Over the past year, a number of websites containing databases of valuable legal information have been redesigned. Among them are websites and services that are foundational to legal research in Canada, including the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC), the Nova Scotia Courts, CanLII, HeinOnline, Lexis+, and more. While redesigns are not uncommon, the timing and consistency of these recent updates hint at something else, something shaped by trends in the broader digital environment. The rapid growth of generative AI has seemingly pushed legal research websites and services to modernise. Even without adopting AI, there’s growing pressure to look current and . . . [more]

When navigating the complex world of foreign and comparative legal research, one resource has remained indispensable for decades: Foreign Law Guide (FLG). From its humble beginnings to its current role as a sophisticated research tool, FLG continues to be the go-to source for legal professionals seeking current foreign primary law and authoritative secondary sources. Recently, I had the pleasure to conduct an interview with Marci Hoffman, current General Editor of FLG to talk about the legacy and future plans of such a trailblazing legal platform.

A Legacy of Legal Accessibility

FLG was first developed in 1989 by law librarians Thomas . . . [more]

If you’re looking for court documents related to a Canadian insolvency proceeding and you know who the receiver or monitor is, check their website. Receivers often make the documents related to the proceeding publicly available on their website.

For example:

• https://www.pwc.com/ca/en/services/insolvency-assignments.html
• https://documentcentre.ey.com/#/home
• https://www.insolvencies.deloitte.ca/en-ca/Pages/Search-Insolvencies.aspx
• https://kpmg.com/ca/en/home/services/advisory/deal-advisory/creditorlinks.html
• https://www.doanegrantthornton.ca/service/advisory/creditor-updates/

— Susannah Tredwell . . . [more]

Both Lexis+ and Westlaw Canada allow you to restrict your search to just the table of contents of a book. Restricting a search to just subject headings — rather than the full text of a book — can be an effective way of reducing the number of extraneous results.

To search the table of contents of a specific book in Lexis+, go to the title of the text you want to search and select Table of Contents (TOC) only below the search bar.

Similarly, to search the table of contents in Westlaw Canada, go to the title of the text . . . [more]

By 2035, society had largely abandoned walking as a means of transportation. Urban planners, motivated by efficiency and data-driven optimisation, redesigned cities around autonomous electric vehicles. Pedestrian streets were repurposed into rapid transit corridors. Walking was confined to indoor spaces, explicitly private residences and commercial complexes. Walking was only executed to partake in menial, non-essential tasks such as a grabbing a cup of coffee from a Brew-fficiency 5000 system (with algorithmic precision in every sip!). To walk outside was seen as impractical, even obstructive, a habit of the past that no longer fit within the streamlined flow of modern urban . . . [more]

Territories have the unique characteristic of being both in and out at the same time. Despite their massive differences in all areas, you can easily spot the “territory” due to this in and out feature. Whether they are called a special administrative unit, dependency, self-governing, autonomous nation, outermost/overseas department, etc., once you have identified this in and out cycle, it’s fair to assume that you’re working with a territory, despite the elaborate names these places tend to have.

Let me explain what I mean by an in and out cycle. Usually, recent events, either in the territory itself or external . . . [more]

CanLII recently unveiled a new interface with the most obvious change being the introduction of a an interactive sidebar for case law and legislation. The sidebar replaces the tabs that used to be located at the top of a page; they include such things as case history and treatment, cited documents, regulations, and AI analysis. The goal of the change was to make legal research on CanLII more efficient, since researchers can see this additional information without moving to a new page.

Clicking on the AI summary in the sidebar provides a helpful overview of the facts of the case, . . . [more]

In the world of research, journal publishers are occasionally compelled to “retract” a published article. It may contain errors that posting a “correction” won’t sufficiently address, may utilize falsified data, may have been published elsewhere, may have been plagiarized, or may have been otherwise compromised. Yet the retracted paper does not disappear. It retains its place in the journal, while being stamped “Retracted” on page after page, along with an explanation. This reflects how the act of publication, when it comes to research, constitutes the official record. Publication is “performative,” according to speech act theory, like naming a ship . . . [more]

Belated Happy New Year’s wishes. Things are not looking so happy in the US government so far. Many Civil Service employees are being laid off and/or paid to retire. Information is disappearing or being rewritten on many agency webpages. I just checked out the Department of Justice website that does appear to be reporting business as usual so far. I also found an Associated Press report about why some of the agency webpages went dark in February after an executive order on January 20^th. A follow up AP report on February 12 stated that some health agencies had . . . [more]

If you’re fed up with seeing the AI summary at the top of your Google search results you have several options. The easiest thing to do is just add -AI to your search. 

However, if your search includes the term “AI”, this obviously won’t work:

In this case you have two options. You can either click on the web tab:

Or you can add profanity to your initial search:

(Admittedly this last method may give you results you weren’t expecting.)

— Susannah Tredwell . . . [more]

There is no doubt that artificial intelligence (AI) has revolutionized many industries, the legal sector among them. Furthermore, it will continue to do so in the foreseeable future in ways that we haven’t even begun to comprehend. However, I fear that its promise of solving and revolutionizing every single legal challenge or area is often overstated, especially when it comes to Foreign, Comparative, and International Legal (FCIL) research. AI promises of easiness, rapidity, and exclusively results-oriented approaches fundamentally clash with FCIL work, which demands robust research steps, awareness of processes, and a sense of curiosity in a globalized world that . . . [more]

If you’re looking for the definition of a word on Google, you can use the define: tag. For example, if you are looking for the definition of “affidavit”, you’d use the syntax define:affidavit which will bring up a brief definition along with its pronunciation. If you click on the “see more” arrow, google will bring up a brief etymology of the word as well as usage over time.

— Susannah Tredwell . . . [more]