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Sources of Information

Richard O’Neill

University of Hertfordshire

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Legislation

Parliament

• Parliament • Parliament website

• Debates• Hansard

• House of Commons• House of Lords• Standing Committees

• Bills• House of Commons weekly Information

Bulletin• Government

• UK Government website• The Stationary Office• HMSO

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Hierarchy of Law Reports

Hierarchy of Law Reports

Reports in new spapers

Reports in law journals

Specialised law reports

W eekly Law Reports All England Law Reports

The Law Reports

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Law Reports

The Law Reports

• In 1865 the reporting of cases was systematised by the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting, which started publishing series of reports organised according to the court, collectively known as The Law Reports

• The Law Reports only report to include arguments of Counsel and checked by the judge

• The Law Reports cover cases heard in:• The House of Lords and Privy Council• The Court of Appeal

• Criminal and Civil Divisions• Chancery Division• Family Division• Queen's Bench Division

• Employment Appeal Tribunal and the ECJ

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Law Reports

Other law reports

• Law journals• may be only source• early reports• e.g. New Law Journal; Criminal Law

Review; Medical Law Review• Professional Journals

• Solicitors’ Journal• Newspapers

• The Times Law Reports (1884 -)

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Electronic case reports

Electronic Sources for Case Law

need to distinguish between law reports and transcripts

• growth in electronic transcripts of cases on the web

• many of these cases will subsequently be reported

• House of Lords judgments - available on the web from 1996, within 2 hours of the decision

• The Court Service - database of selected recent cases from the Court of Appeal and the High Court

• BAILII - searchable case law databases

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Subscription Services - case reports

Subscription Services

• Butterworths - contains The Law Reports, also• All England Direct - the All England Law Reports from

1936• All England Reporter – a digest of recent cases with

transcripts, not all of which will eventually be reported in All ER

• Lexis - contains The Law Reports, other reports and unreported cases (transcripts) from 1980

• Westlaw - contains The Law Reports and several other series

• Lawtel - contains a wide-ranging database of full text case transcripts from about 1980

• Justis - contains electronic version of The Law Reports, on CD-ROM and online, also

• electronic versions of several other major series of reports• Casetrack - contains a wide-ranging database of full

text case transcripts

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LexisNexis

• Broad collection of law reports– incl. Butterworths Medico-Legal Reports– All England Law Reports– The Law Reports

(AC, QB, Fam. Ch.)• US & world resources

– extensive materials• Full text legal journals

– similar coverage to Westlaw, different selection of UK journals

• Provides the full, amended text of SIs from 1948

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Westlaw

• Westlaw UK contains– Law reports– Case locator & Legislation

locator for analysing cases and legislation

– Legal Journals Index – Full text journals– Current awareness– Human Rights service– Commentary– UK legislation database (all

Acts from 1267 that are still in force)

• Westlaw also contains– US Case law and

legislation– Full text US, Canadian and

Australian legal journals– Index to Legal Periodicals– Multinational materials

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Other sources• Justis

– Includes Weekly Law Reports

– Family Law Reports– The Law Reports– Statutes

• Current Law Statutes– Printed

• Halsbury’s Statute– Printed– IS IT IN FORCE?– Statutory Instruments

summary

• Lawtel– Human Rights

commentary– Up to date, good for

new materials– Daily update– Statutory Law section

to search an act– Statutory Status Table

for each act– Statutory Instruments

section

EUR-Lex

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Case reports

Electronic Sources for Case Law

need to distinguish between law reports and transcripts

• growth in electronic transcripts of cases on the web

• many of these cases will subsequently be reported

• House of Lords judgments - available on the web from 1996, within 2 hours of the decision

• The Court Service - database of selected recent cases from the Court of Appeal and the High Court

• BAILII - searchable case law databases

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Indexes and Digests

Indexes and Digests

• Printed indexes• Contain digests of cases with references to

cited cases and legislation - contain indexes to cases which indicte where they have been reported

• Digest - published by Butterworths • Current Law -published by Sweet & Maxwell

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Case reports

Periodical Indexes

• The Legal Journals Index - major source for tracing articles in legal journals• covers over 400 UK and European English-

language publications• available on Westlaw

• Index to Legal Periodicals - good coverage of the more academic-orientated UK legal journals

• Lawtel - includes an articles index for about 60 law journals from around 1998

• Butterworths Law Direct - includes an articles index for about 80 law journals from 1995

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Case reports

Finding cases

• Citation known • Law reports

• Westlaw• Lexis• Justis

• All England Reports• Lexis• Butterworths All England Direct

• Weekly Law Reports• Justis

• Citation unknown • Searching databases

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Useful websites

• Crown Prosecution Service– www.cps.gov.uk

• Department of Constitutional Affairs– www.dca.gov.uk

• Home Office– www.homeoffice.gov.uk

• Judicial Studies Board– www.jsboard.co.uk

• The Law Commission– www.lawcom.gov.uk

• Legal Services Commission– www.legalservices.gov.uk