Legislation: Parliamentary Debatess / Bills and Explanatory Notes / Acts / Statutory Instruments
Case Law: Early Law Reports / The Law Reports / Commercial Series / Case Law Online / Finding Cases / Updating Cases
Secondary Sources: Legal Encyclopedias / Journal Article Indexes / Dictionaries / Words and Phrases

Australia's legal traditions have their foundations in English law. It is, therefore, important for a legal researcher to have a knowledge of English legal materials.

House of Commons Parliamentary Debates
Print: S 328.42006/2 1953/54-1980 (Main Library, Level 4)
Print: SQ 328.42006/2 1980/81- (Main Library, Level 4)

House of Lords Parliamentary Debates
Print: SQ 328.42006/1 1950-1979 (Main Library, Level 4)
Print: SQ 328.42006/1 1980/81- (Main Library, Level 4)

The debates of both Houses are also available online via the United Kingdom Parliament website.

Both Public and Private Members' Bills currently before Parliament can be found on the United Kingdom Parliament website.

Parliamentary Papers (House of Commons)
Historic Bills are available as part of the House of Commons Parliamentary Papers.
Available online
Microfiche: SMFL/1372 1981/82- (Main Library, Level 3)

Public General Acts and Measures
The print copies are the official versions of English statutes. They contain the text of an Act as when passed by Parliament (similar to Australian sessional Acts). They are arranged in chronological order along with tables and indexes and are published annually by the English government printer, HMSO.
Print: L/KF22/P1 1972-1986, LQ/KF22/P1 1987-
Online versions are available from HMSO Online from 1988 onwards.

Halsbury's Statutes of England
This publication provides Acts as amended and is a good starting point when researching UK Acts. It consists of:

Current Law Statutes
This commercial series contains the text of Acts as when passed, along with annotations describing the legislative history and interpretation of various sections.
Print: L/KF23/C1 1949-

Online Sources
Westlaw provides a number of legislation databases including consolidations of current Acts (United Kingdom Statutes) and a legislation citator (United Kingdom Legislation Locator).

Lexis also has consolidations of current Acts (Statutes of England and Wales).

BAILII (the British and Irish Legal Information Institute) also has sessional Acts from 2000 onward.

"Statutory instrument" is the generic term covering subordinate legislation such as rules, statutory instruments, regulations and orders. The Law Library receives two series that cover statutory instruments (or SIs).

Statutory Instruments
Published by the government printer HMSO, these are regarded as the official text. SIs are arranged in numerical order in yearly volumes and are unamended.
Print: L/KF31/G1 (1972-1986), LQ/KF31/G1 (1987-2000)
HMSOnline also provides online access to UK Statutory Instruments from 1987 onwards.

Halsbury's Statutory Instruments
A companion series to Halsbury's Statutes of England, this title is arranged by subject and provides either the full text or a summary of the instrument. Full text entries include any amendments, as well as annotations. The bound volumes are reissued occasionally.

There are two loose-leaf volumes, the first of which contains a chronological listing of all SIs in this publication. The second includes the monthly updates to the service and the text of recent SIs not included in the bound volumes.
Print: L/KF32/H1

Online Sources
SIs are also available on Lexis, Westlaw and BAILII.

Updating Statutory Instruments
Update using Current Law Year Book then the Current Law Monthly Digest issues. The year book has two Tables of Statutory Instruments, one is an alphabetical listing, the other is a listing by subject.
Similar information can be found in the Current Law Legislation Citator which is part of Current Legal Information.

Finding SIs by Enabling Act
Halsbury's Statutes and Current Law Statutes allow you find SIs under the enabling Act. Halsbury's has annotated Statutes with "orders made under this section". Current Law Statutes provides SI numbers against the Statute's section number.

The Law Library holds a substantial collection of English law reports. Search the Law Reports and Abbreviations Database or the Library Resources Database to locate particular titles.

Nominate reports
Law reports published before the Council of Law Reporting was founded in 1865, are known as nominate reports. They were named after the reporter, usually members of the legal profession (e.g. Adolphus and Ellis Reports). It is estimated that there were over 300 of these law report series published.

The Law Library holds many of these reports at L/KF54/A3 to L/KF54/Y4. To search for a specific nominate report, use the Law Library's Law Reports and Abbreviations Database.

The English Reports
Most of the nominate reports have since been reprinted in The English Reports, which was published between 1900-1932. As they reprint the nominate reports in their original format, the usual practice when citing a decision from The English Reports is to cite both the nominate report and the relevant volume of The English Reports.

For example:
Saloway v. Strawbridge 1 Kay and Johnson's Vice Chancellors' Reports 371, 69 ER 502.

To find a case from a nominate report in The English Reports, use volumes 177 and 178 which contain the Index of Cases. This will provide the volume and page numbers for both the nominate report and the corresponding pages in The English Reports.

Another way to find which volumes of The English Reports a nominate report appears in, is to use Raistrick's Index to Legal Citations and Abbreviations (LREF/K110/R1/2 and the Information Desk). This publication lists nominate reports by abbreviation and the corresponding volume number in The English Reports.

The English Reports:
Print: L/KF53/E6
Online: Available in Justis

The establishment of the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales in 1865 saw the publication of the authorised series of law reports for England, The Law Reports. These contain reports of superior court decisions that have been reviewed by the judge before publication. As the authorised law report series for the United Kingdom, references to a case should be to The Law Reports version.

The Law Reports and are divided into four series:

The Law Reports are also available on Westlaw in the All Law Reports file.

Weekly Law Reports
A related series to The Law Reports, the Weekly Law Reports are also published by the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting. Published in weekly parts so as to provide practitioners with judgments of the superior courts in timely manner, this series consists of three volumes each year. Volumes 2 and 3 contain cases that will be published in The Law Reports and volume 1 contains other cases considered to be noteworthy but not for inclusion in The Law Reports.
Print: L/KF60/W2 1953-

All England Law Reports
This series is similar in content to the Weekly Law Reports but predates it and is published by a commercial publisher (Butterworths).
Print: L/KF60/A5 1936-
Online: Available via Butterworths Online and Lexis

Specialist Series
There are also many English law report series that are publish decisions on a specific area of the law. Some of these titles are long standing (e.g. Lloyds Reports) but many are relatively recent. They may be located in the Library by using the Law Reports & Abbreviations Database.

BAILII
BAILII contains fulltext decisions of the various divisions of the High Court (1997+), the Court of Appeal (1996+) in its England and Wales case law section. The United Kingdom case law section contain the decisions of the House of Lords and Privy Council from 1996 onwards, along with various commissions and tribunals.

Lexis
The England and Wales Reported and Unreported Cases database on Lexis contains almost 30 fulltext law report series, as well as selected unreported cases from 1980. Some of the law reports included are The Law Reports, All England Law Reports, Lloyd's Law Reports, Simon's Tax Cases and Butterworths' Company Law Cases.
Go to: Legal (excluding U.S.) > United Kingdom > Case Law > England and Wales Reported and Unreported Cases

Westlaw
The United Kingdom Reports All database on Westlaw contains the fulltext of The Law Reports and a number of specialist law reports. These include Lloyd's Law Reports and the Fleet Street Reports.
Go to: International/Worldwide Materials > United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales & N. Ireland) > Cases > United Kingdom Reports All

Current Law Year Book and Current Law Monthly Digest
These titles digest cases and arrange them by subject titles. The Monthly Digests are superseded by the annual Year Book volumes. They include all reported UK cases from 1947 onwards.
Print: L/KF85/C92 1947-
Online: Cases digested in the Year Books and Monthly Digests from 1986 are available in Current Legal Information as Current Law Cases.

The Digest
This publication provides summaries of cases arranged by subject. It covers all English case law regardless of the date, as well as cases from other jurisdictions (especially Commonwealth countries and the European Union). Digested cases are noted-up to show their subsequent judicial treatment. The Digest is particularly useful for finding cases that predate the Current Law products (1947) and for historical research. It is updated by reissued volumes, an annual cumulative supplement and a "quarterly survey".
Print: L/KF85/E6 (in the UNSW Freehills Law Library, 1st Floor Digest Area)


The Law Reports Index
This consists of several bound volumes covering the period 1951 to 1999, which are also referred to as the "red indexes". They are kept up to date by the "pink indexes". It provides case citations, access by subject, lists of cases, statutes and statutory instruments judicially considered. The coverage of the index is not comprehensive as it indexes the "authorised" reports and a selection of other series.
Print: L/KF80/L2 (in the UNSW Freehills Law Library, 1st Floor Digest Area)

Current Law Case Citator
This consists of volumes covering 1947 onwards which are updated by the Current Law Year Books and then the Monthly Digest. Arranged alphabetically by case name, these volumes will provide you with case citations, the subsequent judicial history and references to journal articles.
Print: L/KF85/C94 (in the UNSW Freehills Law Library, 1st Floor Digest Area)

Online: Available in Current Legal Information.

The Digest
The Digest can be used to determine the subsequent history of English cases from before 1947.
Print: L/KF85/E6 (in the UNSW Freehills Law Library, 1st Floor Digest Area)

Halsbury's Laws of England

Legal encyclopaedias are invaluable in gaining a concise introduction to broad topics of law and identifying the relevant legal authorities (i.e. legislation or precedents). Halbury's consists of:

Print: L/KF85/H4 (in the UNSW Freehills Law Library, 1st Floor Digest Area)

Legal Journals Index
This database (available via Current Legal Information) indexes journal articles, book reviews, editorials, practice directions, English, Scottish and Commonwealth case notes and commentaries on legislation. It also has many references to articles on European Union law.

Index to Legal Periodicals & Books (ILP)
While not as comprehensive as Legal Journals Index, Index to Legal Periodicals & Books indexes articles from most UK law journals.

Burke J, Jowitt's Dictionary of English Law, 2nd ed, Sweet & Maxwell, 1977
Updated by supplements.
Print: LREF/K127/J1/2

Ivamy ERH, Mozley and Whiteley's Law Dictionary, 11th ed, London, Butterworths, 1993
Print: LREF/K127/M2/11

Bone S (ed), Osborn's Concise Law Dictionary, 8th ed, London, Sweet & Maxwell, 2001
Print: LREF/K127/O1/9

"Words and phrases" dictionaries provide references to cases or legislation that have judicially considered the legal definition of a word or phrase. Therefore, they are sources of law, rather than secondary materials.

James JS, Stroud's Judicial Dictionary of Words and Phrases, 5th ed, London, Sweet & Maxwell, 1986
Updated by cumulative supplements.
Print: LREF/K127/S1/5

Saunders JB (ed), Words and Phrases Legally Defined, 3rd ed, London, Butterworths, 1990
This title provides cross-references to Halsbury's Laws of England and is kept up-to-date by supplements.
Print: LREF/K128/W1/3

Holborn G, Butterworths Legal Research Guide, 2nd ed, London, Butterworths, 2001.
Print: L/KL155/H1/2

Pester D, Finding Legal Information: a Guide to Print and Electronic Sources, Oxford, Chandos, 2003