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Finding Sources of Law: UK
Introduction
There are a variety of ways of finding UK material ā print and online. When looking at online resources there are also subscription databases or free websites. What you use will depend on what youāre looking for ā be it a UK case or legislation.
Finding Material in Print
You will need to search for the title of a law report or legislation series. Use the Periodical/Journal or Title search on the SOAS Library catalogue ( http://lib.soas.ac.uk ) and type in the series title. If SOAS does not hold the series in print ā see if itās available at another library: ļ· Use InforM25 ( http://www.inform25.ac.uk/Link/ ) to see if itās in a London library ļ· Use COPAC ( http://copac.ac.uk/ ) to see if itās in a research library in the UK ļ· Use Worldcat ( http://soas.worldcat.org/ ) to see if itās in a library worldwide
Cases
You will need the full title of the law report series. If you only have the abbreviation (e.g. WLR)
- use Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations ( http://www.legalabbrevs.cardiff.ac.uk ) to find out.
Legislation
There are two main series that contain the text of Acts for the UK available at SOAS ā Halsburyās Statutes of England and Wales and Current Law Statutes Annotated
Finding Material Online
You can use the following resources to find UK cases and legislation ļ· Westlaw UK ļ· LexisLibrary ļ· HeinOnline ļ· Casetrack ļ· BAILII ā British and Irish Legal Information Institute (free website) ļ· Legislation.gov.uk (free website) See http://tinyurl.com/lawresources for more details on each resource
Contents
ļ· Westlaw UK contains UK cases from 1220 onwards, including the following law report series: o English Law Reports o The Law Reports o Weekly Law Reports o Criminal Law Reports o And many moreā¦! ļ· Includes āCase Analysisā documents providing a digest of facts, direct and indirect history, legislation cited and relevant journal articles ļ· Note : Print, download and email options are available
Research Guide
s
Finding Cases
ļ· Use the āCasesā tab for a narrower search
Research Guides
ļ· If you have party names or citation use the appropriate box ļ· Searching in the ā Free Text ā box will retrieve a large number of results ā if searching by keyword remember to use the Boolean search tips (see at the end of this guide) ļ· Results are listed in date order and provide: o Subject and Keywords detailing what the case concerns o A list of citations to all law report series the case has been reported in (listed in order of importance with the neutral citation first) o Links to full text documents where available including a ā Case Analysis ā document ļ· Case Analysis document provides extra information such as the history and status, key cases and legislation cited and any mentions in journal articles
Research Guides
Contents
ļ· LexisLibrary contains UK cases from 1220 onwards, including the following law report series: o English Law Reports o The Law Reports o All England Law Reports o And many moreā¦! ļ· Includes āCaseSearchā documents providing procedural history, annotations, keywords and summaries for selected cases ļ· Note : Print, download and email options are available
Finding Cases
ļ· Use the Cases tab for a narrower search ļ· If you have party names or citation use the appropriate box ļ· Searching in the āSearch Termsā box will retrieve a large number of results ā if searching by keyword remember to use the Boolean search tips (see at the end of this guide) ļ· Results are listed in date order and entry for each document is available. ļ· Use the āCase Searchā document for a summary and links to the Law Report series documents where available
ļ· āCase Searchā documents provide extra information such as the history and status icons, key cases and a digest and catchwords
Research Guides
Finding Legislation
ļ· Use the Legislation tab for a narrower search ļ· If you have the Act or SI title or provision (section) number use the appropriate box ļ· Searching in the āSearch Termsā box will retrieve a large number of results ā if searching by keyword remember to use the Boolean search tips (see at the end of this guide) ļ· Results are listed with main document in left screen by provision number, then other relevant legislation on right ļ· Click on provision to get the full text. Details include a status snapshot, annotations, related legislation, cases citing and any mentions in journal articles
Contents
ļ· BAILII can be accessed at http://www.bailii.org/ (free website) ļ· Contains: o Cases from the following courts (1996-) ļ§ Court of Appeal ļ§ High Court ļ§ Supreme Court ļ§ Privy Council ļ§ various Tribunals o Primary Legislation (1220-) and Secondary Legislation (1947-)
Finding Material
ļ· The Basic Search may not return any results or too many. If you know what youāre looking for use the Case Law or Legislation search as appropriate ļ· Alternatively, browse by Case or Legislation title or browse for cases by subject
Finding Material
ļ· Browse through up-to-date case law ļ· Search for a specific judgment or use keyword search - if searching by keyword remember to use the Boolean search tips (see at the end of this guide)
Research Guides
Research Guides
Contents
ļ· Legislation.gov.uk can be accessed at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ (free website) ļ· Contains Primary and Secondary Legislation (1988-)
Finding Material
ļ· Use the appropriate boxes if you have the relevant details or browse the legislation
Search Tips
The way in which you will need to enter your terms/keywords will vary from resource to resource (it is advisable to look at the help or search tips of a site, before using it) it is important to know a few basic search strategies.
Boolean operators
ļ· AND finds records containing both terms. e.g. Human AND Rights ļ· OR finds records containing either term (broadening your search). e.g. Human OR Rights ļ· NOT will help to narrow your search e.g. Human NOT Rights ļ· ADJ finds records containing both terms within a certain number of words of each other. e.g. Human adj5 Rights retrieves the words human and rights within 5 words of each other ļ· ā xxx ā finds an exact phrase, e.g. āinternational court of justiceā
Truncation and Wildcards
ļ· $ truncates a search term, retrieving unlimited suffix variations. e.g. raci$ will retrieve racist, Racial, Racially etc. ļ· # replaces one character in a word. e.g. Organi#ation retrieves Organisation and Organization ļ·? replaces no characters or one character. e.g. Favo?red retrieves Favoured and Favored
