Sources of Information
-
Upload
elizabeth-garner -
Category
Documents
-
view
53 -
download
0
description
Transcript of Sources of Information
2
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
7
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
8
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
10
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 -)
11
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
15
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
16
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
18
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
21
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
22
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
26
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
27
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
28
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
29
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