150 million pages and 200,000 titles of legal history and government documents in a fully searchable, image-based format. Bridges the gap in historical research by providing comprehensive coverage from inception of more than 2,500 law-related periodicals. Also contains the entire Congressional Record, Federal Register, and Code of Federal Regulations, complete coverage of the U.S. Reports back to 1754, and entire databases dedicated to treaties, constitutions, case law, world trials, classic treatises, international trade, foreign relations, U.S. Presidents, and more.

Manitoba

•  Manitoba Court of Appeal
   Partial coverage of Rulings since 1984.  Full Coverage of Rulings since 1984
   
• Court of Queens Bench of Manitoba
  Partial Coverage of Rulings since 1987.  Full Coverage of Rulings since 2000.
   
• Provincial Court of Manitoba 
  Partial Coverage of Provincial Court of Manitoba Rulings since 1994.  Full coverage or rulings from 2000-Present.

Canada

•  Supreme Court of Canada
  Web site for the Highest Court in Canada
   
• Supreme Court of Canada Decisions
  Access to the Decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada
   
• Federal Court 
  National Trial Court
   
• Decisions of the Federal Court
  Access to Decisions by the Federal Court since 1998.
   
• Federal Court Appeals
  Access to Appeals since 1998.
   
• National Tax Court
  Decisions since 1996.

United States

• Supreme Court of the United States
  Web site for the Supreme Court of the United States with links to some of their recent opinions.
   
• Federal Judicial Branch    
  Official web portal from the U. S. Government providing access to general information and legal resources concerning the US Supreme Court, US Circuit Courts, US District Courts, and US Bankruptcy Courts.

International Courts

• International Court of Justice or World Court
  Judicial organ of the United Nations whose primary function is to settle legal disputes brought before it by member states.
   
• International Criminal Court
  Permanent tribunal established to prosecute individuals for Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity, War Crimes and Crimes of Agression 

Canada 

• Department of Justice 

            Federal site that allows you to search and browse both Statutes and Regulations.

• CANLII
  CanLII is a non-profit organization managed by the Federation of Law Societies of Canada. CanLII's goal is to make Canadian law accessible for free on the Internet and it does an excellent job of arranging legal information (including Laws/Statutes, Courts, Regulations, etc, by Federal and Provincial Jurisdictions.
   
• LegalTree.Ca
  A resource for lawyers, by lawyers. This site has research links and articles, legislation, directories, etc.
   
• Access to Justice Network
  Links and full text documents on a variety of Canadian legal topics.
   
• Legislative Materials by Jurisdiction
  Provides access to Bills, Amendments, Legislation, Regulations for both Federal and Provincial Governments.

• World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII)
  Court decisions, case law, treaties and legislation from all over the world.
   
• American Law Source On-Line(ASLO!)
  Links to legal sources for the U.S., Canada and Mexico including legislation, court rules and decisions, law reviews/commentaries, legal forms, etc. and an overview of each country's legal system.

For journal articles dealing with the Law, consult Law Databases.