Legal resources

Legal citations and abbreviations

Law reports are referred to using standardised citations (such as: Pepper v Hart [1993] A.C. 593) which provide the party names, Pepper and Hart; the year in which the report was published, 1993; the law report series abbreviation, AC and page number, 593.

To locate where a specific case has been 'reported', identify the abbreviation via the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations.

Law Reports

In English law (England and Wales), there has been one official series of law reports since 1865, known as The Law Reports. This series comprises separate sequences for each court division - Appeal Cases (AC), Chancery (Ch.), King's Bench (KB) and Family (Fam.). Other report series include the All England Law Reports, and specialist series such as the Criminal Appeal Reports.
To find UK case law:

• Use Westlaw UK or Lexis + UK.
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• Find printed versions at KD275 - KD279 Main Collection, 1st floor.
• British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII) - publishes full text of judgments (the official transcript) from the High Courts of the UK from 1997 onwards.
• Find case law - launched by The National Archives in spring 2022, this site contains decisions from the UK Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal, the High Court, and Upper Tribunals.
• Croner i-Tax and Accounting - UK Tax Cases.

Pre-1865 law reports

Prior to 1865, cases were reported by individuals and these became known as the Nominate Reports.

English Reports, 1235 -1865 (ER), KD270 E51, first floor is a reprint of the Nominate Reports. They are not usually cited as 'English Reports' but by their original citation e.g. (1675) 1 Rolle 360.

• Use the English Reports on  Westlaw UK or HeinOnline or CommonLII for easier access than the print volumes.
• For the print copy, use the Cardiff Index of Legal Abbreviations or Raistrick's Index to identify the relevant volumes then use the case index volumes.

All England Law Reports Reprint 1558-1936, KD288.A6 A42 includes important older cases.

HeinOnline World Trials Library contains a selection of English trials relating to offences against the State. A wide variety of cases is covered, predominantly high treason but also bigamy, sedition, murder, riot, piracy, witchcraft and corruption.

Proceedings of the Old Bailey 1674 - 1913 is a fully searchable service containing over 190,000 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court.

Statutes

Consider what you need - the original Act or an updated and amended version. Most print materials will not reflect amendments except for Halsbury's Statutes.

Current status of legislation

• Use Lexis + UK or Westlaw UK for the latest amendments to legislation.
• Halsbury's Statutes KD135.H3 G78, 1st floor Main Collection. This series is arranged by subject and contains acts currently in force and as amended. Acts no longer in force are omitted. Acts (or their equivalent) applying only to Scotland or Northern Ireland are not included.

Legislation as originally enacted

• vLex Justis contains the full text of all Acts of Parliament in England, Wales and Scotland as enacted, from 1235 to the present day and includes repealed legislation. Links to amended and amending legislation allow you to trace the development of the law.
• Acts of the UK Parliament and Explanatory Notes Legislation.gov.uk includes the full text of all UK Public General Acts from 1988 and selected Acts from 1801-1987. It is possible to view most Acts both as originally enacted and as amended – although for fully up-to-date text of legislation please use Lexis+ UK or Westlaw UK.
• Public General Acts, KD125 U51, 1st floor Main Collection. The official series of statutes are published by the Stationery Office, in annual volumes in number order (each Act is assigned a 'chapter' number). These are the Acts in their original form, and not amended. This series is largely of historical interest, but is regarded as the official and definitive text of an act. We have an extensive collection back to the early 19th century.
• Current Law Statutes Annotated KD135.C8 C97, 1st floor Main Collection (1965-2014). This series reproduces the original Act without amendments, repeals, etc. It is useful to trace the background to and parliamentary history of an Act, as references to white papers, Standing Committee reports, Hansard debates, etc. are included in footnotes. This publication is arranged chronologically.

Statutory instruments

Statutory instruments (SIs) are largely made by government ministers and agencies under powers granted to them by Parliament under specific Acts. They deal with administrative matters. Each SI is assigned a running number with the numbering starting afresh each year. For example: 1996/1245 refers to SI 1245 of 1996.

• Use Westlaw UK or Lexis + UK for SIs still in force.
• vLEX Justis contains legislation published in Statutory Rules & Orders and Statutory Instruments Revised to December 31, 1948, which includes regulations dating back as far as 1671. The archive contains repealed legislation.
• The as enacted texts of all UK Statutory Instruments from 1987 onwards can be accessed via legislation.gov.uk, with selected SIs from 1948-1986 also available.
• Halsbury's Statutory Instruments, KD173.H3 G78, 1st floor Main Collection. It covers SIs currently, or shortly to be, in force. When full-text is not available, go to the annual volumes at KD166 U51, 1st floor Main Collection.
• Statutory Instruments KD166 U51, 1st floor Main Collection. We have all SIs published between 1907-2014.

EUR-Lex - the official portal to legal and judicial materials of the EU is updated daily. Since 2004, the contents of Celex has been included. Included are the Treaties, regulations, directives and decisions of the European Union.

Lexis + UK - select Cases, then EU Cases from the Sources drop down list.

Westlaw UK - select EU

For information on our print holdings of EU material, see the EU, UN and US collections page. 

• Oxford Public International Law is a single source for all international law jurisprudence from international courts, tribunals and domestic courts and also contains key reference works.
• International Law Reports (Cambridge University Press) - 1955 to present - To access pre-1955 reports, from the home page select Annual Digest of Public International Law Cases (1932 - 1945) or Annual Digest and Reports of Public International Law Cases (1940 - 1955).
• European Court of Human Rights - search for judgments, decisions and opinions since 1956.
• International Court of Justice provides all judgments and opinions since 1946.
• International Criminal Court

The Institute of Advanced Legal Studies provides extensive worldwide law reports in print and online. Available to all LSE staff and postgraduate students.

• FLAG Foreign Law guide - Locate UK research Library holdings of foreign law materials.
• Foreign law research -  provides research guides for foreign jurisdictions.

United States state & federal law

• Go to Lexis + UK, click on the International heading below the search box, and then select United States of America.
• From the homepage of Westlaw UK select Westlaw US.

The US Supreme Court Reports are held in the library, and can be found at KF101 C33.

Commonwealth jurisdictions

Lexis + UK provides substantial coverage of Australia, Canada and New Zealand and selected coverage for South Africa, Hong Kong and Malaysia. To access within Lexis, click on the International heading below the search box, and select one of the jurisdictions.

Westlaw International has coverage of Australia (Case Law) and Canada, Hong Kong and the Republic of Korea (Legislation and Case law). 

We have law reports for selected non-UK jurisdictions in print, e.g. South African Law Reports (1947-2020). Use Library Search to locate both print and online law reports.

European jurisdictions

France - the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies has Lexis 360 Intelligence, a comprehensive collection of databases pertaining to the law of France.

Germany - the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies provides access to Beck Online, the comprehensive database for German law. The usage licence means that you have to visit IALS in person to access Beck.

Since our foundation, we have collected material published by governments on a global basis. Our collection is strongest in publications published by the British government and the United States Federal government. The key online resources for these materials are:

• UK Parliamentary Papers
• Public Information Online
• US Congressional Hearings Historical Archive

For information on our print holdings of US material, see the EU, UN and US collections page.  

We have an extensive collection of United Nations publications, and also hold a large collection of EU print material due to our former status as a European Documentation Centre. For further details see our EU, UN and US collections page. 

For documents relating to the above collections you will need to use specialist resources such as Europa and the UN iLibrary. There is a large collection of materials published by IGOs held in the Library.

The Institute of Advanced Legal Studies (IALS) also holds extensive worldwide primary materials in print. LSE staff and postgraduates have full access to the IALS.