Subject guides: Law: More Legal Resources

Welcome to the Law Subject Guide - giving you information on library resources and services.

Useful resources

Legal abbreviations

Cardiff index to legal abbreviations: Useful for navigating the many legal abbreviations you will come across during your studies.

Free legal dictionaries

The Oxford English Dictionary: Searchable online version of the Oxford English Dictionary.
The Free Legal Dictionary: by Farlex. Based on West's Encyclopedia of American Law (Ed 2), The Peoples Law Dictionary.
A-Z of Legal Phrases: From The Plain English Campaign.
Legal Term and Law Dictionary: by LawGuru (US)Base on 1865 edition of Bouviers Law Dictionary.
LexisNexis Legal Glossary: Lexis provides a comprehensive reference point for legal terminology.

Don't forget that some of the legal databases also have dictionaries and indexes!

Scots law and legal system

Material from the links below may also be available through the University key legal databases.

Judiciary of Scotland This site has information on judges and the work they undertake in the different courts. Additionally there are sentencing statements, summaries of opinions, fatal accident inquiry outcomes and important court decision related to Scotland.
Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service Information about the Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service. There is guidance on court structures, attending court and taking actions, links to current business, a search facility for judgements as well details of rules and guidance.
Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) The COPFS is Scotland's prosecution service. The site contains information and guidance.
Scottish Council on Law Reporting (SCLR- inc Donohugh v Stevenson Digital Resources) SLCR reports all the Scottish Session Cases and has open access to the Scottish law reports. The website also has other resources including the Donohugh v Stevenson Digital Resources. Useful to students is the section on 'Anatomy of a Law Report'.
Law Society of Scotland The Law Society of Scotland is the professional body for solicitors within Scotland.
Scottish Law Commission An independent body that works with the Scottish Government in relation to Scottish Law reform.
Scottish Government Official website of the Scottish Government. Includes access to publications and reports.
Scottish Parliament Contains information about the Scottish Parliament as well as outlining Parliamentary business, publications Bills passing through Parliament.
Scottish Law Online A website focusing on Scots Law for legal professionals, academics, students and the general public.

For students

Venables Legal Resources- Learning the Law A list of useful sites to help with learning the law.
Mooting Net Helpful advice on Mooting

Human Rights

United Nations Human Rights
A list of OHCHR databases relating to Human Rights
United Nations Human Rights: Research Guides
An A-Z of research guides from the UN. Link denotes the Human Rights materials
UNRIC Library Databases
List of Human Rights databases via the UN
International Justice Resource Center
List of resources from IJRC

UK cases, legislation and government

British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII) BAILII is freely accessible and based at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies BAILII is a great resource for British and Irish case law and legislation.
UK Legislation (includes Scottish Legislation) Please see further information The official home of UK legislation 1267- present and is managed by the National Archives on behalf of HM Government. It is free to access but there can be a delay in the availability of cases and does not include bills currently before the UK Parliament. Other library subscription databases may have cases and legislation available before this service. Legislation originating from the EU has been added. Also details about the amendments to EU legislation from the EU and, the corrective amendments made by UK legislation in preparation for exit. This new collection of EU legislation will continue to be maintained with new content from EUR-Lex until the point of exit. After exit the UK versions of the legislation, with amendments incorporated into the texts will be maintained.
UK Parliament Website for the UK Parliament and includes Bills which are currently before Parliament, Committee business, Hansard and research briefings.
Law Society of England and Wales The Law Society is an independent professional body representing solicitors in England and Wales.
Law Commission (England and Wales) The statutory independent body in England and Wales whose purpose is to review and recommend reforms in the laws when appropriate.
Supreme Court of the United Kingdom Website of the Supreme Court- the final court of appeal for civil cases in the UK and for criminal cases in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

European and international iaw

Europa Official website of the European Union. Contains an EU law section as well as documents and publications.
European Court of Human Rights Provides access to recent judgements and decisions as well as case law information notes.
Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) Contains case law from 1997, Proceedings of the Court of Justice from 1996 and staff cases of the Court of First Instance from 1998.
EUR-Lex: Access to European Union Law Providing free access to EU treaties, directives, regulations, case law, plus much more. Updated daily so material is current.
Eagle-i: Electronic Access to Global Legal Information) A free to use resource that links to good quality legal information resources on the internet. It has been developed by the Institute of Advanced Laval Studies as a national legal resource.
International Court of Justice
United Nations Links to the official documents and bibliographic databases web-pages of the UN
Trans-Lex: a legal research tool for transnational law TransLex is provided by the Centre for Transnational Law, which is based at the University of Cologne (Germany).
American Society of International Law- electronic resource guide ERG is a self-guided tour of quality assured, current resources in the field of international law.
World Trade Organisation
EU Exit Archive a comprehensive archive of a wide range of legislative materials in English, French and German. This includes Treaties, legislative acts, the Official Journal of the European Union and other supporting materials, and judgements of the European Court of Justice. This archive will continue to be maintained until exit, at which point it will stand as a permanent record of EU law as it stood when the UK left the EU.
European Sources Online A free database and information site which supports research on European matters. Offering curated information and a wide range of sources including primary and official sources, commentary and analyses, summaries and media reports, journal articles, blog posts, monographs and textbooks. The resource is managed by the Cardiff EDC.

General information

Directgov: public services contact information The main website for all UK government departments.
Citizens Advice Scotland: Law and Courts Aimed at the general public this website offers basic easy to understand information on a variety of legal and civil rights.

Key newspaper databases

These databases allow you to cross-search through a vast range of newspapers and news sources, both from the UK and globally. To see a full list of News and Magazine databases go to the Newspaper and Magazine databases list.

Newspaper and Magazine databases

Factiva : Primarily a business news and information service containing a large range of UK and overseas newspapers, as well as news websites and news agencies. Content by freelance writers, some features and supplements may not be available.

Nexis UK: Access to UK and international news and business sources, financial and market reports, biographical data and thousands of legal and regulatory services. Includes a large range of UK and overseas newspapersas well as some news websites and news agencies.

Once you've accessed Nexis UK, click on "News" to be able to search the newspapers. Alternatively, you can use the "Power Search" option.

Gale OneFile News: Formally known as Infotrac Newsstand and provides full-text access to more than 2,300 world national and regional newspapers. Includes information about the contents of other titles. Also, sources of images, radio and TV broadcasts and transcripts are included.

Financial Times (FT.com): Access to the free content and additional resources including: Exclusive FT News and Comment (including Lex) Industry-specific insight and analysis. Surveys/in-depth reports - industries, countries and business trends, Power Search tool searching through the 5-year FT archive, View print edition - exclusive previews from the Financial Times newspaper, FT Confidential Research, Instant Insight and Editors Choice. Access via the library specific url which will ask for your university login (first time users will be asked to register for an individual account).

Note that while vast amounts of content is available through these databases, some content is missing. Due to copyright reasons these databases usually don't include photographs, illustrations, etc, and some freelance material. Sections such as classifieds, obituaries, etc., are generally not included as well.

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