Finding Articles
Scholarly articles about critical legal topics are located in legal databases. Article access differs by database, meaning that a comprehensive search should include more than one database.
Researchers are encouraged to use advanced search to navigate these databases. The Advanced Search Cheat Sheet may be useful.
Keywords that can be useful include the name of a theory e.g. "natural law", the name of a theorist e.g. Dworkin, or a key concept e.g. "gender discrimination."
Legal Databases
- HeinOnline Law Library This link opens in a new window
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HeinOnline contains pages of legal history available in an online, fully-searchable, image-based format. HeinOnline bridges the gap in legal history by providing comprehensive coverage from inception of more than 1,500 law and law-related periodicals. HeinOnline is the world’s largest image-based legal research collection and contains more than 9 centuries of legal history. - LexisNexis Advance Quicklaw This link opens in a new window
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Quicklaw is a Canadian online legal information system that provides full text of Canadian and foreign case law, federal and provincial legislation and regulations, case reports, digests, tribunal decisions, and statutes, as well as secondary materials such as law journals and newsletters. - WestlawNext Canada This link opens in a new window
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Westlaw is a legal database platform that includes primary and secondary legal sources. It contains case law, statutes, codes, and arbitration decisions. Westlaw also includes the Canadian Encyclopedic Digest, journals, treatises, and law reviews. It is a comprehensive resource for Canadian case law and legislation. The WestlawNext Canada platform provides access to a number of other legal databases, including: CriminalSource, LabourSource, LawSource, Litigator, and Topic Texts and Annotations.
- CanLIICanLII is a publicly available website of Canadian legal information. It includes case law, statutes and regulations, tribunal decisions, and secondary source commentary.
Theory Journals
- The Canadian Journal of Law & JurisprudenceThe Canadian Journal of Law & Jurisprudence serves as a forum for special and general jurisprudence and legal philosophy. Archival access is available through HeinOnline.
- American Journal of JurisprudenceThe American Journal of Jurisprudence is an international journal publishing critical discussions of the moral foundations of law and legal systems, exploring current and historical issues in ethics, philosophy of law or jurisprudence, and legal (including constitutional) theory.
- The Journal of Legal PhilosophyThis journal has changed names several times, most recently with Vols. 21-42 (1996-2017) as Australian Journal of Legal Philosophy and Vols. 43-44 (2018-2019) as Australasian Journal of Legal Philosophy. It is available in HeinOnline from 1996 to 3 years ago.
- JurisprudenceJurisprudence provides a forum for scholarly writing on the philosophy of law. While demanding the utmost intellectual honesty, clarity and scholarly rigour, its editorial policy is distinctively open-minded in relation to philosophical approach. 2010 to Present available.
- Legal TheoryLegal Theory draws contributions not only from academic law, but from a wide range of related disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, including philosophy, political science, economics, history and sociology. Legal Theory publishes work on a broad range of topics, including but not limited to analytical jurisprudence, normative jurisprudence, policy analyses of legal institutions and doctrines, theories of law as a social or cultural phenomenon, and critical perspectives on law and legal institutions.
- Ratio JurisRatio Juris is a leading international journal of philosophy of law and general jurisprudence. It provides a truly international and trans-cultural forum for the communication of philosophical ideas about law and legal questions. Ratio Juris is open to scholars from all backgrounds and traditions, legal, philosophical, political, cultural and linguistic.
