LibGuides: Community Legal Information: Journals and databases

Open-Access Legal Commentary

Commentary on CanLII
Commentary on CanLII includes various types of secondary law materials, from law reviews and treatises to reports and articles.
Law Commons
Provides centralized, consolidated access to almost 200,000 law-related scholarly articles on Digital Commons, an open-access aggregator.
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)
Oxford Scholarship Online
This link is for titles in law that are free, open-access, or unlocked.

Key databases and indexes

Law Journal Library (HeinOnline) This link opens in a new window This database includes more than 3,000 law and law-related periodicals featuring subjects such as criminal justice, political science, technology, human rights, and more. Coverage for all journals is from inception and goes through the most currently published issues allowed based on contracts with publishers. More Information: https://heinonline.org/HeinDocs/LawJournalLibrary.pdf
Topic: Journals; Law (General)
Jurisdiction: Australia / Canada - Federal / Canada - Provinces / Commonwealth / New Zealand / United Kingdom / United States
Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals (IFLP), 1985-present This link opens in a new window Indexes legal literature worldwide, covering all forms of foreign (non-Anglo-American) law.This includes comparative law and legal systems, such as Islamic law; socialist law; public and private international law; and transnational commercial law. The types of documents covered include journal articles, congress reports, essay collections, yearbooks, and book reviews. The database encompasses all languages.
Topic: International Law; Journals and Journal Indexes
Jurisdiction: International
Index to Canadian Legal Literature This link opens in a new window From the Westlaw home page click on Index to Canadian Legal Literature (ICLL)
Topic: Journals and Journal Indexes
Jurisdiction: Canada - Federal / Canada - Provinces
LegalTrac This link opens in a new window Provides indexing for more than 1,400 titles including major law reviews, legal newspapers, bar association journals and international legal journals. Indexes law journals from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. Includes academic reviews, bar association journals, specialty journals. Also contains law-related articles from over 1,000 additional business, criminology, general interest titles.
Topic: Journals and Journal Indexes
Jurisdiction: Australia / Canada - Federal / Commonwealth / International / Multijurisdictional / United Kingdom / United States

Key journals

Canadian Review of Social Policy

Aims to promote the exchange of ideas amongst a network of people involved in education, the public sector and social movements in the field of Canadian social policy and administration.

Journal of Gender, Race & Justice

Features articles on race, sex, class, religion, and other subjects.

Canadian Family Law Quarterly (available on Westlaw or in print PER C1785)

Canadian Journal of Family Law (available online or in print PER C17415)

Osgoode Digital Commons resources

The Osgoode Digital Commons is the institutional repository of Osgoode Hall Law School of York University. The Commons captures, preserves and makes available to the global public the intellectual output of the law school, including faculty research, scholarship and publications; journals and research centres; selected records and archives; and digital initiatives from the Osgoode Hall Law School Library.

Featured Osgoode journals:

Journal of Law and Social Policy
- The JLSP seeks to encourage debate and dialogue on important issues at the intersection of law and society, particularly as they impact low income individuals and disadvantaged communities.
Osgoode Hall Law Journal
- Publishing continuously since 1958, the Osgoode Hall Law Journal is one of Canada's premier peer-reviewed law journals, with an international reputation for leadership in innovative, interdisciplinary and provocative legal scholarship.
Osgoode Hall Review of Law and Policy
- A peer-reviewed, student-run online legal journal established in 2006 and active up to 2013. This journal is no longer active.

Featured Osgoode Digital Commons articles:

Hutchinson, Allan C., "Practising law for rich and poor people: towards a more progressive approach." (2020). Articles & Book Chapters. 2835. https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/scholarly_works/2835
Koshan, Jennifer; Mosher, Janet; and Wiegers, Wanda, "The Costs of Justice in Domestic Violence Cases : Mapping Canadian Law and Policy" (2020). Articles & Book Chapters. 2850. https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/scholarly_works/2850
Barkaskas, Patricia; Alcorn, Melanie; Adair, Ryan; Gotziaman, Kate; Mackie, Jennifer; Northcote, Madeleine; and Wicks, Victoria. "Reflecting on Clinical Legal Education at the Indigenous Community Legal Clinic." Journal of Law and Social Policy 32. (2020): 138-157. https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/jlsp/vol32/iss1/9
Zemans, Frederick and Amaral, Justin. "A Current Assessment of Legal Aid in Ontario." Journal of Law and Social Policy 29. (2018): 1-28. https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/jlsp/vol29/iss1/1
Marsden, Sarah. "Just Clinics: A Humble Manifesto." Journal of Law and Social Policy 32. (2020): 7-31. https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/jlsp/vol32/iss1/2