Happy new year! Read on for the latest law library news impacting your teaching and research. Don't forget to check our Digital Services Dispatch for legal research database training and updates.

In celebration of 75 years of the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Law (now the Henry NR Jackman Faculty of Law), we’re excited to highlight Looking Forward By Looking Back: 75 Years of Modern Legal Education at the University of Toronto. In fifteen chapters, this book showcases a wealth of legal scholarship first presented at a conference in March 2025. It commemorates the faculty’s legacy and its pivotal role in shaping the future of Canadian law. 

Edited by the Faculty’s outgoing dean and incoming dean, Professor Jutta Brunnée and Professor Christopher Essert, the book brings together contributions from current law professors about the impact of our former and emeritus law professors on Canada’s legal profession and education. 

Starting from a request from Professor Essert in 2023, our Law Library team embarked on “Project Diamond” to support our faculty’s preparations for the 75th anniversary conference.

Consulting historical yearbooks and archived websites, we identified over 100 appointed full-time faculty members from the school’s inception to present day. Then our team compiled a list of each member’s published works, revealing the sheer breadth and depth of U of T’s legal scholarship. These publication lists are available to Jackman Law researchers and staff upon request by emailing InfoEXPRESS.

We are pleased to announce that Jo-Anna Hines has joined the Bora Laskin Law Library as our new User Services Generalist! 

Jo-Anna graduated from the University of West Indies, Mona (Kingston, Jamaica) with a BSc in Political Science and from Seneca Polytechnic with Paralegal and Library and Information Technician diplomas. Previously, Jo-Anna worked at Miller Thomson LLP as a file and billing administration clerk, Centennial College as a library technician, and at Osgoode Hall Law School library as law library clerk. 

Jo-Anna is excited to be joining the Bora Laskin Law Library team and will be providing both public and technical services at our library. On occasion, Jo-Anna enjoys listening to radio dramas.

With classes back in full swing, we are highlighting The Thrive Guide: Library Resources for Law Student Mental Health and Wellness. This is a curated collection available for students of books and resources designed to support their mental health and overall well‑being during law school. It brings together practical materials on time management, stress, resilience, study strategies, and more. The full guide is available on our library website, and a selection of featured titles will be on display in the library from now until January 26th. 

We welcome faculty to browse the guide and point students to it as a helpful tool during busy points in the term. There are four sections in the collection: Thrive as a Law Student, Thrive as a Lawyer, Thrive in the Workplace, and Thrive Outside of Law. Some notable books include: How to Succeed (and Stay Human) in Law School: Pathways to Happiness and High Performance in the Study and Practice of Law by Lynda Collins, and The Mindful Law Student: A Mindfulness in Law Practice Guide by Scott L. Rogers.

If you have published a book, chapter, or article recently, please let us know so we can feature it in our next issue of InfoEXPRESS Extra!

Professor Mayo Moran’s latest work published by Oxford University Press explores how institutions, governments, and communities redress historic injustices, such as colonialism, slavery, genocide, abuse, and looting. Moran’s book covers the history of reparations as well as lessons learned.

Find Making Amends for Historic Wrongs as an eBook on the Oxford University Press platform.

Recently published by Cambridge University Press as an open-access title, Professor Kent Roach's latest book addresses miscarriages of justice, wrongful convictions and innocence. In addition to comparing justice systems of England, the US, China, and India, Roach uses legal process and historical approaches in this work.

Find Justice for Some as an eBook on the Cambridge University Press platform.

Happy new year! Read on for a recap of the new General AI feature in Lexis+ and upcoming database training webinars at Jackman Law.

As of December 17, all law school users can access to General AI, a new feature added to the Protégé module in Lexis+ Canada. General AI provides in-platform access to different generative AI models, including GPT4o, OpenAI o3, GPT-5, Claude Sonnet 4.

To prepare Jackman Law instructors and researchers for Winter term, we arranged two training sessions on January 8 and 13, led by our LexisNexis trainer. Key takeaways for instructors:

• Unlike Protégé (legal AI assistant), General AI is not grounded in the LexisNexis content; it is trained and draws upon content from the open web. 
• Links to external websites supporting General AI responses are currently disabled for security reasons.
• General AI includes “citation assistant” functionality, which supplies a link for cases referenced in the output, if those cases are available in the Lexis+ Legal Research module 
• Protégé’s “Summarize a case” feature no longer displays the human-authored case summaries as a default response. To view a human-authored case summary, navigate to the case itself in the Legal Research module.
• The Vault feature contains OCR functionality to process image-based PDF documents uploaded
• The Submit Feedback link embedded in the AI interface is currently not working for General AI conversations, but errors can be reported from the main menu at the top of the screen.

For more information, see LexisNexis’ 1-page introduction to the new General AI feature and the 1-page comparison sheet explaining the General AI models available.

To request the recording links for January 8 and 13 training, faculty members and instructors can email the Digital Services Librarian. Questions and feedback about the AI features in Lexis+ Canada are also welcome!

Our library has arranged lunchtime training webinars for Jackman Law students between January 21 to February 11. We encourage instructors to remind their students to attend these sessions.

Registration links have been emailed directly to students. Law faculty and staff are also welcome to attend and can register using the links in the FOL events calendar (log-in to view the law school only events). 

Sessions will be led by the database trainers and will be recorded.

Wrap up

If you have questions or comments about our library’s e-Resources and databases, please email our Digital Services Librarian at alexandra.kwan@utoronto.ca.

Wrap up the term with our syllabus service and the latest law library news impacting your teaching and research. Don't forget to check our Digital Services Dispatch for a couple reminders and a spotlight on one of our eResources.

Don't miss the sylla-bus! Last call for syllabus service!

We are still accepting syllabi for our Winter 2026 Syllabus service. This service supports law faculty and staff in providing course readings to students while ensuring compliance with Canadian copyright law and the University of Toronto’s licensing policies.

Don’t delay! Submit your syllabus to law.infoexpress@utoronto.ca. 

7,000+ new articles and 11 new active serials have been added to the HeinOnline Law Journal Library. Some notable new themes range from cybersecurity and digital privacy to comparative legal history and international dispute resolution.

New journals include Journal of Cybersecurity, University of Chicago Business Law Review, and Governance: An International Journal of Policy, Administration, and Institutions.

See more journals in HeinOnline’s Blog post.

Through their publishing program, the Osgoode Society has produced an extensive body of scholarship preserving and promoting Canadian legal history. Check out their latest books authored by our faculty!

Legal historian Jim Phillips, the long-time Editor-in-Chief of the Osgoode Society, explores marital conflict in the 1870s through the case of Robert and Eliza Campbell. This case involved a six-year battle through Ontario courts and a petition to the Parliament of Canada.

Find I Did Not Commit Adultery as an eBook on the De Gruyter platform.

Robert J. Sharpe reflects on a distinguished career that encompasses scholarship, legal practice, and service on the judiciary. As a former president of the Osgoode Society and author of four other Osgoode Society books, this memoir highlights his lasting contributions to the field. 

Find My Life in the Law as an eBook on the De Gruyter platform.

If you have published a book, chapter, or article recently, please let us know so we can feature it in our next issue of InfoEXPRESS Extra!

Read on for end-of-year reminders, and a spotlight on one of our databases!

Hosted on the EBSCO platform, the Index to Legal Periodicals Retrospective: 1908-1981 is a searchable archive index covering legal periodicals published in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.

For researchers interested in the evolution of their topic over time, this index includes articles’ original subject headings, reflecting the language used by legal scholars at the time of publishing. This index uniquely maps these historical subject tags to contemporary terminology, so today’s scholars can look backwards without missing articles. For example, articles tagged with the historical phrase “Master and servant” are also tagged with the current “Employer and employee”.

This searchable and browsable index is a helpful addition to legal researchers’ toolkits, covering articles published between 1908 and 1981. Broader topics include criminal law, federal law, international law, medical law and more. 

Wrap up

If you have questions or comments about our library’s e-Resources and databases, please email our Digital Services Librarian at alexandra.kwan@utoronto.ca.

Let us support your end-of-term prep with our syllabus service and the latest law library news impacting your teaching and research. Also, learn about HeinOnline's AI features, students' access to AI tools in Westlaw, Justice Laws' new look, and more in this month's Digital Services Dispatch.

Syllabus Service due December 3

The Law Library is pleased to provide copyright clearance for Winter 2025 courses through our Syllabus Service. This service supports law faculty and staff in making course readings accessible to students while ensuring compliance with Canadian copyright legislation and the University of Toronto’s licensing agreements and policies.

To participate, please email your syllabus to law.infoexpress@utoronto.ca by Wednesday, December 3, 2025. Submissions will be reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis. 

Thank you to all who have already submitted their syllabus for review.
 

International Open Access Week was October 20-26, 2025. Open Access Week offers the academic and research community a chance to explore the benefits of open access, exchange insights with peers, and promote wider participation in making open access a standard practice in scholarly communication.

As part of sharing content with a global audience, Edward Elgar Publishing offers a wide selection of open access titles, including individual law book chapters and scholarly articles.

You can browse open access law titles on the Elgar Online site. 

Published in The Supreme Court Law Review, Professor Catherine Valcke critically examines the Supreme Court of Canada’s 1981 Ron Engineering decision.

Catherine Valcke, “Is Ron Engineering Good Law in Quebec?”, (2025) 7 SCLR (3d) 75. 
Read the article on Lexis+ Canada.

If you have published a book, chapter, or article recently, please let us know so we can feature it in our next issue of InfoEXPRESS Extra!

We are piloting new lamps and desk risers in the group study rooms to create more comfortable study environments for our students. Lamps are dimmable with adjustable warm and cool temperature light options. Portable and adjustable desk risers convert study tables to a standing workspace. 

For the first round of this project, students can vote for their favourite items using the attached survey QR codes. More changes to come in the winter term!

We encourage faculty to remind students that they can also borrow our focus-aids, including earmuffs, book stands, and light-sensitivity glasses, to improve their studying experience in the library.

Don’t get snowed under by all the website changes this season! Read on for the latest updates to HeinOnline, Westlaw, and more.

HeinOnline recently launched their new AI Summaries feature, run on an in-house AI model. 

Not all articles have an AI summary just yet. If a summary is available for an article, it will appear in three places: Search results, article downloads, and reader interface.

When you run a keyword search, the AI summary will appear in the tab under each search result. In downloaded articles, AI summaries appear after the HeinOnline cover page and before the full text of the article.

Users can access the AI summary from the toolbar while reading the article within the HeinOnline database. Clicking the “sparkles” button will pull up the AI summary associated with the article, which can be copied and pasted into another document.

To see AI Summaries in action, watch HeinOnline’s 2-minute video explaining the new feature and where it appears on the platform. To learn more about HeinOnline’s AI model, visit their AI Infrastructure: Security & Trust Statement.

At this time, the AI Summaries feature cannot be turned off or hidden by default for all U of T users. We know that AI isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but HeinOnline has assured us that they are open to user feedback. If you have any questions or concerns about the new AI feature, please email alexandra.kwan@utoronto.ca.

Canadian law school faculty, staff and their students now have access to AI-Assisted Research on Westlaw Edge Canada and Search & Summarize on Practical Law Canada. AI-Assisted Research page will now appear as the default landing screen in Westlaw unless users adjust individual account settings.

In their November 14 announcement, Thomson Reuters Canada is offering on-demand product training and live training webinars to support the roll-out to law student users. 

Law faculty members who are seeking a custom training session or are experiencing difficulties with accessing new AI features can email our Digital Services Librarian with questions and concerns.

On November 5, Canada’s Department of Justice launched the new Justice Laws website interface to “enhance usability, accessibility, and consistency across government platforms”. 

Notable changes include a simplified homepage, a lighter colour scheme, and removal of the left-side menu. Overall structure and links to the legislation itself remain unchanged. For a list of changes between the old and new site, visit the Table of Concordance.

Justice Laws continues to be the official source of Canadian federal legislation.

Wrap up

If you have questions or comments about our library’s e-Resources and databases, please email our Digital Services Librarian at alexandra.kwan@utoronto.ca.

Our Law Library team welcomes you back for another term! Read on for the latest library news and updates impacting your legal scholarship and teaching.

Animal Law Exhibit

Our library is proud to host the new exhibition presented by the Museum of Human Predation: Necessary Cruelty: The Legal Technology of Domestic Predation. 

This exhibition "examines and materializes the 'Zone of Necessity,' a legal artifact used in the human predatory Age to create realms of lawlessness within the law." 

Collaborating with the Museum of Human Predation (led by M.H. Tse), the law library entrance was transformed into a site of critical engagement. The exhibition’s immersive design guides visitors through a sensory experience as they cross in and out of reflective zones within the space.

Coinciding with the September 12th launch of the Jackman Law’s Animal Law Program, the exhibition will run until November 21, 2025. 

Our team of librarians are excited to introduce a new research guide Imprimatur: Your Guide to Legal Scholarly Publishing. This new resource offers practical tools and insights to help students who are interested in engaging more deeply with the world of legal academia, writing, and publishing.

Thanks to Assistant Dean Emily Orchard for her invaluable feedback during the guide’s development.

Faculty members seeking support for short-term research projects can access a pool of law student research assistants throughout the academic year. Working closely with faculty and guided by our Research & Reference Librarian, RAs help define project scope, conduct research, and communicate results. The RAs are paid from the individual faculty member’s research funds. 

If you would like to hire a Research Assistant, please contact alexia.loumankis@utoronto.ca

See you later, Julie!

Our User Services Generalist, Julie Boon, is leaving the Bora Laskin Law Law Library as she embarks on an exciting new chapter at the U of T Libraries' Scholarly Communications and Copyright Office. Julie provided support in many different areas such as InfoEXPRESS, Syllabus Services, and collections maintenance. We all wish her the best in her new position!

Happy retirement, Gian!

At the end of August, our Chief Librarian, Gian Medves, retired after 36 years of dedicated service at Bora Laskin Law Library. 

Gian has made a lasting impact on the Faculty of Law through his visionary leadership, dedication to curriculum innovation, and development of transformative scholarly resources. Widely respected for his expertise and commitment to equity, he has been a passionate advocate for inclusion, especially in support of Indigenous communities.

Gian recently co-authored a two-part article published on CanLII titled, "Trends in Canadian Academic Law Libraries: Report on the Reinvigorating Academic Law Library Standards Survey". Part One and Part 2. 

Congratulations Gian on a distinguished career and we all wish you the best!

Welcome to our round-up of the latest e-Resources updates at the Law Library. Read on to learn about new AI-features in Westlaw Edge Canada, the refreshed U of T Library catalogue and website, and more!

Faculty users may already have received access to the AI-Assisted Research functionality of CoCounsel in Westlaw Edge Canada. We are awaiting details from Thomson Reuters about this new feature rolling out to Canadian academic users. 

In the meantime, faculty users can register for the next monthly AI-Assisted Research training hosted by Thomson Reuters on October 28 from 2-2:30PM. 

Additional Westlaw live training sessions are available through their Legal Learning Hub (sign-in required).

On the first day of the Fall term, the main U of T Library launched their new website and new library catalogue search interface. Launched in “beta” mode, the central library web team is seeking user feedback to improve the new site. If you have suggestions or comments to share, you can submit a feedback survey embedded at the top of their site or email Alexandra Kwan, Digital Services Librarian.

By the end of October 2025, the new website will become the default U of T Libraries’ landing page.

Along with the Jackman Faculty of Law school site, our Bora Laskin Law Library website got a refresh too! However, you can still find our list of faculty services and past issues of InfoEXPRESS Extra on the new site. If you have questions about our new law library website, please contact Alexandra Kwan, Digital Services Librarian.

Wrap up

If you have questions or comments about our library’s e-Resources and databases, please email our Digital Services Librarian at alexandra.kwan@utoronto.ca.

Subscribed Emond titles

View the list of Emond titles included in our digital subscription. These eBooks are hosted on the VitalSource eReader platform.

Core Casebook Collection (3 digital copies per title)

• Administrative Law in Context, 4th ed. by Colleen M. Flood, Paul Daly, 2022.
• Administrative Law: Cases, Text, and Materials, 8th ed. by Gerald Heckman, Janna Promislow, 2022.
• Canadian Constitutional Law, 6th ed. by Carissima Mathen, Patrick Macklem, 2022.
• Cases and Materials on Contracts, 7th ed. by Stephen M. Waddams, Jassmine Girgis, 2023.
• Civil Litigation Process: Cases and Materials, 9th ed. by Janet Walker, Erik S. Knutsen, 2021.
• Criminal Law and Procedure: Cases and Materials, 12th ed. by Kent Roach, Benjamin L. Berger, 2020.
• Evidence: A Canadian Casebook, 5th ed. by Hamish Stewart, Benjamin L. Berger, 2020.
• Legal Ethics: Theories, Cases, and Professional Regulation, 3rd ed. by Graham, Randal N. M., 2014.
• Property Law: Cases and Commentary, 5th ed. by Mary Jane Mossman, Rosemary Bocska, 2026.
• Public Law: Cases, Commentary, and Analysis, 5th ed. by Philip Bryden, Gerard Kennedy, 2025.
• The Comprehensive Guide to Legal Research, Writing & Analysis, 4th ed. by Moira McCarney, Ruth Kuras, 2024.
• Tort Law: Cases and Materials, 6th ed. by Essert, Christopher, 2025.

Emond Elective Casebook Collection (3 digital copies per title)

• Business Organizations: Practice, Theory and Emerging Challenges, 3rd ed. by Robert Yalden, Mark Gillen, 2025.
• Canadian Bankruptcy and Insolvency Law: Cases, Text, and Materials, 3rd ed. by Anthony Duggan, Stephanie Ben-Ishai, 2014.
• Canadian Intellectual Property Law: Cases and Materials, 3rd ed. by Graham Reynolds, Teresa Scassa, 2022.
• Class Actions in Canada: Cases, Notes, and Materials, 3rd ed. by Janet Walker, H Michael Rosenberg, 2023.
• Commercial and Consumer Sales Transactions: Cases, Text and Materials, 4th ed. by Jacob S. Ziegel, Anthony Duggan, 2001.
• Criminal Procedure: Cases and Materials, by Christopher Sherrin, Dale E. Ives, 2019.
• Environmental Law and Policy, 4th ed. by William A. Tilleman, Alastair R. Lucas, 2020.
• Immigration and Refugee Law: Cases, Materials, and Commentary, 3rd ed. by Sharryn J. Aiken, Colin Grey, 2020.
• Kindred's International Law: Chiefly as Interpreted and Applied in Canada, 10th ed. by Robert J. Currie, Phillip M. Saunders, 2025.
• Private International Law in Common Law Canada: Cases, Text and Materials, 5th ed. by Stephen G.A. Pitel, Martha Bailey, 2022.
• Real Estate Transactions: Cases, Text and Materials, 2nd ed. by Craig R. Carter, David R. Carter, 2017.
• Remedies: Cases and Materials, 8th ed. by Jeffrey B. Berryman, Elizabeth Adjin-Tettey, 2020.
• Secured Transactions in Personal Property: Cases, Text, and Materials, 8th ed. by Anthony Duggan, Michael Burke, 2022.
• Securities Law in Canada: Cases and Commentary, 3rd ed. by Mary Condon, Anita Anand, 2017.
• Sentencing and Penal Policy in Canada: Cases, Materials and Commentary, 4th ed. by Allan S. Manson, Patrick Healy, 2023.
• The Law of Trusts: A Contextual Approach, 4th ed. by Mark R. Gillen, Faye Woodman, 2021.
• Wills and Estates: Cases, Texts, and Materials, 4th ed. by Black, Howard S., 2023.

Selected Emond titles (3 digital copies per title)

• Administrative Law: Principles and Advocacy, 5th ed. by Liz Nastasi, Deborah Pressman, 2023.
• Canadian Immigration and Refugee Law for Legal Professionals, 5th ed. by Fournier-Ruggles, Lynn, 2021.
• Charter Remedies in Criminal Case, 2nd ed. by Asma, Matthew, 2022.
• Indigenous People and the Criminal Justice System, 2nd ed. by Rudin, Jonathan, 2022.

Selected Emond titles (1 digital copy per title)

• Criminal Appeals, 2nd ed. by Jonathan Dawe, Michael Dineen, 2024.
• Digital Evidence, 2nd ed. by Gerald Chan, Susan Magotiaux, 2021.
• Impaired Driving and Other Criminal Code Driving Offences, 2nd ed. by Karen Jokinen, Peter Keen, 2023.
• LGBTQ2+ Law: Practice Issues and Analysis, 1st ed. by Radbord, Joanna, 2019.
• Litigating Artificial Intelligence, 1st ed. by Jill Presser, Jesse Beatson, 2021.
• Ontario Residential Real Estate for Practitioners, 1st ed. by Wolf, Judith M., 2018.
• Search and Seizure, 1st ed. by Nader Hasan, Mabel Lai, 2021.
• Sentencing: Principles and Practice, 2nd ed. by Erin Winocur, Danielle Robitaille, 2023.
• Witness Preparation, Presentation, and Assessment, 1st ed. by Judge Cameron Gunn, Mona Duckett, 2022.

Troubleshooting access to Emond texts on VitalSource

The system says all copies of the text are unavailable.

This means that all available digital copies are “checked out”. Please try to access the text again later. 

If you are finished using your copy, remember to “return” your digital copy before closing your browser so other users can access the book.

You can find some print copies of these texts in our course reserve collection. Check the availability of these texts by searching the title in our library catalogue. 

Do I need to create an individual VitalSource account to access the text?

No. If a digital copy is available, you should only be prompted to log in with your UTORid once. If you are presented with a VitalSource registration page, bypass this step by clicking the “Continue without an account” link in the middle of the form.

Why doesn’t our library have unlimited digital access to these texts?

The subscriptions available to academic libraries are different from subscriptions available to individual subscribers. If you have questions about our library’s subscription, please contact our Digital Services Librarian.

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