CanLii is a publicly available search platform you can use to find case law, legislation, and commentary.
CanLii has three search boxes:
If you are browsing to try and identify specific cases for your LAWS-1207 course, we recommend you use the 'Document text' search box and browse using keywords.
In the Document text search field, CanLii uses Boolean search operators to help create successful searches.
| Operators (in order of priority) | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| * | Replaces zero, one or more characters at the end of a word. | constru* = construct, construction, constructing |
| " " | Groups words to form a phrase. | "racial profiling" |
| ( ) | Gives priority to an operator: EXACT, OR, /n, /s, /p, NOT or AND. | (police or law enforcement) AND "racial profiling" |
| OR | Retrieves documents containing either of the two terms. | police OR law enforcement |
| /n | Retrieves documents containing the two terms placed within n terms of one another. | letter /5 credit |
| /s | Retrieves documents containing both terms in the same sentence. | tax /s income |
| /p | Retrieves documents containing both terms in the same paragraph. | levy /p probate |
| NOT | Retrieves only documents that do not contain the term that follows. | custody NOT child |
| AND | Retrieves documents that contain all the terms. | permit AND hunting |
| [No operator] | Retrieves documents that contain all the terms (i.e., it is equivalent to AND). Documents matching the same adjacent terms possibly forming a phrase are ranked first in search results. | privacy access housing unit |
You can filter search results by:
CanLii has several features within a case to help you understand the case better. 
On the right side of a case is a 'heatmap' that shows you where the most cited parts are in your case of interest — the darker the shade, the more a passage has been cited.
Each paragraph that has been cited by subsequent cases has a 'paragraph tools' button that states the number of cases that have cited that paragraph.
If you click on the button, you can select 'Citing documents (#)' to view all cases that have cited that paragraph.
Click on 'Treatment' at the top of the page to see what subsequent cases have cited your current case.
If any cases have discussed your current case, they will be listed under 'Discussions' or 'Unfavorable mentions'. Click on these to learn more about how your case has been treated.
CanLii uses a 'jalapeno' system of 'discussion intensity' for citation/note-up searches - the more jalapenos a case has, the more discussion of the noted-up case it has. The maximum number of jalapenos is five.
Screenshot of CanLii's Jalapeno System:
