Starting Tuesday, May 12, our library will host 1-hour legal research sessions for Jackman Law's Summer Research Assistants, plus vendor‑led database workshops. See the schedule of our in-person and online sessions.

Thank you to those who have already referred their RAs to us. We will continue to welcome new hires throughout the summer, so please send your RAs' names and email addresses to law.infoexpress@utoronto.ca .

We are very pleased to announce that Sooin Kim is the Bora Laskin Law Library’s new Chief Librarian. Working at the Faculty of Law for 23 years, Sooin cares deeply about the library and its role within the academic community.

Building on the comprehensive library services offered to faculty, Sooin’s vision includes supporting researchers as they navigate open‑access options in their scholarship and publishing decisions, especially with upcoming changes to SSHRC’s open‑access requirements. Sooin believes the library can play a role in critically examining AI‑enabled legal research, emphasizing the need to carefully evaluate emerging tools before trusting them.

Sooin is deeply committed to supporting students through teaching and a focus on student mental health and wellness initiatives. Recently, she co-led the Sensory‑Friendly Law Library Project, creating more inclusive study environments through offering alternative lighting, furniture, and designated quiet spaces. The pilot project supports students with diverse sensory needs, while raising staff awareness of universal design principles and the importance integrating sensory considerations into library spaces.

Sooin is also proud of the Jackman Law Animal Law Program’s Necessary Cruelty project, the first‑ever exhibit installed at the Law Library. Dramatic and impactful, the exhibit offered a new way of thinking of the library space. Its success has strengthened Sooin’s interest in collaborating with faculty on similar projects that use the library environment in non-traditional ways to enhance teaching and learning.

Sooin is committed to maintaining the library as a welcoming, collegial space for both faculty and students, while continuing to support teaching and research. She welcomes inquiries and collaboration on new projects.

Our library now has three Animal Law 2025 compendiums from the Brooks Institute for Animal Rights Law & Policy:
•    Recent Developments in Animal Law Scholarship: 2025 Highlights and Trends
•    Recent Developments in United States Animal Law & Policy: 2025 Year‑In‑Review
•    Recent Developments in Canadian Animal Law & Policy: 2025 Year‑In‑Review

The Canadian edition of the annual compendium is produced through a partnership between the Brooks Institute for Animal Rights Law & Policy and the Jackman Law University of Toronto Animal Law Program. Each compendium is derived from the bi‑monthly Brooks Animal Law Digest: Canada Edition, authored by U of T’s Animal Law Research Associate, and brings together the year’s most significant developments in Canadian animal law.

The 2025 Year-in-Review recognizes the contributions and analysis of Jackman Law’s Professor Angela Fernandez, Research Associates Krystal‑Anne Roussel, and Kira Berkeley. The compendium explores major cases, policy updates, and legislation that shaped 2025 Canadian animal law. 

Find the Recent Developments in Canadian Animal Law & Policy 2025 Year-In-Review in print or online.

Co-authored by Professor Benjamin Alarie, Superjustice: Law in the Age of Artificial Intelligence offers a new framework for implementing AI technologies to transform legal education, institutions, and profession. Access the eBook version of Superjustice through Oxford Academic.

Part of The History and Theory of International Law series, Professor David Schneiderman's A Sociology of International Investment Law: Themes from Max Weber applies Weber's sociological methods and themes to international investment law. Access this open-access title on the Oxford Academic platform.

If you recently published a new book or chapter, please email InfoEXPRESS so we can feature your work in a future library newsletter!

Accessing online articles is about to get much easier with OpenAthens, and watch out for upcoming changes to Westlaw.

Starting the week of May 19th, U of T Libraries will migrate to a new authentication and sign-in system for eResources called OpenAthens. This service will make it easier to access online resources (including articles and databases).

Major changes affecting Law researchers and instructors

• UTORid login required on campus: Even while using your office computer, you will be prompted to login with your UTORid to access online resources. You only need to do this once every 8 hours if you do not close your internet browser.
• Directly log into a database: You will be able to access most online library resources directly with your UTORid. “University of Toronto Library” will appear as an option, when you are prompted to select your institution.
• Broken links: Links containing “myaccess.library” will no longer work. You must update these URLs in your bookmarks, in your citations manager (e.g., Zotero), in course syllabi or Quercus. For instructions, see “What links will I need to update the week of May 19th?” on U of T Libraries’ Q&As page.

What does NOT change for Law researchers and instructors

• Access via Library Catalogue: Accessing online resources should work as usual via the U of T Library Catalogue website (LibrarySearch).
• Off-campus access: Users working off-site continue to login with their UTORids to access online resources.

For more details, visit the Q&As page on the U of T Libraries website , or email InfoEXPRESS if you need help changing your myaccess links.

As of May 18th, EBSCOhost and Ebook Central will stop using Adobe Digital Editions for full eBook offline downloads. 

This change only affects users who download full eBooks for offline reading and have created optional personal user accounts on these platforms. There is no change to reading eBooks in your internet browser or downloading individual chapters or sections. 

For more details about downloading ebooks for offline use, please contact the Digital Services Librarian, or visit the links below:

• For EBSCO titles, see EBSCOhost eBooks Thorium FAQ.
• For Proquest Ebook Central titles, see Ebook Central App FAQ.

As of March 2026, the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations has a new interface! First launched in June 2003, legal researchers continue to use the Cardiff Index to decode citation abbreviations to legal journal titles and law reporters publications from 298 jurisdictions. 

Please note that the Index is still under development to fix a few bugs. However, major changes include:

• New Jurisdictions filter on the homepage
• “Search by title” and “Search by abbreviation” are now integrated as a single search box. Users must toggle between these options before searching.

Thomson Reuters will be migrating Canadian law school academic accounts to their next generation Westlaw Advantage platform in May 2026. Westlaw Advantage will have the same primary and secondary source content that is currently included in Westlaw Edge Canada. The new platform will include agentic AI-tool, Deep Research, which supersedes AI-Assisted Research.

Migration dates are TBD, but we will share more details as we receive them from Thomson Reuters. 

The Bora Laskin Law Library is pleased to offer individualized support to help Faculty of Law scholars enhance the visibility, accuracy, and impact of their research. 

We can assist with creating and maintaining HeinOnline Author Profile Pages, ORCID records, and Google Scholar profiles. These three key platforms can improve discoverability and ensure proper attribution of your work. 

From establishing new profiles to reviewing existing ones for accuracy, our team is here to help strengthen your scholarly profile across the research landscape.

Please contact sooin.kim@utoronto.ca or alexia.loumankis@utoronto.ca for individualized assistance. 

The Guide canadien de la référence juridique en accès libre (RJAL) is now on CanLII. The RJAL is the French version of the Canadian Open Access Legal (COAL) Citation Guide.

Not a simple one-to-one translation, RJAL’s terminology and stylistic recommendations are aligned with recognized French‑language standards in Canada. It introduces a section on multilingual legal sources, reflecting the growing need to cite materials published in more than one language. Learn more in CanLII's blog post about RJAL.

Early adopters of the COAL-RJAL include: Court of Appeal of Saskatchewan, Court of King’s Bench for Saskatchewan, Provincial Court of Saskatchewan, Thompson Rivers University Law Journal, and Dalhousie Law Journal. Various Canadian law school instructors have adopted COAL-RJAL in their classrooms.

Questions about COAL-RJAL? Contact Alexia Loumankis.

Our Summer Research Assistant instructional program launches on Tuesday May 12, 2026. 

We will provide in‑person and remote legal research instruction, including vendor‑led database training sessions.

Please send your RA's names and emails to law.infoexpress@utoronto.ca. We will contact the RAs directly with the details of the summer program. Please feel free to refer new hires to us throughout the summer. 

Find Professor Simon Stern’s contribution “The Treatise and the Human Figure” in Part 3 (Identity) of New Perspectives on the Legal Treatise. 

This collection of essays edited by Femi Cadmus and Nicholas Mignanelli are based on the proceedings of the Second Yale Legal Information Symposium, which took place on March 24, 2023 at Yale Law School. Essays examine the legal treatise through the lenses of history, authorship, identity, and technological transitions.

Find New Perspectives on the Legal Treatise in our catalogue. 
 

If you recently published a new book or chapter, please email InfoEXPRESS so we can feature your work in a future library newsletter!

Earn 2 LSO Professionalism Hours while learning how to use GenAI tools responsibly in legal research!

Queen’s Law is offering a 1-day virtual course on Friday, April 17. Participants will explore real-life scenarios and learn practical strategies for using GenAI responsibly in the research process.

For the schedule and registration details, visit the GenAI in Contemporary Legal Research course page at Queen’s Law. Discounts may be requested for non-profit and educational organizations. Registration closes April 8. 

Track trade law disputes and scholarly impact rankings with recent database upgrades. Read on for more law eResource updates.

In January, HeinOnline launched their Scholarly Impact Rankings tool. 

In addition to enhancing their own visibility on HeinOnline, researchers can harness this platform to explore trends in legal scholarship. Some highlights:

• U of T users can access the complete rankings through our HeinOnline subscription
• Users can sort interactive data tables (by h-index, citation counts, and more) and download CSV data for offline analysis
• Impact rankings include authors outside of academia, including practitioners, judges, policy experts, and other contributors.

Read HeinOnline’s Scholarly Impact Rankings FAQs page or learn more about the ranking methodology. Need help putting your best digital foot forward? Email Sooin Kim and Alexia Loumankis for support with your author profiles.

Trying to keep up with the latest trade law disputes? WorldTradeLaw.net’s Trade Law Dispute Tracker lets you quickly access key primary documents, including government statements, court motions, WTO communications and more.

The latest updates appear at the top of the table, and users can filter the table by specific disputes, date, dispute type. Comprehensive coverage starts in April 2023, with earlier coverage for select disputes. RSS options are found at the bottom of the page.

Our WorldTradeLaw.net subscription also includes “Dispute Settlement Commentary”, which contain summaries and critical analyses of all new WTO Panel and Appellate Body reports.

Of interest to researchers who study American law or legal education, we now subscribe to HeinOnline’s West Academic Casebooks Archive collection. 

This collection contains all out-of-print and superseded* West Academic casebooks from the: 

• American Casebook Series
• University Casebook Series 
• Hornbook Series 
• Nutshell Series

*The collection does not include the two most recent editions of any title. 

Researchers seeking recent editions can contact InfoExpress. Thank you to everyone who participated in the trial.

Starting April 22, 2026, the Canadian Abridgment eDigests tool will be replaced by Canadian Abridgment Digests Alert integrated directly within Westlaw Canada.

To continue receiving alerts, you must create a new alert after April 22. For instructions, see the training guide: How to use alerts to stay up to date on Canadian Abridgment Digests.

View the notice from Thomson Reuters.