Online Research – hints and tips (JustCite, Westlaw, Lexis Library, Websites)

Dear Students,

I am running online research sessions that are advertised on Elite – Events and Sign up but I understand that you may not be able to attend these sessions if they clash with your classes or if you are too busy.

Just to remind you that there is lots of online help in the My Library tab on Elite but in addition to that I want to give you a few useful tips here in case you miss my talk.  Also you can ask me for help anytime in the library.

You can find access to all our subscribed databases on Elite in the My Library tab under databases and electronic resources.

If you have a legal question but you don’t know what sources each database contains you could start with using  JustCite which is listed in the electronic resources section.  Click on JustCite then - click the gray bar which says continue to JustCite – this will lead you to a search box. 

For example: type in the citation : [2001] 2 W.L.R. 992 and click on the result link of the same name which will lead you to Westlaw which is automatically linked to the Westlaw database and will take you directly to the full text of the case without you having to search in Westlaw or put in any password.

If you search for an All England Law Report if you know the citation it will take you through to Lexis Library in the same way.

On JustCite you can also search for legislation, journal articles, use keywords,  free text search, find EU information and it will lead you through to the database containing the full text.  If the College of Law don’t subscribe to the source it will tell you the name of the publisher where you can find it.  JustCite also links to free websites and legal information online and because JustCite is a trusted source the links through to the websites will be safer than relying on your own judgment to know if it is an authoritative source.

On the subject of using free information on the web remember that sites can be out of date and the law is always changing so even Government websites may be behind so always look for a date on the information you are reading online to see how current it is and to be safe you may have to look for the same infomation in two or more places to make sure it is accurate.  If you are uncertain you can always ring the contact details on the website or if it is a database you can ring the helpdesk to make sure.

You can find case and legaislation information on both Lexis Library and Westlaw, they both have lots of sources of information including, case citators, law reports, journal articles, European information.  To check what sources they have go to the source tab and look up individual sources.

Be aware that not all legal information is available online and some of the older cases or Scottish law or International law will not be available in the subscribed sources some might be in paper form like the Old English Reports available in the Moorgate library on the 1st floor also some information may be freely available online for example Europa http://europa.eu/index_en.htm  :-

European legislation http://eur-lex.europa.eu/RECH_legislation.do?ihmlang=en, Regulations, Directives, Acts

Official Journal http://publications.europa.eu/official/index_en.htm, L series, C series, S series (legislation, cases, tenders)

Statistics, http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page/portal/eurostat/home 

The British and Irish Legal Information Institute http://www.bailii.org/website  is a useful and reliable source of information. 

For free access to UK Legislation you can use the government website: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ this is a combination of the OPSI website and the Statute Law database which means you have access to original legislation at date or enactment but also some amended legislation see link for further explanation. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/help#aboutOpsiSld

If you want to learn about Bills before parliament and read House of Commons and House of Lords debates in full text go to the Parliament website http://www.parliament.uk/

Bills before Parliament: http://services.parliament.uk/bills/ 

Hansard debates: http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/

House of Commons Weekly information Bulletin: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmwib.htm gives the schedule of what’s on in parliament in the House of Commons

Enjoy researching,

Moorgate Library

library-moorgate@lawcol.co.uk