The next row contains three sponsored links for legal publishers. They are not free but you may need them at some point!
Last updated on April 16th.
The UK Statute Law Database is the official revised edition
of the primary legislation of the United Kingdom made available online.
It was developed by the Statutory Publications Office (SPO) and is now provided by the Ministry of Justice.
Here is what the press release on the DCA site says:
"The database offers users a range of advanced search and navigation functions across over 30,000 items of UK
primary and secondary legislation. The database contains primary legislation that was in force at 1 February 1991
and primary and secondary legislation that has been produced since that date.
New legislation is published on the website as soon as possible after it has been issued.
The SPO is responsible for maintaining the UK Statute Book by incorporating new legislation on to the
database and keeping primary legislation up-to-date by applying the effects contained within subsequent legislation.
The primary legislation has been revised to 2002 and is expected to be completely up to date with revisions by the
end of 2008. The SLD also contains Tables of Effects for 2002 onwards that will help users to establish currency on
any particular item of primary legislation that they select."
BAILII (British and Irish Legal Information Institute)
provides access to the most comprehensive free and up-to-date collection of British and
Irish primary legal materials on the internet with 74 databases covering 7 jurisdictions.
A user can pick individual courts, tribunals or collections of legislation to search or search across the whole
seven jurisdictions in one go. Some of these are the Court of Appeal of England and Wales; the Irish Supreme Court;
the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal; Scottish Court of Session and High Court; Judicial Committee of the Privy
Council and the House of Lords and the European Union as well as full-text legislation databases from Ireland,
Northern Ireland, and the United Kingdom. Also on BAILII are Law Commission publications and tribunal decisions
from tribunals such as the Employment Appeals Tribunal, the Immigration Appeals Tribunal and VAT & Duties Tribunals.
In many instances BAILII has these documents available days before any other source.
BAILII is legally constituted as a public trust incorporated in the UK.
It is hosted in the UK and Ireland by the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies,
London and the Law Faculty, University College Cork.
The databases on BAILII are derived from a number of sources. Some of the data comes
from existing free sites. Most of the databases are based on published and unpublished
CD-ROMs or rely upon direct and indirect feeds by relevant courts, government departments
and other organisations. All of the data has been converted into a consistent format and
a generalised set of search and hypertext facilities have been added.
Her Majesty's Courts Service provides a large number of recent
selected judgments since 1996 on its site (take the "Legal/Professional" link and then "Judgments".
It has now passed on the longer term archiving and managing of its judgments database to
BAILII; as above.
JustCite 2.0 is a multi-source legal search engine and citator service from independent publisher
Justis. It is the only provider-neutral service that
links to content from a range of publishers and includes extensive links to full-text material on leading
online services, including BAILII, Casetrack, Informa Law, Justis, LexisNexis and WestLaw.
Further information on the facilities provided by the new version JustCite 2.0 can be found
here.
There is a free version of JustCite 2.0 (designed to be genuinely useful whilst not provided so many resources in the
search as the full version) below.
infolaw finder enables the user to search
all the important UK sources (Acts, SI's, cases, forms and precedents and other official documents) in so far as
these resources are on the web without charge - around 100,000 documents.
What the process is actually doing is setting up the "right"
search for each of the significant resources available online, firing it off
to the respective resources, and then collecting and collating the results,
so that the user does not
have to know where the resources are or how to carry out those particular searches.
To use the infolaw finder you need to register for a 30 day free trial.
The Incorporated Council of Law Reporting offers a service called
WLR Daily (previously called Daily Law Notes) with summarised reports of cases heard at House of Lords
and Privy Council, Court of Appeal - Criminal and Civil Divisions, Chancery Division, Queen's Bench
Division, Family Division and Court of Justice of the EU. There is also a monthly index but, once they have
been reported in the printed (and paid for) WLR, the free summary seems to be withdrawn.
There is also a free facility on the ICLR site called "Industrial Cases Reports Express" with previews of the Industrial
Cases Reports before they are available in printed form. The reports cover employment law, discrimination
and competition.
The Scottish Courts Web Site
provides many recent Court Opinions of importance. As it says in more details:
"This site provides an access point to information relating to all civil and criminal
courts within Scotland, including the Court of Session, the High Court of Justiciary,
the Sheriff Courts and a number of other courts, commissions and tribunals as well
the District Courts. The information includes location details, contact numbers,
advice and details of recent significant judgments. The site is regularly updated with
any changes and other relevant information."
CaseCheck offers registered users free access to a continually
updated archive of Scottish Court case summaries and also summaries of UK Employment Appeal Tribunal cases.
Presently the archive contains summaries dating back to 2005.
The archive is split up into a number of clearly defined categories and each case summary links directly to the
full, original judgment. The content of the site is user generated and the current reports are drafted
by an advocate, an employment lawyer and a professional support lawyer.
Registered users can add comments and can also receive a weekly email bulletin with details of recently
added reports.
The service builds upon and takes over the Intersettle Scottish Courts Newsletter which was a
subscription only service and was delivered to approximately seventy firms in Scotland. It is also interesting
because it is built as a "Web 2.0 service" using an open source blog platform and should become, in time,
something of a wiki. RSS is available.
The Northern Ireland Court Service
was established in 1979, by the Judicature (Northern Ireland) Act 1978, as a separate civil service in
Northern Ireland. The Court Service reports to the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for
Constitutional Affairs. There are selected Judgments and Practice Directions on the site.
House of Lords Judgments are available since 1996, sorted by title within year. The most
recent judgments are shown at the top of the page.
Tribunals
There are just a few described here. For a full list, look at
The Court Service list of tribunals.
Care Standards Tribunal relates
to the Protection of Children and Vulnerable Adults under various Childrens Acts and related legislation.
There are decisions on the site.
Competition Appeal Tribunal (CAT) is a specialist judicial body
with cross-disciplinary expertise in law, economics, business and accountancy. Under United Kingdom law,
the function of the CAT is to hear and decide appeals and other applications or claims involving competition or
economic regulatory issues. It came into force on 1 April 2003.
Employment Appeal Tribunal
offers Judgments in full text, indexed by type of case (Sex Discrimination, Transfer
of Undertakings, Unfair Dismissal etc), Appellant, Respondent or Judge. These are
available in html format. Other parts of the site are available in pdf format,
including Cause Lists and forms. There is also a good section written for non-lawyers,
on whether there is cause for appeal and what the procedures are.
Finance and Tax Tribunals include the
Vat and Duties Tribunals, Special Commissioners and Financial Services & Markets Tribunal.
The site has been designed to meet the needs of those wishing to appeal against decisions of HM Customs
& Excise and the Inland Revenue or to refer matters relating to certain decisions of the Financial Services Authority.
The Tribunals are part of the Department for Constitutional Affairs. There are decisions on the site which
can be searched by categories of VAT, Customs Duties, Excise Duties, Insurance Premium Tax,
Landfill Tax and Special Commissioners.
Immigration Services Tribunal
is part of the Court Service, an executive agency of the
Department for Constitutional Affairs. The site provides information on how to appeal and procedures generally.
There is also a database of decisions.
The Asylum and Immigration Tribunal is the successor to the Immigration
Appellate Authority and the Immigration Appeals Tribunal. The Tribunal was set up under the Asylum and Immigration
(Treatment of Claimants etc) Act 2004 and came into being on 4th April 2005. The purpose of the Tribunal is to hear
and decide appeals against decisions made by the Home Office in matters of asylum, immigration and nationality.
The site contains the information needed to pursue an appeal to the Tribunal and also provides information
about procedures and hearing centres, daily court lists, a case law database and links to related legislation.
The case law section includes Country Guideline Determinations and a List of Starred Determinations (although
this is not complete yet).
Lands Tribunal Website is designed to assist
claimants and their representatives. It includes information on the functions and powers of the Lands Tribunal,
an explanation of our rules and procedures and a searchable database of decisions.
The Lands Tribunal was established by the Lands Tribunal Act 1949 to determine questions of disputed
compensation arising out of the compulsory acquisition of land; to decide rating appeals; to exercise
jurisdiction under section 84 of the Law of Property Act 1925 (discharge and modification of restrictive
covenants); and to act as arbitrator under references by consent. Under the 1949 Act other jurisdictions
may be added, and a number have been since the Tribunal came into existence on 1 January 1950.
The Tribunal’s jurisdiction is exercised in England and Wales.
Pensions Appeal Tribunals hear appeals
from ex-servicemen or women who have had their claims for a War Pension rejected by the Secretary of State
for Defence. The jurisdiction of the Tribunals only includes England & Wales - Scotland and Northern Ireland
have separate Tribunals. The Pensions Appeal Tribunals are independent of the Veterans Agency.
The Tribunals have been set up in their present form since 1943, although they have been in existence as
part of the Lord Chancellor's responsibility since the War Pensions Act 1919.
Selected Decisions are due to go on the site during April 2005.
Social Security and
Child Support Commissioners, the specialised part of the Judiciary appointed to
determine appeals on law under the Social Security and Child Support Acts. Decisions since
1972 are on the site.
Transport Tribunal has three jurisdictions.
It was originally set up to hear appeals against decisions of Traffic Commissioners in connection
with the Heavy Goods Vehicles & Public Service Vehicles Operators Licensing Systems. It also hears
appeals against decisions of The Registrar of Approved Driving Instructors. In addition, it is able to
resolve disputes under the Postal Services Act 2000.
Members of the Transport Tribunal also act as the London Service Permit Appeals Panel.
The site has decisions since 2000.
Other Sources
One Crown Office Row's Human Rights Update is
a database of 800 reports and
commentaries on human rights dating back to 1998 with a weekly update co-ordinated by Chambers Academic Rosalind English.
The cases are taken from domestic courts and the Strasbourg court involving
human rights points that demonstrate the impact of the European Convention on domestic law and also explores the
practical impact of these cases for practitioners. There is a good
search engine and it is possible to sign up for a weekly update by email. As well as being a resource
for practitioners, it will be widely used by students and less experienced lawyers, and possibly also members of
the public, since it includes a practical guide to the Convention and the Act; what are
"Incorporated Rights", "Procedures and Remedies" and so on.
Competition Commission
is an independent public body established by the Competition Act 1998. The Commission replaced the Monopolies
and Mergers Commission ("MMC") on 1 April 1999. The Commission has taken on the former MMC role of
carrying out inquiries into matters referred to it by the other UK competition authorities concerning
monopolies, mergers and the economic regulation of utility companies.
The Privy Council is online -
take the Judicial Committee link from the front page.
As it says on the site
"The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is the court of final
appeal for those Commonwealth countries which have retained
the appeal to Her Majesty in Council or, in the case of Republics,
to the Judicial Committee. It is also the final appeal court for the
Channel Islands, Isle of Man and United Kingdom overseas
territories. It also has certain domestic jurisdiction within the
United Kingdom, including the function of being the court of final
appeal for determining devolution issues under the United
Kingdom devolution statutes of 1998."
The site gives the full text of "Key Judgments before 1999", Judgments 1999 and each year thereafter.
The judgments are in chronological order, oldest first.
The Telegraph provides a selection
of Law Reports from Westlaw UK each Thursday. These only stay on the site for a week
and there is no way of finding past reports.
The Times provides the Law Reports online in association with
LexisNexis. The reports are available free for 21 days but for access to older reports, a subscription
is required. The (subscription) reports go back to 1988 and can be searched in various ways.
The Law Society Gazette
provides its Law Reports on the site in the "In Practice" section although it does
not seem to be possible to search for past reports.
David Swarbrick, now a consultant to Wrigley Claydon,
provides an index of case reports from 1991 to 1999 (take the "Law-index" link").
This can be searched by statute, area of law, date and by
court.
There is now also a "professional" (and charged) version called
Lawindexpro with additional features
such as links to 35,000 full text decisions and 12,000 head-notes.
However, the basic free area is still available in a limited form.
Other law reports and news services covering particular areas of law,
and available free on the web, include the following:
Family Law Week is a free site for family lawyers,
covering developments in divorce, ancillary relief, private child law, public child law and cohabitation.
(You have to register, but it is free).
Each week, there is:
* news, covering consultations, policy announcements and reports.
* cases, with the latest publicly available judgments from Casetrack, Court Service and Bailli.
For significant cases, there is a digest with the full text of the judgment.
Where a case significantly alters family law and practice, there is a commentary highlighting the
impact that the case will have.
* articles from leading family law writers.
* legislation, with details of all new SIs, together with a link to the full text of the legislation;
progress of Bills is tracked.
* resources, with useful links and documents such as updated Family Proceedings Fees.
All available information can be searched on the site and there is also a "print ready" issue of Family Law Week
which can be downloaded from the site (also free).
Michael J L Turner provides an extensive list of cases
relating to the Computer Misuse Act 1990. He gives a brief summary of each case and a link to a free
source of information, if available. Michael Turner is an experienced forensic computer examiner,
a Registered Forensic Practitioner in the speciality of Computer Examination: Data Examination and an established
and experienced independent expert witness on computer evidence.
Morgans are shipping
specialists in London and they provide a "Shipping Case Index" with 1,000 selected
English Court Decisions which can be searched by keyword or category.
Compensation for Personal Injuries is a free site set up by
Peter Barrie, a barrister in Guildhall Chambers, Bristol, noting developments in personal injury law since January
2002 as a supplement to his practitioner textbook Compensation for Personal
Injuries (OUP). There are sections on (1) liability issues, (2) assessment of damages, and (3) practice notes,
including a CPR case digest. The information on the site is free standing and the viewer does not have to have bought the book.
Litigation Liabilities is a free site set up by
Brian Watson of Guildhall Chambers, Bristol, providing a summary of recent cases and
practice developments since 2001 as an up-dating service for his book of the same name.
The site covers:
(1) the duties of litigators and advocates to clients, to litigation funders and to the court,
(2) litigation practice in the post-Woolf era,
(3) professional negligence claims arising out of litigation mishandling, and
(4) applications for wasted costs orders.
The information on the site is free standing and the viewer does not have to have bought the book.
5RB (5 Raymond Buildings) provide
300 case reports covering cases in media and entertainment law, many of which have involved
members of chambers. You can register on the site for email briefings with monthly
round-ups of the key issues and new cases covered on the site.
Exchange Chambers
offers an online Personal Injury Newsletter, compiled by Bill Braithwaite QC. This includes
an extensive set of summaries of cases tried and cases settled over the last 2 years.
Not being kept up to date, it seems.
1 Hare Court (previously 1 Mitre Court Buildings)
provides news of some recent cases in family law.
Gray's Inn Chambers
offers a tax case reporting service with online digests of
all recent tax and VAT cases in which members of chambers have appeared,
with full transcripts in some cases (in pdf format). There are also comprehensive
links to other tax cases.
Laurie West-Knights' offers an ongoing
commentary on substantive legal sources. Look, in particular, for the What's New page
and also the section on What There Is In the UK. There is also information
on the BAILII site, of which he is one of the prime movers (see above). His site also has a comprehensive area
devoted to up the the minute cases news questions and analysis on the Civil Procedure Rules.
elawstudent.com is a small
company developing law courses and in particular, so far,
an 'A' Level Law software programme (GCSE law and the core subjects for
the first year of the LLB degree will follow later in the year). In the meantime,
barrister Richard Priestley is making his database of significant edited
transcripts of case judgments available to anyone interested.
Take the Library option (you have to register). You can
then search by keyword (e.g. negligence) or by name or part of name.
I asked how the cases were chosen. Richard said
"I choose the cases in accordance with the syllabi of AQA and OCR, who are
the only two examining boards offering AS/A LEVEL LAW. Unfortunately, the
areas covered are huge: crime, contract, tort, consumer protection, human
rights and els. Frankly, in terms of depth, I would equate the course with a
first-year LL.B."
Historical resource The Proceedings of the Old Bailey is
"A fully searchable online edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published,
containing accounts of over 100,000 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court." it is coming online
in stages, with the first stage, 22,000 trials, from December 1714 to December 1759, available now. "The Proceedings"
is the name of the original published version. Here is what it says about these:
"The Proceedings contain accounts of trials which took place at the Old Bailey. The crimes tried were mostly
felonies (predominantly theft), but also include some of the most serious misdemeanours. The first published
collection of trials at the Old Bailey dates from 1674, and from 1678 accounts of the trials at each session
(meeting of the Court) at the Old Bailey were regularly published. Inexpensive, and targeted initially at a
popular rather than a legal audience, the Proceedings were produced shortly after the conclusion of each
sessions and were a commercial success. With few exceptions, this periodical was regularly published each
time the sessions met (eight times a year) for 160 years. In 1834 it changed its name, but publication
continued until 1913."
The site is beautifully prepared, with the full text available as well as digital images of the
original reports. There are also some pictures from legal material of the time together with an extensive Introduction.
There is a particular section for schools, with the site obviously seen as material for school projects.
The project is funded by various grants so that access can be free.
