The Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII) was founded by lawyers and notaries who are members of Canada’s provincial and territorial law societies, which comprise the Federation of Law Societies of Canada.

CanLII provides access to court judgments from all Canadian courts, including the Supreme Court of Canada, federal courts, and the courts in all Canada’s provinces and territories. CanLII  also contains decisions from many tribunals nationally. CanLII started by publishing current cases, which courts and tribunals sent as they were written starting in the early 2000s. For most Canadian courts, the CanLII collection now spans more than 18 years of these cases. CanLII includes historical cases with the goal of offering a comprehensive resource for jurisprudence for access to Canadian law. CanLII also contains the consolidated statutes and regulations of every jurisdiction in Canada, including the annual statutes Federally and for the provinces of New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, and Quebec. CanLII's companion website, CanLII Connects, hosts a database of case commentary and case summaries by the legal community linked to and from the caselaw on CanLII. CanLII also provides access to a number of books, law journals, articles, reports, and other resources available electronically.