Sources of Information Richard O Neill University of Hertfordshire

Sources of Information Richard O’Neill University of Hertfordshire 1

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 2

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Hierarchy of Law Reports 7

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 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 8

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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 -) 10

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 11

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Subscription Services - case reports • Butterworths - contains The Law Reports, also • Subscription Services • 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 15

Lexis. Nexis • 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 16

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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 18

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Other sources • Justis • Lawtel – Includes Weekly Law Reports – Family Law Reports – The Law Reports – Statutes – 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 • Current Law Statutes – Printed • Halsbury’s Statute – Printed – IS IT IN FORCE? – Statutory Instruments summary EUR-Lex 21

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 22

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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 Indexes and Digests 26

Case reports • Periodical Indexes • • • The Legal Journals Index - major source for tracing articles in legal journals • covers over 400 UK and European Englishlanguage 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 27

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 28

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 29