Internet links

This page contains a brief selection of Internet resources which may be useful for legal reference and research. Many are freely available online.

Evaluating and using Internet resources

• Internet Detective is an interactive tutorial helping you critically assess the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly on the Internet.
• Internet for Law is an interactive tutorial helping you find and evaluate legal resources on the Internet.
• Endnote Web is a referencing package enabling you to store, sort and export your references into bibliographies. Further help and advice on Endnote Web can be found here.  Details of other referencing options available via the University can be found here.

Find online information about:

• Bibliographic databases and catalogues
• Criminal Justice, Courts and Court Services
• Directories of legal firms and professionals
• Gateways to legal information on the Internet
• Organisations
• Primary legal materials
• Selected legal and related subject areas

 

Bibliographic Databases and Catalogues

Bibliographic databases index articles from a large number of journals and are useful to search when you are looking for articles on a particular subject. Catalogues list books and other material held in selected libraries.

Legal Databases - additional services

Westlaw UK includes current UK and EC legislation, and a selection of full text law report series. The service offers a comprehensive Help section, search tips, and information on connectors. It also has

• student training tutorials
• podcasts on selected legal topics

Guides from Inner Temple Library also available on Westlaw case law and legislation

Lexis Library includes current UK legislation, and a selection of full text law report series. The service offers a comprehensive Help section including search tips, and also

• interactive tutorials

HeinOnline offers many full text journals, and a range of other resources including e-books in the Legal Classics section, World Constitutions, a Treaties and Agreements Library, the US Code, and

• a training section including a wiki of user guides and tutorials, and a blog of shortcut tips and product news items

General Databases

• Web of Science - covers arts and humanities, social sciences and sciences though you can limit your search to any one or two of these areas.
• ZETOC - British Library's indexing service. covering the table of contents of all their journals since 1993. Only references are provided, no table of contents or full text.
• Copac - provides free access to the merged online catalogues of 22 of the largest university research libraries in the UK and Ireland PLUS the British Library. Useful for searching for books in your area.

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Specialised Databases

• Medical - Medline A powerful database of journals relating to medicine, dentistry and nursing, as well as other sources of coverage in the areas of allied health, biological and physical sciences, humanities and information science as they relate to medicine and health care, communication disorders, population biology and reproductive biology

• Psychology - PsycINFO is produced by the American Psychological Association. It covers summaries of journal articles, book chapters, technical reports and citations to dissertations in the field of psychology and psychological aspects of related disciplines. Journal coverage is from 1872 onwards, and book coverage from 1987 onwards.

• Social Sciences - IBSS covers 2.5 million references to journal articles, theses, books and book chapters in politics, economics, and sociology

 

Criminal Justice, Courts and Court Services

• Her Majesty's Court Service - provides court information and addresses, as well as information on small claims, family matters, wills and probate, and victims and witnesses in criminal cases.
• Judiciary of England and Wales - information about judges, magistrates and tribunal members in England and Wales.
• Guide to finding Transcripts of Judicial Proceedings in England and Wales from the Inner Temple Library
• Scottish Courts Service - Court of Session, High Court of Justiciary and Sheriff Courts decisions from 1998
• Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunals - judicial decisions from 1999
• The Supreme Court, judgments from 2009 onwards, and earlier House of Lords judgments 1996-2009.  Keep up to date with cases and commentary with the Supreme Court blog.
• Tribunals Service - gateway to all tribunals sites, each of which publishes its own decisions
• Ministry of Justice including Criminal Procedure Rules
• Crown Prosecution Service
• Criminal Lawyer Bulletin from the Criminal Law Solicitors' Association, and Criminal Bar Quarterly from the Criminal Bar Association
• Sentencing Guidelines for adults and young offenders from the Sentencing Council of England and Wales

 

Directories

The Law Society Directory is available at Ref K151 LAW in the Wills Library. Other directories are available online:

• Legal Hub - includes Bar Directory, Expert Witness Directory and other legal resources.
• The Legal 500 - Contains information on law firms worldwide
• Martindale.com - Over 1 million lawyer profiles worldwide.
• Waterlow Legal - A collection of databases on legal professionals, expert witnesses and other providers of legal information.
• Chambers Guides - UK and global legal directories

 

Gateways

Gateways are collections of links to quality resources, covering specific areas of law, organisations and other jurisdictions.

• Access to Law - subject and jurisdiction resources selected by Inner Temple Library
• LAWLINKS - links to legal information on the Internet from the University of Kent
• Legal Resources in the UK and Ireland - links to legal resources maintained by Delia Venables
• IALS SKiLLS - legal information and literacy resources from the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies

 

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Organisations

• The Bar Council - professional body for barristers
• Institute of Advanced Legal Studies - a national academic institution attached to the University of London
• The Law Society - professional body for solicitors in England and Wales
• Society for Legal Scholars - a learned society seeking to advance legal education and scholarship in the UK
• Law Commission - an independent body created to keep law under review and recommend reform where needed. Many of its reports are available from the website.
• The Stationery Office - provides online access to government publications.
• The UK Planning Portal - the UK governments online planning and building regulations resource for England and Wales.
• HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate website includes full text reports including annual reports.

 

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Primary legal materials

Legislation and pre-legislative materials

As well as Westlaw and LexisLibrary which both include legislation as amended, and the print sources available in the library, other websites and databases which cover legislative material for the UK include:

• UK Legislation Service - from July 2010 this government site contains most consolidated primary legislation in force and secondary legislation as enacted from 1991. It is intended to replace the Statute Law database and the OPSI legislation service. The new service will combine and integrate the 'as enacted' and revised versions of legislation, and make available all versioning from 1991, and annotation information.
• Acts of Parliament - Public General Acts since 1988 and Local Acts since 1991, as originally enacted
• Statutory Instruments - Statutory Instruments since 1987
• Bills - Bills currently before Parliament, plus access to previous sessions
• British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII) - includes British and Irish legislation
• World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII) - includes legislation from a range of countries and jurisdictions worldwide
• EUR-Lex - official database for European law
• Summaries of European Legislation - a browsable quick reference site to trace relevant EU legislation by subject
• Lawtel UK - includes Acts since 1984, SIs since 1987, current status tables, and Bill tracking since 1993/199 4

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Case Law

Westlaw and LexisLibrary both contain full text of the Official (ICLR) Law Reports. Westlaw also includes WLR, CMLR, FSR, RPC, and English Reports. A full list can be found in the Browse section under the Cases tab. LexisLibrary includes All ER, EG, Fam. LR, and IRLR. A full list can be found in the Browse section under the Cases tab. Other online websites for case law include:

• House of Lords Judgments - from Nov. 1996 to July 2009
• Supreme Court Judgments - decided cases from August 2009 onwards
• Surpreme Court current cases - details of ongoing appeals
• Privy Council Judgments - judgments made by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council
• European Court of Human Rights - judgments, admissibility decisions etc
• EUR-Lex - official database for European law
• International Court of Justice (ICJ) - The principal judicial organ of the United Nations.
• British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII) - includes significant British and Irish and European cases from 1996 onwards, and limited coverage of historic judgments. This includes judgments from both the Criminal and the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal, and the Administrative Court. Also included is OpenLaw, a collection of 2.500 historic judgments important in the core teaching areas of law.
• World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII) - includes case law from a range of countries and jurisdictions worldwide
• Lawtel UK - includes case reports and summaries since 1980
• English Reports - important English cases from 1220-1873, and available in Westlaw and HeinOnline
• LawCite - A free to access international legal case citator

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Selected legal and related subject areas

• MetaLib: your resource gateway at the University of Bristol, provides access to a vast range of online resources, which can be browsed by subject area or material type. Further information about MetaLib.
• Podcasts on selected legal subject areas for students from Sweet and Maxwell
• European law - see the library's European Union Internet links page for websites covering EU policies and documentation.
• Legal history - the attached document, by Gwen Seabourne, outlines key sources for legal history
• International law - a document prepared by the United Nations is a useful starting point.  Please email lib-wills@bristol.ac.uk for additional help on this topic.
• Legal Literacy Skills from IALS - a collection of resources to promote legal literacy, mainly for teachers of literacy, but useful for research students also.  It will include a know-how database covering different areas of legal study, and sourced from freely available materials on UK university and international sources.

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