Subject Guides: Selected Topics in Law: Legal History

History - Databases

America: History and Life
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Historical Abstracts
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Contains text in Afrikaans, Albanian, Arabic, Belarusian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Finnish, Flemish, French / Français, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese and Welsh languages.

Government Information Subject Guide

Government Information

Alberta Legal History

Alberta Law Collection
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Historical legal documents from the Legislative Assembly of Alberta plus retrospective and current Bylaws from a selection of Alberta Municipalities. The Assembly documents include Statutes and Revised Statutes, Ordinances of the Northwest Territories, Bills, Debates (Hansard), Journals of the Alberta Legislature and the Alberta Gazette.

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Formerly knows as Our Future, Our Past: The Alberta Heritage Digitization Project
Legal Archives Society of Alberta
Provincial Archives of Alberta

Canadian Legal History

Canadian Encyclopedia Online
Canadian Parliamentary Historical Resources
A free searchable database of digitized versions of parliamentary publications from the 1st Session of the 1st Parliament (1867) until coverage at ourcommons.ca and sencanada.ca begins. The publications that are made available are: debates, journals, committee documentation and bills of both the Senate and the House of Commons. It also contains the Senate Minutes of Proceedings, the Rules of the Senate, the House of Commons Votes and Proceedings, and the Standing Orders of the House of Commons. Historical sessional papers are also available from 1867 to 1901.

Canadiana Online This link opens in a new window
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Canadiana Online consists of monographs, journals and government publications. It captures the full span of Canada's documentary record, and includes material published from the time of the first European settlers to the first half of the 20th century and collections focused on Aboriginal (Indigenous) Studies, the history of French Canada, and the Hudson's Bay Company. Early Canadiana Online has been incorporated into this database in 2019.
Includes text in Chinook, Chipewyan, Cree, German, English, French / Français, Latin, Micmac, Mohawk, Nootka, Ojibwa, and Ukranian languages

Legal History - Databases

These resources are useful for the study of Anglo-American legal history generally. They include primary materials, digital books, case law reports and sources for historical versions of statute law.

HeinOnLine This link opens in a new window
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HeinOnLine includes modules for legal journals, government documents, foreign and international law materials, legal classics, world trials and other legal research collections.
Making of the Modern World This link opens in a new window
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Also known as: |The Making of the Modern Economy|
Early English Books Online This link opens in a new window
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Making of Modern Law: Legal Treatises 1800-1926 This link opens in a new window
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Making of Modern Law: Foreign Primary Sources, 1600-1970 This link opens in a new window
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Also known as: |The Making of the Modern Economy|
Making of Modern Law: Foreign, Comparative and International Law, 1600-1926 This link opens in a new window
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Making of Modern Law: Primary Sources, 1620-1970 Digital Archive This link opens in a new window
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Making of Modern Law: Supreme Court Records & Briefs, 1832-1978 This link opens in a new window
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LLMC Digital
Access to LMC Digital ended after August 31, 2022, due to publisher partnership changes

Introduction

Legal history or the history of law is the study of how law has evolved and why it has changed. It is closely connected to the development of civilizations and is part of the broader context of social history.

We have many resources in different formats (online, print and microform) for Canadian and British legal history. Check the History databases as well as the legal ones.

Case Law

Alberta Law Reports
v.1(1908)-v.26(1932/1933)
Cases determined in the Supreme Court of Alberta
British Columbia Reports
Full text cases dating from 1867 to 1948
Judgments of the Supreme Court of Canada (Lexum)
Supreme Court of Canada judgments since its creation in 1875 and judgments in leave applications since 2006. Also includes News Releases, Bulletins.

vLex Justis (formerly JustisOne) This link opens in a new window
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vLex Justis contains case law, legislation, and law reports from the U.K., Ireland, Europe, and the European Union. This platform also hosts Irwin Law books.
ICLR (The Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England & Wales) This link opens in a new window

English Reports
English case law from 1220 - 1873 as reported in the nominate reporters.

Making of Modern Law: Trials 1600-1926 This link opens in a new window
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Examples include trials involving Dred Scott, John Peter Zenger, Susan B. Anthony, Oscar Wilde, the Boston Massacre, Lizzie Borden, Sacco and Vanzetti, Leopold and Loeb, the impeachment of Andrew Johnson, the Bounty mutineers, Salem witchcraft, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, Aaron Burr, John Brown and Alfred Dreyfus. Includes full text of books and pamphlets and other documents, and subjects covered include adultery, commercial law, conspiracy, constitutional law, crimes against persons, domestic relations, dueling, elections, impeachment, international law, land, libel, military offenses, murder, slavery, theft, torts, treason and wills. In addition to works pertaining to English-speaking jurisdictions such as the United States, Britain, Ireland and Canada, English-language titles about trials in other jurisdictions such as France are included. Books encompassing multiple trials are included as well as books about a single trial. Books about general trial procedures, legal doctrines and advocacy methods are excluded, as are books about crimes not resulting in trials.