Finding Journal Articles, Conference Materials & Theses

It is helpful to have as much information as possible:

• Article Title
• Author Name
• Journal or Law Review Title or abbreviation
• Year of Publication

For eligible borrowers, you can Ask a Law Librarian to request documents and for a fee, we will provide you with a copy of the document you are looking for, if possible.

A.  Search online (Google, Google Scholar, or another search engine) with as many of the details as you have:

• Search results may contain complete citations for your article, or even the article itself.

B.  Use an Online Index to get more information. Search:

LexisAdvance® Quicklaw® and The Canadian abridgment : index to Canadian legal literature:

• To the right of the main search box select advanced search
• Select content type – law reviews and journals
• Enter the information you have in the template
• This will search full text articles as well as the Index to Canadian Legal Literature

Westlaw Canada and The Canadian abridgment : index to Canadian legal literature:

• Under Commentary select “Articles and Newsletters”
• Search all content or select a specific title and search in it only.
• This will search full text articles as well as the Index to Canadian Legal Literature

C.  Use a print index to get more information (only if the article is not recent). Not the preferred method as the print indexes in the library are no longer current.

Search by author name, subject, case name or statute name, in one of the following:

• The Canadian abridgment : index to Canadian legal literature:
• Current law index (covers US, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand publications)

In the print index for the periodical itself (if known) and if the index covers the correct time period.

Find Conference materials

LESA seminar materials, Alberta Law Conferences formally know as Mid-Winter meeting, and other conference papers are searchable by individual seminar title or speaker using a keyword search through the Alberta Law Libraries catalogue or through the LESA Library.  For all recent annual publications & seminars in our collections, the complete table of contents are available to search.

1. LESA seminars materials are added to the library collection on a regular basis. We recommend returning to our catalogue to search for new or recent publications. LESA titles are a great addition to your research due to their currency, Alberta based information and the precedents they sometimes contain.

• Here are some search tips to locate LESA Seminar materials in our catalogue:
  • Select Advanced search
  • Search for Legal Education Society of Alberta as a phrase within AUTHOR
  • Include subjects and/or titles on your topic within a KEYWORD anywhere search
  • From the results list select a title and then look for more detailed information under the Table of Contents display option in the right-hand toolbar. This will show you where you terms are located within the title.
• or at one of our physical library locations search the LESA Library online for an electronic copy of LESA seminar materials from 2010 onwards.

2. To search for other conference materials or annual publications (ie Annual Review of Criminal Law):

• Use a keyword search in the Alberta Law Libraries catalogue for the author’s name and/or some subject keywords.
• Click the Table of Contents button for each of the titles in your search results to find your article.

3. To search for Law Society of Ontario articles:

• Use the AccessCLE database
• Articles older than 18 months can be downloaded free of charge, anything newer than that can only be previewed.

4. Search the Canadian Law Symposia index on LexisAdvance® Quicklaw®