Sociology of LawLibrary and online resources

SOCI 2301/4250 February 2014

Start at Resources by Subject on the Library website (under Find)

Choose the option to Browse all guides

The Law Research guide has

• Newspaper indexes for searching current events, legislative issues and public opinion.

• Links to online legislation and parliamentary documents for Canada, Ontario and other jurisdictions.

• Citation guides and reference

sources.

News Databases can be found under Find Journal Articles tab.

Laws can be found under Find Statutes tab.

Check out the various documents about how a Bill becomes a Law in Canada and Ontario under the

Home tab of the Law Subject Guide

Choose your subject Carefully

Consider:- Who has jurisdiction? - Is this piece of legislation recent or historical?

Historical topics may need to be searched in print sources which are scarce.

- Some issues can take time before legislation is passed and can be discussed at several sessions of parliament. If there is a long legislated history, limit your scope.

The distribution of legislated power was established in the British North America Act

1867

Provinces Federal GovernmentHospitals Criminal LawEducation First Nations

Current Laws (Statutes) can be found online through the Legal Resources Subject Guide

E-laws – Ontario

Canada - Department of Justice

Canadian Laws and sources

• Revised Statutes of Canada - RSC 1985 C2A3A 1985 ground floor

• Annual updates to Canadian Statutes DOC K C2A3 ground floor

• E laws online at the Department of Justice

• Table of Statutes and Responsible Ministers lists changes to Federal Legislation since the RSC 1985. Refer to annual updates for changes listed here.

• Regulations made under Acts are also law.

Ontario Laws and Sources

• Revised Statutes of Ontario K 05A 21 1990 ground floor

• Annual updates to Ontario Statutes ground floor

• Online Acts and Regulations Ontario

How to start?

If you don’t know who legislates in a particular area…

-Try RSC 1985 index or table of statutes and Responsible ministers-Try index to RSO 1990 or browse appropriate online legislation sites-Search CanLii (case law site) but for legislation using key words

How to start?

If you know who has legislative authority

•Find the act and when it was debated

•Try searching bills and then debates from the appropriate legislature if you know the bill number or name.

How to start?

Option 3•Browse a session of parliament or provincial legislature for an interesting bill that has gone through several parliamentary stages.

•Search news for major issues that have been put through parliament or provincial legislature and then search by bill, bill title or legislative session.

Why Search news?

To obtain dates for legislative debateTo obtain bill numbers and/or names of acts.To obtain public opinion and names of interested lobbyists

Canadian Business and Current Affairs has•Newspapers•Magazines•Television transcripts

Use the advanced search to add concepts by line and to specify where to search for your terms

When Searching

• Link synonyms on one line connected by “or”

• Add other concepts on rows

For Example: Law or Legislation or Act (or bill if you are looking for proposed legislation)

And

Same Sex Marriage

If you are after dates and names of legislation, deselect options for full text, peer reviewed etc.

You can refine your results by limiting by location (i.e. Canada)or by timeframe

Searching Canadian Newsstand

• Canadian Newsstand includes full text newspaper content from across Canada

• The Canadian Newsstand search looks the same as CBCA.

• To limit results, you may want to avoid searching the full text of articles. To do this, search your terms in the “citation and abstract” section

When the government legislates change (a brief recap)

• Government or private member adopts a stance on an issue

• Bill is proposed – There is a first reading.• Debated at second reading and may be forwarded to a

standing or specially established Committee for input. • Committee members study the Bill in detail and make

recommendations to accept, modify or start over.• Bill goes back to the whole House for the third Reading. If

approved the bill will then move to the Senate• Senate has a similar process.

Find Bills associated with your legislation - Federal

• Determine when (which parliament and session) the bill was passed. Having a rough idea of the timeframe is important. This information can be taken from your news database search or any other valid source.

Searching Federal bills

• 2001 to present through LegisInfo with added links to committees, legislative summary, links to speeches in the house...

• Some bills go back to 1994 – first drafts

• 2007 onward in print at the Library - See J 103 A45 (ground floor)

Canadian Parliamentary SourcesLEGISInfo

LEGISInfo – One Stop shopping.. Quick access to text of proposed bills, legislative histories, press releases the debates (Hansard) from the house. Web Content starts in 2001.

TIPS: • Start with the FAQ section • Search by keywords in titles of bills• Search by bill number• Use terms obtained from your newspaper

searches for bill numbers or title words.

Tips for LEGISInfo

• The default is to search the current session of parliament.

• Bills are sequential for each session of parliament. Know the year or the session of parliament that proposed the bill and use the “refine” options to select the appropriate section of parliament.

LEGISInfo

- select the specific session of parliament -search by bill number or a word from the title of the bill

Canadian Parliamentary Sourcesparl.gc.ca for debates and committee

proceedings

Parliament of Canada Website

Select the Parliamentary business section for

• schedules for the house and the senate• Debates and indexes to debates (1994 onward) • Committee information – online from 1995 (1995-

97 is available in an archival format.

Canadian Parliamentary Sourcesparl.gc.ca for debates and committee proceedings

The Search and browse finds information contained in the House of Commons Debates (Hansard) and Committee

Evidence of the 1st Session of the 39th Parliament (2006) and onward.

To get into older indexes for Debates (Hansard)Select the parliamentary session and then scroll up

for the index

Aha!

Canadian Parliamentary Sources

Committee Proceedings

Any organization or individual may submit a written brief to a committee of the House of Commons, even if they did not have the opportunity to appear as a witness.

• Committee Proceedings and reports online

• Older print materials can be searched in the library catalogue.

Federal Committees information online

Federal (House) Committees siteHas a list of existing committees. You can search by subject area, check for committee reports and see who is a witness for the committee.

Senate Committees Similar information is available for Senate Committees.

Committees information is organized by session.

Example Bill C-38 – passed in 2005

• Search in LegisINFO.

• review “legislative history” for description and analysis, commentary, and background committee information.

• NOTE – This legislation went to house and senate committees.

• NOTE - Justice and Human Rights Committee was debating this in 2002 guided by a justice dept. report…Marriage and Legal Recognition of Same-Sex Unions: A Discussion Paper. FYI It is in the library

Example Bill C-38 – passed in 2005

• Major speeches are linked from LegisInfo site.

• Review Debates (for Oct 4-2004-Nov 25, 2005) by first checking the index. From the index, link to full text of the debate. Debates will often include notices of petitions and statements by members of parliament.

For Committee Information• Go to house business section of

parliamentary website.• Select committees.• Select session of parliament.• Look for committee that reviewed

the legislation – minutes, evidence and members of the public petitioning the committee should be accessible from 2001 on.

Federal debates and committee information before 1994/5

• Print Debates – (ground floor J 103 A42) Indexes found at the end of each session.

• Older committee reports can be searched in the library catalogue.

Ontario Sources

• Ontario Legislature online has links to • Ontario Bills – coverage from 1995 J

108 H5 ground floor in print• Ontario Debates (Hansard) - online

since 1981 - use advanced search) J 108 H2 in print

• Committees Section

Ontario Sources

Example

• Bill 34, Education Amendment Act, 1996

• Search the session of parliament and browse for the bill of interest.

• Click status for history of debate, significant dates for readings and committee input.

Review Debates and Committee transcripts for dates given in the status section

For links to bills and debates for all provinces

See - How to Locate Canadian Current and Historical Legislation – University of Toronto

Other Sources for Interest Groups, Political Activists, Lobbyists

input from the general public

Check the websites section of the Legal Resources page for:

Provincial Lobbyists registries. “Lobbyists” are defined by legislation and they may need to register with the level of government they are trying to persuade.

Also try www.Hillwatch.com

More useful resourcesTracing a bill Queens University flowchart for the legislative process

Updating Statutes and Regulations for all Canadian Jurisdictions 3rd Edition See REF KE 250 S61 1989

Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation 5th Edition. Carswell. 2002 See REF KE 259 C35 2002

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