The Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII; French: Institut canadien d'information juridique) is a non-profit organization created and funded by the Federation of Law Societies of Canada in 2001 on behalf of its 14 member societies. CanLII is a member of the Free Access to Law Movement, which includes the primary stakeholders involved in free, open publication of law throughout the world.[1]
| Type | Non-profit |
|---|---|
| Purpose | Legal education |
Parent organization | Federation of Law Societies of Canada |
| Website | www |
Background
editCanLII offers free public access to over 2.4 million documents[2] across more than 300 case law and legislative databases.[3] The official websites of provincial governments, which provide access to primary legislative documents, are linked to CANLII online.[4] The CANLII database is one of the most comprehensive collections of Canadian federal, provincial and territorial legislation.[5] It is used by lawyers, legal professionals and the general public, with usage averaging over 30,000 visits per day.[6] The case law database is reportedly growing at a rate of approximately 120,000 new cases each year, 20% of which are historic cases which are included to enrich existing databases.[7]
History
editIn April 2014, CanLII launched CanLII Connects, a legal community sourced publication and discussion platform for case law summaries and commentaries.[8][9]
In March 2018, CanLII launched a commentary program including law reviews, e-books, articles, public legal education materials, and reports.[10]
In June 2020, CanLII started actively promoting the CanLII guest writer program.[11] As of February 2024[update], CanLII is piloting the use of a large language model to generate artificial intelligence case summaries.[12]
Other websites will often use CanLII as their primary source when referring to Canadian case law,[13] and as of the 10th Edition of the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation, is the designated preferred citation, in the absence of official court-issued neutral citations.[14][15]
References
edit- ^ "Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII) acquires Lexum, a Montreal technology firm". canlii.org. 2018-02-28. Retrieved 2019-11-26.
- ^ "CanLII - Search all CanLII Databases". Canlii.ca. Retrieved 2018-09-12.
- ^ "CanLII - Scope of CanLII's Databases". Canlii.ca. Retrieved 2018-09-12.
- ^ Dina, Yemisi (2015-04-10). Law Librarianship in Academic Libraries: Best Practices. Chandos Publishing. p. 30. ISBN 978-0-08-100179-0.
- ^ Siu, Bobby (2020-04-21). "Appendix 2". Developing Public Policy, Second Edition: A Practical Guide. Canadian Scholars’ Press. ISBN 978-1-77338-175-6.
- ^ "CanLII's Top Ten Accessed Cases from 2018 – Slaw". www.slaw.ca. 17 December 2018. Retrieved 2018-12-17.
- ^ "Un million de décisions..." droit-inc.com. 2012-02-21. Retrieved 2012-02-26.
- ^ "CanLII Connects!". National Magazine. Canadian Bar Association. Archived from the original on 2014-10-19. Retrieved 2014-10-10.
- ^ Kowalski, Mitch (4 April 2014). "CanLII Connects website connects accessible law to Canadians". Financial Post. Retrieved 10 October 2014.
- ^ "More commentary!". The CanLII Blog. 2018-04-20. Retrieved 2018-09-12.
- ^ "CanLII | Common Law Marriage in British Columbia". commentary.canlii.org. Retrieved 2020-06-19.
- ^ CanLII, Steinlauf v. Deol (AI Case Analysis), accessed 17 February 2024
- ^ "Caselaw.ninja, retrieved 2021-06-17". Retrieved Dec 30, 2022.
- ^ Rosborough, Hannah (2023-10-17). "McGill Guide 10th Edition: Hierarchy of Sources". Slaw. Retrieved 2024-04-21.
- ^ "On CanLII's new place in the McGill Guide's hierarchy of sources". The CanLII Blog. 2023-11-15. Retrieved 2024-04-21.