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Foreign Law by Jurisdiction: Canada

This guide lists essential print and online sources for researching foreign law. NOTE: First 4 tabs list important general sources that might not be repeated in the dropdown tabs.

Best Bets

Constitutional Law

Legislation

Current and point-in-time legislation: The most up to date versions of Canadian statutes and regulations are found on the respective federal, provincial or territorial legislation websites and CanLII. CanLII as well as the federal, provincial and territorial government websites often include point-in-time tools that allow you to view prior versions of statutes and regulations.

Statute citators: All three of the big Canadian legal research platforms (Westlaw, Lexis Advance Quicklaw, and CanLII) contain statute citator tools for quickly identifying case law that cites specific legislative provisions.

Federal
Provincial & Territorial

Legislative Materials

Federal
Provincial & Territorial

Case Law

Court Dockets and Records

Treaties and Foreign Relations

Treaties

Since 1929, all Canadian international treaties have been published in the Canada Treaty Series. In 2014, the Canada Treaty Series ceased publication in print, with all new treaties being published online. The Treaty Law Division's Treaty Website's Treaty List tool is an effective way to locate a Treaty Series citation and the status of any treaty Canada is a party to.

The Treaty List also contains the text of all treaties published in the Canada Treaty Series in html. PDF scans of the Canada Treaty Series are available on the Publications Canada database listed below:

1929 - 2014

PDF scans of the Canada Treaty Series are available on the Publications Canada database.
1929-1989
1989-1993
1993-2013

2014 - present

For treaties from 2014 onward are available on the Canada Treaty Series is available on the Treaty Law Division's Treaty Website.

Foreign Relations

Canadian Law Research Guides

Canadian Law in the Library

Materials will be located in B2 North (map), with call numbers beginning with KE.

Commentary - Secondary Sources

Encyclopedias