The Canadian Encyclopedic Digest Western, Fourth Edition is a comprehensive statement of the law of the four Western provinces — provincial, federal, and common law — as derived from the cases and statutes. It includes the law based on federal statutes where Parliament has jurisdiction, and canvasses authoritative case law from other provinces and England. The titles are written as positive statements of law with footnoted authority for each assertion.

New in the fourth edition:

• Every section of every title in the fourth edition will contain cross-references to the equivalent classification in The Canadian Abridgment, which will lead you directly to relevant case law
• All subject titles are being consolidated to reflect the current state of the law
• To ensure that all subject titles remain up to date, key titles will be updated annually and all titles will be updated every three years

Format

• The Canadian Encyclopedic Digest Western, Fourth Edition is structured on an encyclopedic plan as a series of 169 titles arranged in alphabetical order and housed in 59 looseleaf binders, plus the key volume. The set comprises more than 50,000 pages.
• Each title deals with a recognized subject area or broad issue of law and its organization is set out in the "Classification of Title." The text comprises numbered paragraphs and their accompanying footnotes.
• Each title includes a table of cases, table of statutes and an index — references in the tables and index are to paragraph numbers to provide pinpoint access. Cross-references within and among titles are extensive and serve to broaden research by reference to related subject areas.

The key to The Canadian Encyclopedic Digest Western, Fourth Edition

The looseleaf Key to the The Canadian Encyclopedic Digest Western, Fourth Edition provides the researcher with numerous points of entry to the titles:

• The Key Volume contains a Research Guide, which explains the features of the set
• The Contents Key sets out the volume-by-volume, title-by-title arrangement of the contents
• The Statutes Key affords to pinpoint access to all current statutory references in the titles and supplements, through precise reference to volume, title, and paragraph numbers
• The Rules and Regulations Key provides similar access to the rules and regulations cited in the set
• Finally, the Index Key provides a comprehensive, elaborately cross-referenced subject index to the entire encyclopedia, both titles, and supplements

See also the Canadian Encyclopedic Digest on CD-ROM. Also available online through the LawSource™ service of WestlawNext® Canada.