LAW Preparing for National Committee on Accreditation Exams

This guide is intended to help applicants for the National Committee on Accreditation (NCA) studying for examinations in Canadian law and lead to Canadian information sources that they may find useful. The tabs found on the left hand menu will open pages that will assist in finding books to use for study in various areas of Canadian law and other resources. Legal databases may be restricted to University of Calgary users or to Faculty of Law users.

The NCA of the Federation of Law of Societies of Canada governs the process of evaluation of legal credentials and experience. Lawyers preparing for NCA exams often come to consult the law school library and ask to look at past law school examination papers. The Bennett Jones Law Library does not collect past NCA exams and, because the examinations are administered by the NCA with the individual provincial law societies, there are no study guides.  Individual professors in the Faculty of Law create their own examination papers for each class that they teach and do not publish them or make them available to the law library.

The Bennett Jones Law Library on the 2nd Floor of Murray Fraser Hall at the University of Calgary is open to all members of the public requiring access to the collection. The library extends borrowing privileges to Alumni, Community Reader and The Alberta Library (TAL) cardholders.

Reference Service will assist researchers with identifying and locating sources of legal information and other library resources. The Bennett Jones Law Library maintains a website with links to resources such as federal and provincial legislation, courts, international law and legal research guides. Workstations for access to the library catalgue, online research databases, Microsoft Office, and Internet are located throughout the library and in the Bennett Jones Law Library Computer Lab. Full text ebooks and journals are available through the library catalogue.

Self-serve photocopying is available using a Guest Copy Card (available for purchase for $5) or Unicard. All library workstations have access to a public printer which is located in the Reference area. Payment for printing is by Unicard/Guest Card only, so bring your card with you when you visit. Add funds to your Unicard either on line (http://www.ucalgary.ca/unicard/) or in the Taylor Family Digital Library.

Our hours can be found under "Law Library" at Hours

The best place to find books and journals in our collection is the library catalogue. Note the call number and location (e.g., Law-1st Floor) of each book. Items located in the Reference area do not circulate and items located in the Special Collections Room/Course Resrves may only be signed out by University of Calgary students, faculty and staff for a shortened loan period and are not available to be borrowed by members of the public. Earlier editions of textbooks in reference or reserve may be located on the Law-1st Floor and available to circulate.

The law library has textbooks and materials in our collection on a variety of topics which are examined by the NCA. The Essentials of Canadian Law produced by the publisher Irwin Law produces a series of books on topics including Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, Income Tax, etc..

The Legal Education Society of Alberta (LESA) publishes materials for lawyers and we have paper versions of these in our collection. The Canadian Centre for Professional Legal Education (CPLED) produces Alberta Resource Materials for those studying for the Alberta Bar Exam. The topics covered are Business, Criminal Law, Family, Wills, Civil Litigation and Real Estate.

Legal Encyclopedias are often a good starting point. There are two Canadian legal encyclopedias:

The Federation of Law Societies of Canada governs the NCA process. It may be helpful to contact the Alberta Law Library in Calgary for further information or assistance.

Calgary Courts Centre
Suite 501-N
601 - 5 Street SW 
Calgary, AB T2P 5P7

Tel: 403.297.6148 
Toll Free: 866.448.6148
Fax: 403.297.5171
E-mail: all.cal@gov.ab.ca