Legal Research – Page 3 – Know How, the blog of the Great Library

Sessional Papers – Federal and Ontario

Sessional Papers from the Federal and Ontario governments provide an interesting glimpse into the evolution of Canadian governance. They capture the policies, debates, and decisions of the time, making them a valuable resource for exploring legislative intent, especially behind historical statutes. In today’s blog post, we’ll take a closer look at the Great Library’s collection of Federal and Ontario Sessional Papers.

Treatise Finders (US Legal Research)

For Canadian legal practitioners, the need to research American law arises for a variety of reasons: client problems may involve U.S. business or real estate transactions, cross-border litigation, enforcement of judgments, or child custody and access. Researchers may also be looking for persuasive precedents on legal issues which have not been litigated in Canadian courts.

Out of Date, Not Obsolete: The Wisdom of Older Editions

A common question we get here at the Great Library is: “If everything is now online, why do you need to keep these musty old books?” While it would be nice to assume that everything you need to know is available online through Google or a quick query to ChatGPT, you shouldn’t disregard the older editions of texts and their tables of cases that can be found in our often overlooked 1^st floor and extensive closed stacks.