UK case law – Westlaw
Slightly different collections of UK case law are found in Westlaw and Lexis, with some crossover, e.g. The
Law reports are in both databases. You will find many case transcripts freely available in the court
websites, but law reports are not freely available online, so for research purposes you should use both
Westlaw and Lexis. You should also be aware of the Law report series available in print; search Encore for
the series title if it is not online, and you may find it on Floor 4 or in the Library Store.
To find UK law reports in Westlaw, I recommend using the Cases search screen; this allows you to search
for cases by topic, party names or citation. The Training Tutorial (top right) provides more detailed
guidance.
Action: select Cases (top)
Note the 5 text boxes allowing you to search by:
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Free text – words in the full text of the reports
Subject/keyword – standard terms used in Westlaw
Party names – parties in dispute
Citation i.e. case reference
Term defined – allows you to look for definitions of terms provided by the law reports.
Hover the cursor over the i symbols to see tips on how to enter search terms names or citations; or use the
detailed Help (top right).
(a) Search by party names
Action: enter the names pepper hart in the Party Names box – you do not need to include v for “versus”.
Search.
You will retrieve 3 results –
1. the original case, heard in 1989 – red icon indicates ruling was overturned
2. The first appeal, Nov. 1990 - red icon indicates ruling was overturned
3. The 2nd and final appeal heard in the House of Lords, 1992 – yellow ! symbol indicates “mixed or
mildly negative treatment”, i.e. the ruling stands, but some aspects may have been modified by later
rulings.
Note the keywords, citations for all the law reports on the case, links to reports available in Westlaw, and
the Westlaw case analysis. The case analysis is a reliable summary with links to related material for
research purposes; it is not a law report! The law report citations are provided in order of authority.
Action: Select the case analysis for Item 1, Pepper (Inspector of Taxes) v Hart .
Note the left-hand links to:
Where reported - Westlaw provides immediate access to 3 of the law reports. You will rarely need to read
more than one! If there is no link, use the Cardiff Index… to work out the series title, then search the
catalogue to see if we have it within Lexis, or in print.
Case digest – the summary. Skim through this, noting the links to sections of Acts or other related cases in
the text of the summary.
Appellate history and status – details of earlier court judgments in the same case, i.e. in lower courts
Significant Cases Cited (and All Cases Cited): other cases mentioned in the court hearing and judgment.
Key Cases Citing (and All Cases Citing): details of how the case has been treated in subsequent court
decisions.
Significant Legislation Cited (and Legislation Cited): Acts and Statutory Instruments mentioned in the court
hearing and judgment.
Journal Articles: references to case comments and other legal journal articles that discuss the case, with
direct links to any articles directly available in WestlawUK.
Books: links to practitioner texts within Westlaw which mention the case.
Action: click the case citation [1993] A.C. 593 (near top left) to view the most authoritative law report,
published in The Law Reports – Appeal Cases.
Skim through the full law report, noting near the start what was “Held, allowing the appeal”;
A full account of the court case, and the legal reasoning employed;
Finally you can read how each judge summed up the case – sometimes one may dissent.
(b) Search by citation – the quickest way to find a specific case.
Action: select Cases (top of the page) to return to the cases search screen.
Enter the citation [1993] A.C. 593 in the Citation text box, and search – enter spaces between the
characters as shown. Search.
(c) Search for cases by topic
Action: select Cases (top of the page) to return to the cases search screen.
Enter the phrase “statutory interpretation” (in double quotation marks) in the Free Text box and search –
this is very broad search returning too many results to be useful!
Note the option to “search within results” – enter Hansard to whittle down your results to a more relevant
set.
Another option would be to edit your search, e.g. to look for another concept in the same paragraph as your
first phrase.
Action: Click Edit search and change AND to /p Search.
Finding a smaller, more specific set of results, will save you a lot of time. You can also connect the terms
with /s to find them all in the same sentence.
Action: When you have finished exploring the case law search, click Log out to end your session.