Hyperlawhypertext legal databasebeta

Info Finding your way around

Finding your way around

The graph, the jurisdiction map, the browse panel and search.

The landing page is a map of the corpus, not a list of documents. It has three entry points: the force-directed graph, the jurisdiction map behind Switch jurisdiction, and the browse panel underneath.

The landing graph

Each dot is an instrument or a case. The radius grows with the number of links, so heavily cited statutes and leading judgments stand out. At the fitted view the graph draws only the strongest links; zoom in, or search, to reveal the rest.

  • Hover a node to see its title, citation and link count.
  • Click or tap a node to open it; on touch, tap its name once to focus and again to open.
  • Drag to pan, use the wheel or a pinch to zoom. The view stops at the fitted frame, so you cannot lose the graph in empty space.
  • Search in the find box to filter the graph itself. Matching nodes and their one-hop neighbours stay visible, matches are labelled, and the results rank first.
  • − / + change the node budget (50 to 1,000) and reload the graph.

The jurisdiction map

Switch jurisdiction swaps the graph for a world map. Clicking a country with its own corpus opens that region on the first click. Canada opens the merged Canadian graph; Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Ireland and the United States open their own; the EU is listed under International institutions because it has no country outline.

A region selection changes the graph, the browse panel and the corpus statistics together. The brand link remembers the last region you chose, so clicking the logo returns to that region rather than resetting to Canada.

The browse panel

Below the graph, the Filters box narrows the lists without a page reload (and degrades to ordinary links without JavaScript). The kind chips are additive: every kind the region publishes starts selected, and turning one off narrows the result set. Under them:

  • Letters filter instrument titles and case styles of cause by their first letter.
  • Jurisdiction isolates one origin (for example British Columbia within the Canadian region).
  • Family and year narrow federal regulations by their SOR/SI family and year.
  • Sort orders cases by decision date, style of cause, docket number or link count; instruments follow their consolidation date or title.

Each selected kind gets its own section. A single kind opens expanded; several kinds stay collapsed so the panel remains scannable.

The full search page is at /search (French: /fr/search). It searches instrument titles and aliases, citation paths, provision text, case styles of cause, citations and judgment paragraphs. One page serves every corpus; the old regional addresses such as /bc/search or /us/search redirect to it with the scope filled in.

Scope. A bar under the query box picks the region: Canada, United States, United Kingdom, European Union, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland or All. It starts on the region you came from, otherwise Canada. Below it, jurisdiction chips (for example Federal, British Columbia, Ontario and New Brunswick under Canada) narrow the region; select several, or none for the whole region. Each chip shows how many matches it holds (1,000+ when the count is capped). Tabs split the results into All, Legislation, Cases and Definitions, also with counts, and every result carries a jurisdiction badge.

Definitions and related words. A defined term ("peace officer") is listed with the Act and section that defines it, linked to the definition. Common legal synonyms and abbreviations are searched too; the "Also searched for" line names them; a match on a related word counts a little less than a match on the words you typed. A citation such as s. 8 of the Charter or ITA s 3 jumps straight to the provision, shown as the best match above the results.

Results are ranked the way a lawyer reads them: a title, case name, defined term, heading or marginal note that *is* your query beats one that merely contains it ("Negligence Act" before "Contributory Negligence Act"), words matched as typed beat stemmed look-alikes ("oakes" finds R. v. Oakes, not the Oak Ridges Moraine Act), a name or heading beats a match in body text, and among good matches the more often an instrument, case or the matched provision itself is cited (and constitutional text) ranks higher. When your query names a case, cases are listed before legislation. If a very broad query takes too long, the page shows the closest matches first with a short note that some full-text results may be missing. Results are paged with Previous and Next. When nothing matches, the page offers "Did you mean" spellings and a link to search every region.

Every page except the landing page and the results page carries a search box in the header with instant suggestions (on a province, state or country index it searches that scope): a direct citation first, then Acts, sections, defined terms and cases from the region you are in, and "See all results". Press / to focus it, the arrow keys to move through suggestions, Enter to open one (or to open the results page when none is highlighted) and Esc to close the list. On the landing page the graph's find box plays that role: it filters the graph as you type and Enter opens the full search for the region shown on the map.