LIBRARY
U.K. Law
A guide to finding information
Legal information is structured into primary sources and secondary sources.
Primary Sources are authoritative statements of law made by the law-making bodies,
Parliament and the Courts.
Parliament:
• Primary Legislation (or Acts of Parliament or Statutes)
• Secondary (delegated or subordinate) Legislation. Includes
Statutory Instruments
(SIs), bylaws (local laws created by organizations etc. controlled by central government),
and codes of practice (rules by which people are required to follow to establish good
practice).
Courts:
Case law. Detailed accounts of important cases are found in Law Reports.
Finding Legislation
Electronically
In print
 LexisLibrary provides full text Statutes and
SIs as they stand to date. For unamended
or previous versions of legislation, contact
LexisLibrary’s Historical Versions Email
Service (for Statutes from 1998 onwards).
 Westlaw provides fully consolidated* full-text
Statutes since 1267 and SIs since 1947.
 UK Statute Law Database
(www.legislation.gov.uk) is freely available
and provides full-text access to UK Statutes
from 1988 and SIs from 1987.
 BAILII: British and Irish Legal Information
Institute (www.bailii.org/) is freely available
and includes some U.K. legislation.
•
•
•
Current Law Statutes (348.02 C) dates from
1961 and is full text. There is no subject index;
statutes are listed chronologically. Loose-leaf
binders list recent Acts. (N.B. No subsequent
amendments.)
Individual Statutes. The Library holds some
individual statutes. Check the Library
Catalogue for our holdings.
UK General Public Acts (348.02 GRE) cover
1896-1962,
is
full
text
and
listed
chronologically. They are useful for finding
acts that have now been repealed.
*A consolidated statute incorporates all the amendments to the statute since its last revision.
WWW.BROOKES.AC.UK/LIBRARY
Case Law
Law Reports are accessible in print and electronic format. The print reports are shelved in the basement of
the Headington library, by the journals.
Secondary Sources help to explain, analyse or discuss the law.
They include textbooks, legal journals, official publications such as Command Papers, legal
encyclopaedias, and case law digests/summaries.
Digests

Current Law series
 Current Law monthly digest (LR 348 C) is a monthly publication detailing the latest developments in
U.K. case law and legislation. It is arranged by subject and includes a selection of legal articles.
 Current Law Yearbook (LR 348 C) consolidates the information in the monthly digests into annual
volumes.
 Current Law Case Citator (LR 348 C) refers to all reported sources of a case and traces the judicial
consideration of a case. It enables the user to locate abstracts of cases in the Yearbook.
Books
You may find the following shelfmarks useful (However, do remember to look on the library catalogue as
well as just browsing the shelves, as there are plenty of ebooks on these topics).
340. 0942
340.1
340.57
341
English law
Philosophy of law, Sociology of law, Jurisprudence
Equity
International law
341.242
342
342.06
343
343.07
343.078
344
344.012
344.0327
345
346.015
346.02
346.03
346.04
346.045
346.059
346.066
346.077
347
348
European law
Constitutional law
Administrative law
Public law
Consumer law
Construction law, Hotel and Catering law
Social law
Employment law
Child law
Criminal law
Family law
Contract law
Tort
Property law
Planning law
Trusts
Company law
Commercial law
Civil procedure, judicial system
Statutes
Journals
The Library subscribes to a wide range of journals in print and electronic format.
Use the ‘ejournals’ by title tab on the library search box to find for the title of the journal you want to read. If
it’s not there, we may have it in print – to find it, just look for the journal title as if you were looking for a book.
If you are looking for articles on a particular topic but don’t have a reading list, then you will need to use a
database. For a list of useful databases see ‘Electronic databases’ below. You may wish to use Discover to
find articles too.
Dictionaries, encyclopaedias and guides
Further information about online encyclopaedias, dictionaries and study skills can be found on the
Subject help pages for Law via Oxford Brookes Library web page.
Abbreviations
You will constantly encounter abbreviations and acronyms while studying law. If you need help, try:




The Library's own guide: Legal abbreviations for law reports and journals held at Oxford Brookes
University Library.
There is a useful online guide, the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations, which covers a large range
of abbreviations. The guide is available at: www.legalabbrevs.cardiff.ac.uk/
Index to legal citations and abbreviations
340.0148 RAI
Current Law Year book
LR 348 C
Government Publications

The Library holds a range of government publications in print. Search the Library Catalogue to find
details of our holdings.

The Library subscribes to the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers database, which provides
access to House of Commons sessional papers from 1715 to present, with some additional material
dating back to 1688.

Websites which provide government publications can be found on the Subject help pages for Law via
the Library web page. Examples include:
o
The U.K. Parliament website (www.parliament.uk) provides access to a range of official
publications including bills and committee papers. Parliamentary debates - verbatim accounts of
what is said in Parliament - are published in the Hansard House of Commons Parliamentary
Debates and Hansard House of Lords Parliamentary Debates.
o
The Government web site (www.gov.uk) provides access to information on and documents
from government departments, the Law Commission and other agencies.
Electronic databases
Useful websites
There is a vast amount of information available on the Internet. Some selected sites are listed below:
 Venables (www.venables.co.uk) is a good site for a range of law material.
 Infolaw (www.infolaw.co.uk) provides access to a wide range of legal resources.
 AccessToLaw (www.accesstolaw.com) provides annotated links to selected U.K., Commonwealth
and worldwide legal web sites.
More information
More online information can be found at the Law Subject Help pages, at
www.brookes.ac.uk/library/law.html.
If you need any help with finding information or using library resources please contact Charlie Lythgoe
(Academic Liaison Librarian for Law) using the contact details below.
Email: clythgoe@brookes.ac.uk
Tel: 01865 483077
Headington Library, JHB 310 (Level 3, Zone C)
Oxford Brookes University.
September 2015