Chapter 2: Finding the Law Flashcards
What are the three main library sources?
Literary sources, case law and legislation
What are literary sources (in the simplest sense)
books about law
What are legal encyclopedias designed to do?
provide a reasonably complete statement of the law in a concise form
In what order do you move through Halsbury’s Laws
Consolidated Index to Main Volume to Cumulative Supplement to Current Service
What is a law report?
a record of the courts’ decisions
What is the All England Law Reports Reprint?
a selection of important English cases from between 1558 and 1935
What is the ICLR?
the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting - the official (but not only) source of the Law Reports.
What are the All England Law Reports (All ER)?
an alternative source of Law Reports to those published by the ICLR
What are the most useful details for finding a case in a law report?
its name and citation (a reference to its location in the reports)
What is a law report citation usually made up of?
year, volume, report, page
If you’re looking for a case using paper resources and know only its name, where should you look?
search the Current Case Law Citators for the first named party to the case
How do you check a case is still relevant using paper resources?
check in the Current Case Law Citator
What is an Act’s name more properly called?
its short title
What is the main resource for discovering whether legislation exists on any topic?
Halsbury’s Statutes of England
What is the Current Law Statutes Annotated?
annotated explanations of particularly important statutes by specialists
How do you find the most updated version of a statute?
Use the Current Law Legislation Citators, searching with short title and year then chapter and section numbers
How do you find out how a particular statute has been enacted in case law?
search Halsbury’s Laws and the Current Law Legislation Citator
Where is the best place to find Hansard references to the Parliamentary discussions around a statute?
the Current Law Statutes version of an Act gives Hansard references to all debates in the House and usually in the standing committee
Where is the best place to find enacted statutory instruments?
www.legislation.gov.uk
What paper resource should you use to find statutory instruments
Halsbury’s Statutory Instruments
What is the best source of law reports for the European Court of Justice and Court of First Instance?
the Common Market Law Reports
Where can you access EU case law online?
from the Court of Justice’s ‘Curia’ website or on Westlaw
In LexisLibrary, how do you search for two terms that occur within three or less words of each other?
“X w/3 Y”
In a Westlaw search, how do you search for two terms that occur in the same sentence?
“X /s Y”
