Electronic resources are available to all academic users

Westlaw UK

Westlaw UK is on online service providing legal materials relating to the the UK and the European Union. Australian, Canadian, US, international and other materials are also available, via the "Westlaw International" link from the "Services" menu on the UK homepage.

Access

Westlaw is available onsite to all academic members of the Library. Remote access is only available to those based at IALS; other members should check with their own college or university library about offsite access.

Main Contents

   
United Kingdom
  • primary and secondary legislation in force (including Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament legislation);  historic consolidated legislation
  • cases, including The Law Reports and the Weekly Law Reports, plus a case citator
  • More than 80 journals in full text (selected articles only from some titles)
  • Legal Journals Index - index to articles from hundreds of UK legal journals, with abstracts
European Union
  • legislation; cases; international agreements; COM documents; other EU official publications
International
  • cases and other materials from international courts and organisations
  • treaties
  • more than 100 journals (selected articles only from some titles)
Australia
  • federal and some state cases
  • treaties
  • two journals
  • a few textbooks
Canada
  • federal and provincial legislation and cases, with KeyCite Canada citators
  • more than 30 journals (selected articles only from some titles)
  • numerous textbooks
  • more than 40 series of law reports
  • the Canadian Abridgment, via the LawSource tab

 
United States
  • federal and state legislation and cases; treaties
  • textbooks and encyclopedias, including Corpus Juris Secundum
  • very large collection of journals (selected articles only from some titles)
Other jurisdictions
  • a few resources from Mexico, Hong Kong, China, New Zealand, Indonesia, the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and some European countries
   

Searching

UK and EU: There is a basic search facility on the home page. Search facilities tailored to specific types of materials - e.g. cases, legislation, journals - can be accessed via the links across the top of the screen; advanced search options are also available via these links.

Non-UK, non-EU: use the Services menu on the Westlaw UK home page and click on "Westlaw International".  For Canadian materials, use LawSource tab; for US state materials, use Law School Classic tab; for other jurisdictions, select from the directory on the home page.

Printing, saving and emailing

Once you have done a search, you can save, print or email the results using the icons towards the top right-hand corner of the screen.  

 

Help Files

Detailed help files are available throughout the database via the "Help" link in the top right-hand corner. Westlaw UK also has substantial context-specific help pages, e.g. "Legislation Help and Coverage" on the Legislation screen.

Online tutorials are also provided: