Civil Justice Thesaurus
Project Background
In 2006, the University of Alberta granted funding to the Canadian Forum on Civil Justice to conduct preliminary research on the creation of a Thesaurus of Canadian Civil Justice System Terminology. The goals of this research were to measure the approximate size of civil justice system collections in Canada, test the adequacy of Library of Congress Subject Headings for providing access to these materials, and establish and define the need for a Thesaurus of Canadian Civil Justice System Terminology.
Issue Addressed
Law reform and especially legal system reform has been a major focus of Canadian legal professions and institutions over the last 15 years (Cromwell, 1998). It is a focus shared by the US, the UK, and Australia.
Although civil justice proceedings fall within provincial jurisdictions, the goals of reform are often very similar between provinces and territories. A 1996 national study found that three main issues need to be addressed nationwide: delays, costs, and lack of understanding of the system by the public (CBA Task Force on Systems of Civil Justice, 1996).
To maximize their reform efforts, departments of justice, rules committees, the judiciary, court administrators, lawyers, legal academics, and other legal professionals need to be able to access the research and evaluations that have been completed across jurisdictions. Likewise, the public needs to have a clear understanding of the civil justice system and the reform issues if they are to have a meaningful opportunity to participate in consultation.
However, there is fundamental barrier to sharing information effectively between jurisdictions: the wide variety of terminology that currently describes the national, provincial, and territorial civil justice systems. This is especially true of the more recent reform initiatives.
For instance, to meet the common need to reduce delay and costs in civil proceedings, several jurisdictions have instituted regimes to speed and simplify proceedings for certain classes of routine cases. These regimes are called variously:
- Streamlined Procedure (Alberta)
- Fast Track Litigation (British Columbia)
- Expeditied Actions (Manitoba)
- Expedited Trial (Newfoundland)
- Fast Track (Nova Scotia)
- Simplified Procedure (Ontario)
- Simplified Procedure by Way of a Declaration (Quebec)
- Simplified Action (Federal Court) (Ross, 1998-1999)
The Canadian legal community and the public needs a guide to Canadian civil justice terminology that will make it possible to search effectively across Canadian jurisdictions.
The Thesaurus Solution
An electronic thesaurus that can be applied to existing databases is the best way to meet this challenge. The thesaurus must be flexible enough to be useful in a variety of electronic environments, and must also be easy to amend and expand. The thesaurus would provide the following key qualities:
- Fine detail on Canadian civil justice topics
- Readily integrated into existing full-text search engines
- Readily applied to existing catalogue records
- Readily edited and distributed for currency
- Readily expanded
- Useful in print form
References
Canadian Bar Association. Task Force on Systems of Civil Justice. 1996. Report of the Canadian Bar Association Task Force on Systems of Civil Justice. Ottawa: The Association.
Cromwell, Thomas A. 1999. "Canada: Changing Priorities." The Justice System Journal. 20, no. 2: 151-162.
Ross, June. Winter 1998-1999. "Simplified Proceedings." News and Views on Civil Justice Reform. 1: 4-9.