Fauteux Library

Fauteux Library
Name	Fauteux Library
Country	Canada
Location	Montreal, Quebec
Established	1967
Type	Law library

Fauteux Library

The Fauteux Library is a major law library located in Montreal, Quebec associated with the Supreme Court of Canada and the judicial community; it serves judges, litigators and legal researchers from institutions such as the Supreme Court of Canada, the Quebec Court of Appeal, the Federal Court of Canada and legal faculties at McGill University and the Université de Montréal. The library supports jurisprudence, statutory research and comparative law referencing materials tied to Canadian constitutional history, landmark decisions, international tribunals and parliamentary collections relevant to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Statute of Westminster. Its holdings and services connect users to resources like the Canadian Legal Information Institute, the Library of Parliament, the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec and the National Library of Canada.

History

The library was established amid institutional developments in the 20th century influenced by figures such as John Turner, Pierre Trudeau, René Lévesque, Brian Mulroney and Lester B. Pearson and by events including the Quiet Revolution, the adoption of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the patriation of the Constitution Act, 1982. Early donors and supporters included members of the Supreme Court like Bora Laskin, Gérald Fauteux, Antonio Lamer and Beverley McLachlin as well as academics from McGill University Faculty of Law, the Université de Montréal Faculty of Law, Osgoode Hall Law School and the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. The collection grew alongside repositories such as Library and Archives Canada, the British Library, the Library of Congress, the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the Supreme Court Library of the United Kingdom, reflecting comparative law interests tied to the Privy Council, the House of Lords, the European Court of Human Rights and the International Court of Justice. Periods of expansion corresponded with legislative changes like the Official Languages Act and landmark rulings including the Morgentaler decision, R. v. Sparrow, R. v. Oakes and Reference re Secession of Quebec.

Architecture and Facilities

Housed in a building that has been compared in institutional function to structures such as the Supreme Court Building in Ottawa, the Courthouse in Montreal and university libraries at Harvard Law School, Yale Law School, Columbia Law School and Oxford's Bodleian Library, the library's architecture integrates spaces for reference, rare collections and digital access. Reading rooms and stack areas are equipped for consultation of materials from the Red Book, Halsbury's Laws, CanLII, Westlaw Canada and LexisNexis, and accommodate microform collections from the National Archives, manuscript collections linked to historical figures like Sir John A. Macdonald, Wilfrid Laurier, Louis St. Laurent and Sir Charles Tupper. Facilities also support audiovisual systems used for conferences involving the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Court, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights and United Nations committees.

Collections and Services

The library's holdings include case law reporters such as the Dominion Law Reports, Supreme Court Reports, Quebec Reports, Federal Courts Reports and law journals from institutions including the University of Toronto Law Journal, the McGill Law Journal, the Revue générale de droit, the Harvard Law Review and the Yale Journal of International Law. It maintains statutory compilations, annotated codes, legislative histories, parliamentary debates from the House of Commons of Canada and the Senate, and secondary sources by authors like Peter Hogg, Eugene Meehan, Gérard LaForest, Louise Arbour, Frank Iacobucci and Rosalie Abella. Services include reference assistance, interlibrary loan with the National Judicial Institute, research guides for constitutional litigation involving cases such as R. v. Jordan, R. v. Gladue, R. v. Bourque and R. v. Jordan, access to digitized archives from the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, and partnerships with organizations like the Canadian Bar Association, the Barreau du Québec and the Federation of Law Societies of Canada.

Role in the Legal Community

Serving judges, clerks, counsel and scholars from bodies such as the Court of Appeal for Ontario, the British Columbia Court of Appeal, the Alberta Court of Appeal, the Manitoba Court of Appeal and the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal, the library plays a central role in supporting appellate advocacy, constitutional challenges, administrative law proceedings and criminal appeals. It interfaces with tribunals like the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal, the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, the Competition Tribunal and the Tax Court of Canada, and supports research for commissions and inquiries including the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the Krever Inquiry, the Arar Inquiry and the Gomery Commission. Collaborative relationships extend to legal publishers such as Carswell, Irwin Law, LexisNexis, Thomson Reuters and Emond, and to international institutions such as the Hague Conference on Private International Law, the OECD, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

Governance and Administration

The library is administered under policies influenced by judicial administration practices in courts like the Supreme Court of Canada, the Federal Court of Appeal, the Provincial Courts of Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia, and overseen by a director and advisory committee with members from institutions including the Department of Justice Canada, the Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, the National Research Council, the Canadian Judicial Council and provincial law societies. Administrative procedures reference standards from the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, the Canadian Association of Research Libraries, the Council of Canadian Law Deans and archival principles akin to those at Library and Archives Canada and the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec. Funding and acquisitions involve grants and allocations comparable to those awarded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Canada Council for the Arts and provincial ministries of culture.

Notable Events and Developments

Significant events associated with the library include hosting symposia and conferences with panels featuring jurists and scholars such as Rosalie Silberman Abella, Bora Laskin, Antonio Lamer, Claire L'Heureux-Dubé, Suzanne Côté and Richard Wagner; facilitating research for landmark rulings like R. v. Morgentaler and Reference re Same-Sex Marriage; and supporting inquiries and commissions such as the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples and the Commission of Inquiry into the Sponsorship Program and Advertising Activities. Developments in digitization, collaboration with CanLII and partnerships with academic institutions such as McGill University, Université Laval, Université de Sherbrooke and the University of Ottawa have modernized access to materials previously held only in print, mirroring trends at the British Library, the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court Library of the United Kingdom.

Category:Libraries in Montreal Category:Law libraries in Canada