Journals and General Commentary
For finding open access, peer-reviewed journal publications on legal topics. These aren't just articles on law, they're articles that expand what we might think about law.
SSRN: Legal Scholarship Network
Can be found: at their website here.
The SSRN (Social Science Research Network) is a huge open source social sciences database that allows most of its content to be downloaded for free. The Legal Scholarship Network is the SSRN's law collection, which boasts over 350,000 articles by over 150,000 authors.
The range of document types that SSRN offers cannot be compared. You can find papers, book chapters, dissertations, conferences posters, and more.
There are a few ways to access the Legal Scholarship Network.
1. Advanced Search
From the top menu, click on Browse and navigate to the Advanced Search tab.
Scroll down the page to find the Network option. All the SSRN's collections are selected by default.
To narrow our results, select only the Law collection.
Then use your preferred Advance Search fields to search the collection.
2. Subject Browse
If you'd prefer to browse the scholarship on a specific legal topic, you can find all of the Legal Scholarship Network's subject headings on this page.
Scroll to the bottom to see the entire index of subject headings.
When you click on one, it takes you to a customized search page that allows you to search within one specific heading. Here is the Canadian Law eJournal's page as an example.
More SSRN Searching Tips from the University of Washington's Gallagher Law Library (including setting up a free account):
Journal of Law and Social Policy (JLSP)
Can be found: at their website here.
Now run by one of Canada's most notable law schools, the Journal of Law and Social Policy is a journal that focuses on the intersections of law and sociology. It highlights social justice legal issues in particular, including how low income and marginalized people interact with/are affected by different areas of law in their daily lives.
It was originally started in 1985 by the Ontario Association of Legal Clinics, then run by Legal Aid Ontario until it was relaunched by Osgoode Hall in 2014. Both past and current iterations are archived on Osgoode's website.
While it only spans 36 volumes, but with this journal's strong emphasis on the social impact of law it would be a great resource for sociological perspectives.
Searching the journal:
On the homepage: scroll down until you find the search bar on the lefthand side.
While you can browse volumes or keyword search directly from the home page, we highly recommend using Advanced Search.
From here you have more options to search by field and date parameters.
Since the keyword search is pretty rudimentary and the collection is relatively small, we recommend:
If the results are lacking, try broadening your search by using more general keywords.
Osgoode Hall Law Journal (OHLJ)
Can be found: at their website here.
Jointly run by Osgoode Hall students and faculty, the Osgoode Hall Law Journal is a high quality publication that accepts inter-disciplinary legal scholarship. It has a wide range of commentary and perspectives spanning 60 volumes since 1958.
The journal emphasises creative scholarship that brings new perspectives on legal subjects. And while the focus is on Canadian law, there are some international perspectives as well.
This would be most useful for reflections on law that are a little off the well-trodden path. Articles may reflect more current topics than the usual, slow-moving academic publication cycle allows.
Additionally, since Osgoode Hall is arguably Canada's most famous law school, the subjects covered in this publication may reflect new trends in scholarship.
Searching the journal:
The search filters are limited, so we recommend either:
If all else fails, browsing articles published by volume on the left sidebar also works!