Constitutional Law & Charter of Rights & Freedoms

In this guide, you will find information, resources and links about Canadian constitutional law. This includes some of the following subjects:

Constitutional:

Division of powers
Parliament & legislatures

Charter of Rights & Freedoms:

Civil liberties
Human rights
Discrimination

For information about native rights, treaties, and other aboriginal law matters, check out our research guide on Aboriginal Law

Texts

Canada’s constitutional law in a nutshell, 4th ed. by Bernard W. Funston and Eugene Meehan Table of Contents
The Canadian Charter of Rights : the prosecution and defence of criminal and other statutory offences by Roderick M. McLeod … [et al.].
Canadian Human Rights Act : quick reference by Jamie Knight … [et al.] Table of Contents
Constitutional law, 5th ed. by Patrick J. Monahan, Byron Shaw Table of Contents also available as an e-text
Constitutional law of Canada, 5th ed. by Peter W. Hogg Table of Contents
Constitutional law of Canada, 9th ed. by Joseph Eliot Magnet Table of Contents
Constitutional remedies in Canada, 2nd ed. by Kent Roach Table of Contents
Charter of Rights and Freedoms, 6th ed. by Robert Sharpe & Kent Roach Table of Contents Also available as an e-text
Charter Remedies in Criminal Cases : a practitioner’s handbook by Matthew Asma and Matthew Gourlay. Table of Contents. Also available as an e-text.
Freedom of conscience and religion by Richard Moon. Table of Contents. Also available as an e-text.
Understanding Charter damages: the Judicial evolution of a charter remedy by W.H. Charles Table of Contents Also available as an e-text

Case Law

For more information on finding cases see our research guide : Finding and researching cases

E-Resources

Print

Alberta Court Judgments

A collection of the judgments of the Alberta Courts is available from CanLII. The official version of the reasons for judgment is the signed original or handwritten endorsement in the court file. If there is a question about the content of a judgment, the original court file takes precedence.

Digests

The Canadian Abridgment available on: WestlawNext Canada

All Canadian Summaries, Canadian Case Summaries and Canada Digest are available on: LexisAdvance® Quicklaw®

Legislation

Federal

Provincial

Alberta Human Rights Act, RSA 2000, c A-25.5

To access or purchase the official version, go to Alberta Queen’s Printer

Encyclopedias

Canadian Encyclopedic Digest

Canadian encyclopedic digest (C.E.D.) (Western)

Sections related to Constitutional law include:

Aboriginal Law.
Administrative Law.
Human Rights.
Municipal Corporations-General.
Parliament & Legislature.

The CED provides discussion of these areas of law with annotations to legislation and case law.

Available electronically through: WestlawNext Canada

Halsbury's Laws of Canada

Halsbury’s laws of Canada is a multi-volume set includes coverage of Federal, Provincial & Territorial legislation

Also available electronically through: LexisAdvance® Quicklaw®

Titles related to Constitution Law and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms include:

Aboriginal Law (HAB)
Administrative Law (HAD)
Constitutional Law: Charter Rights (HCHR)
Constitutional Law: Division of Powers (HCL)
Legislatures (HLE)

Additional information may be found under other topical headings.

Journals

Print

E-Resources

Canadian Journal of Human Rights
LexisAdvance® Quicklaw®
WestlawNext Canada – Contains a collection of Canadian journals and law reviews, as well as all articles and case comments appearing in Carswell law reports.
HeinOnline – Provides full-text access to Canadian and international law reviews and legal journals.

Websites

Alberta

Advocacy & Special Interest Groups

Agencies

Alberta Human Rights Commission

Federal

Advocacy & Special Interest Groups

Agencies

Canadian Human Rights Commission

Legal Blogs

General Information

Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms – provides information about the charter and summaries of each section and its purpose
Primary Documents -Searchable cite containing historical information on the Constitution
Supreme law : an introduction
History before 1981

Research Groups

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