United Kingdom

Key law sites

BAILII (British and Irish Legal Information Institute)
This joint venture by AustLII and steering committees in Britain and Ireland, provides "free access to case law and unconsolidated legislation from British and Irish courts and legislatures", using the AustLII search engine.

Internet for Lawyers (tutorial)
Internet Lawyer has been written by Sue Pettit, Subject Librarian for Law, Wills Memorial Library, University of Bristol. It is one of a set tutorials within the RDN Virtual Training Suite, created by subject-specialists from universities and professional organisations across the UK. It teaches the key Internet sites for UK law, and how to search for and review them.

Jurist UK
Site is one of a network of four JURIST sites worldwide. Links are provided to the main JURIST USA site, as well as to JURIST Australia and JURIST Canada. JURIST UK is a portal to legal information from the UK and around the world. Areas covered include UK Legal News, Learning & Teaching Law, Researching Law and Law Reports, as well as links to a vast array of information from the worldwide JURIST network. A network-wide search facility and email updating service are also provided.

Law Commission for England and Wales
Library contains executive summaries and the full texts of all the Commission's recent reports and consultation papers. Law under Review contains summaries of current official law reform projects by the Commission and other bodies.

Portal to Legal Resources in the UK and Ireland
Delia Venables, a computer consultant for lawyers, has put together this extensive site of links to legal sites in the UK and Ireland. It is divided into Free Legal Information for Individuals, Free Legal Information for Companies, and Free (and Subscription) Information for Lawyers.

A Guide to the UK Legal System (GlobaLex) (updated November 2005)
Sarah Carter, Law Librarian at the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK, has compiled and updated this comprehensive guide, which includes electronic resources for legal research.

Government information

Official-Documents.co.uk
The Official Documents website is provided by The Stationery Office and contains a selection of Government titles covering a very broad range of topics including the economy, work and welfare, health, transport and the environment. There are two main groups of documents: Command Papers (sometimes known as White or Green Papers) and House of Commons Papers. The latter category includes many Annual Reports from Government bodies including all the principal Executive Agencies and the annual Financial Statement and Budget Report and Pre-Budget Report. Titles are available from 1994 onwards.

United Kingdom Parliament
Site provides information about the UK Parliament, the House of Commons and the House of Lords. A wide range of Parliamentary information is included, most notably Hansard for both the House of Lords and the House of Commons. Other UK Parliamentary publications are also available at this site, such as Select Committee Reports of both Houses, the House of Commons Weekly Information Bulletin, and Order Papers, as is a facility to Search the UK Parliament Publications Database.

UKOnline
Site offers a locator service for UK Government Information on the Internet, with links to UK Government Departments, from Council offices through to Ministries and Commissions. In addition to a search facility, alphabetised organisational and functional lists are also provided.

Info4local.gov.uk
Site provides the first one-stop portal for local authorities to get quick and easy access to information on the web sites of U.K. central government departments, agencies and public bodies. It is run by a group of six departments, with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister in the lead. More than 50 departments and agencies add data to info4local. Select to receive email alerts by subject, department and document type.

For further sites, see the Library's government information page for the United Kingdom.

Legislation

Statute Law Database (SLD)
The SLD (launched on December 20, 2006) is the official revised edition of the primary legislation of the United Kingdom made available online. As of early January 2007, all statutes have been updated to the end of 2001. As revisions are progressively loaded, you may need to update a statute by referring to the Tables of Legislative Effects.

Legislation at the sites below is in unconsolidated form. For up-to-date consolidated versions of legislation see Westlaw or Lexis.com (Monash users only)

BAILII (British and Irish Legal Information Institute)

Hansard (House of Commons) and Hansard (House of Lords)

Acts of Parliament (Office of Public Sector Information)

Statutory Instruments (Office of Public Sector Information)

Public Bills before Parliament

Scotland Legislation
Contains the full text of all Acts of the Scottish Parliament, Explanatory Notes to the Acts, and Scottish Statutory Instruments. Part of a larger site which includes legislation of all the members of the United Kingdom which are searchable from the site.

Case law

See also Monash University Library's Electronic case law - United Kingdom (Monash users only)

BAILII (British and Irish Legal Information Institute)

Casetrack
Smith & Bernall offer this free to not-for-profit organisations and individuals. It allows searching and retrieval of full-text cases from the Court of Appeal, Queen's Bench and Chancery Divisions, and Employment Appeals Tribunal. Judgments are added as soon as possible after handing down, often within the hour.

House of Lords Judgments (14th Nov 1996- )

Privy Council. Judicial Committee. Judgments
Select a year from the drop down menu.

UK Patent Office. Results of past patent decisions (1998- )
Search or browse for full-text decisions from 1998 to present.

The WLR Daily (ICLR)
The Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales provides a free 24 hour service from the Royal Courts of Justice and European Court of Justice, providing the most important updates from the House of Lords, the Privy Council, the Court of Appeal and all divisions of the High Court. A detailed abstract and catchwords are provided for each case. Browse by date or court, or search by keyword. A page listing cases the House of Lords has decided or refused to give leave to appeal is also available.

Law courts

UK Court Service
Site of the UK Court Service, an executive agency of the Lord Chancellor's Department, provides information about the UK Courts and their structure, as well as the full-text of selected judgments and the Charter for Court Users.

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