A brief introduction to case law research using both online databases and hard copy reference works, produced by the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales (ICLR).
Law reports are reports of cases heard in courts. The UK (and many other commonwealth countries and the U.S.) is acknowledged as a "common law" jurisdiction. As judges apply and interpret the law, they rely not only on rules made by Parliament (Statutes or Acts of Parliament), but on previous judicial decisions. This is known as the doctrine of precedent and explains why the study of cases is central and why law libraries give so much shelf space to volumes of law reports.
Online sources of law reports and other case information including free websites, and Information databases/search tools that allow you to search for relevant law reports.
Large legal database containing UK, EU and international case law, legislation (up-to-date, amended versions), legal journals, commentary texts, current awareness, and news. Very good range of practitioner texts in the Commentary section including Butterworths Company Law Handbook and Butterworths Family Law Service. Includes All England Law Reports, Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents, and Halsbury's Laws. If required to log in to access, please use your standard university username and password - an additional Lexis account is not needed. If you cannot bypass the login page which asks for an ID, please try an alternative internet browser or go incognito in chrome.
Browse archived judgments delivered by the Law Lords from 14 November 1996 to 30 July 2009.
ICLR Law Reports Online (via Westlaw)
ICLR Law Reports Online (via LNB)
ICLR publishes free WLR Daily case summaries of all cases. You can search for any case summarised as a WLR Daily from 2010 onward here.
In the UK, one of the two main sources of law (along with the Courts) is Parliament. Parliament passes rules, or laws, also known as Acts of Parliament or Statutes. Legislation also includes the secondary legislation, or Statutory Instruments, that give the detail needed to apply those Acts. There is also legislation made by the European Union that relates to the UK.
UK Statute Law Database
Official, freely available source of revised edition of UK legislation.
Freely available on the government's web pages. Tells you what stage the legislation is at but doesn't tell you about revisions to law (use the Legal databases such as Westlaw and Lexis for that).
Please note the full text of repealed legislation is not available in full via the Library databases. if you need historic legislation and cannot find it on
This series is available in the Library from 1958 up to date. Located in the Library Law Collection, on the third floor, Sheila Silver Library, in the Statutes section. Legislation is as enacted rather than revised.
Arranged chronologically with brief notes to assist with interpretation. To find out about repeals you also need to consult the Current Law Legislation Citator and the Current Law Monthly Digest.
This series is available in the Library from 1225-1865. Located in the Library Law Collection, on the third floor, Sheila Silver Library, in the Statutes section. Legislation is as enacted rather than revised. Arranged chronologically. No notes or indicators of which parts are repealed or in force.
This series is available in the Library from 1866-1997. Located in the Library Law Collection, on the third floor, Sheila Silver Library, in the Statutes section. Legislation is as enacted rather than revised. Arranged chronologically. No notes or indicators of which parts are repealed or in force.
This series is available in the Library from 1968-1986. Located in the Library Law Collection in the Sheila Silver Library, in the Statutes section. Legislation is as enacted rather than revised. Arranged chronologically. No notes or indicators of which parts are repealed or in force.
Sessional papers including page images and searchable full text for each paper, along with detailed indexing. Collections for the 18th, 19th & 20th Centuries and Hansard 1803-2005 are available.
The UK Parliament web pages tell you about the different type of publications that Parliament produces and how to get hold of them.
The official report of all parliamentary debates. From the 19th Century to the present day.
British Non-Parliamentary Papers
Historical non-parliamentary papers (papers produced by individual government departments and agencies) dating back to the 19th Century.
National Archives (was the Public Records Office).
Information about the work of both Houses, including the progress of Bills, the work of Committees and the Law Lords.
OPSI chronological tables of local and Personal Acts
These tables produced by OPSI list all Private and Personal Acts from 1539-2000 and Local Acts from 1797-2000. Lists rather than full text of Acts.
