Welcome to C J Koh Law Library 5th August 2014 Conducted by Carol & Bissy Library Tutorial for GCIP students
Introduction to C J Koh Law Library Library catalogue- LINC & myLINC Sources of Law Singapore -Legislation & Case Law UK – Legislation & Case Law Secondary resources Legal abbreviations and citations Electronic resources Useful websites
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History The library was originally established in September 1957, catering primarily to the Faculty of Law at the Bukit Timah Campus. In April 1980, the Law Library moved to new premises at Kent Ridge, occupying two floors of the Faculty of Law building.
On 1st January 2001, the Law Library was renamed the C J Koh Law Library, in appreciation of Mr Koh Choon Joo’s generous donations to the library. After extensive renovations which began in July 2000, the library celebrated its official opening by the Honourable Chief Justice Yong Pung How on 27 February Following the Government's announcement to reallocate Bukit Timah Campus to NUS on 28 May 2005, the Law Library made its historic return to its first home in August 2006.
The C J Koh Law Library has a rich collection of local, foreign and international legal resources. The library’s traditional strength is in the common law. Apart from a comprehensive collection of Singapore legal materials, the library also has extensive collections of legal resources from Australia, Canada, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The library has developed collections on comparative and international law, international trade law as well as the laws of the European Community. The library’s print collection is bolstered by subscriptions to online legal resources which are available via the NUS Libraries Portal Major databases include LexisNexis and HeinOnline.
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FindMore / LINC
LINC (Library INtegrated Catalogue) is the original/classic search platform for NUS Libraries.
Search by title “Intellectual property law of Singapore”
Search by specific fields: Title Author Keyword Subject ISBN/ISSN LINC does not cover journal articles, newspaper articles and online theses.
FindMore Search for books, law reports, law journals, etc. in the library collection. keyword Title Author For example : Patent law in Singapore
Search for a book by key words E.g. Patent law in Singapore
Select relevant title Please take note of the call number, location and status of the item
Place reservation if the book is out on loan Your request for Intellectual property law of Singapore/ by Susanna H S Leong was successful.
Saw, Cheng Lim, “Is There a Defence of Public Interest in the Law of Copyright in Singapore?”. (2003) Singapore Journal of Legal Studies pp
Honda Motor Co. Ltd V David Silver Spares Ltd [2010]F.S.R. 40 Find out the Law Reports using Cardiff Index to Legal CitationsCardiff Index to Legal Citations Search for the Law reports in the catalogue by title
Find the Fleet Street Reports, volume 2010 from the LW Legislation/ Reports collection by the call number
The 3 sources of law in Singapore: Legislature Parliament enacts statutes Executive Executes & administers the law; e.g. subsidiary legislation Judiciary Judges make decisions in cases
Primary legal materials 1. Legislation Statutes Subsidiary legislation; e.g. regulations 2. Case Law Judge-made law Reported in Law Reports
The Legislature, the law-making body in Singapore, is made up of the President the Parliament of Singapore. A Bill becomes law when it is passed by Parliament and assented to by the President. But an Act only comes into force on a date determined by the Minister and notified in the Government Gazette. Singapore Legislation – legislative process
The 2 main sources of legislation in Singapore today are: I. Statutes of the Republic of Singapore (primary legislation) Print: K II. Subsidiary Legislation of the Republic of Singapore (secondary legislation) Print: K
I. Statutes VersionLocation Rev. Ed. (1985-) (print) *K (current eds. at Law Library Loans Desk) Rev. Ed. (1985-) (online) LawNet: Law students access via Faculty of Law ResourcesFaculty of Law Resources Consolidated version (online) Singapore Statutes Online: Where to find it?
II. Subsidiary Legislation VersionLocation Rev. Ed. (1990-) (print) *K (updated set in Singapore-Malaysia Collection) Rev. Ed. (1990-) (online) LawNet: Law students access via Faculty of Law ResourcesFaculty of Law Resources Where to find it?
The 2 main sources of UK legislation are: I. Acts of Parliament (primary legislation) a. Public General Acts b. Local and Personal Acts II. Statutory Instruments (secondary legislation).
I. Acts of Parliament VersionNotesLocation Public General Acts …Annual bound volumes *K2011 PG *K2011 P Revised legislationThe official revised edition of the primary legislation of the United Kingdom legislation.gov.uk: gov.uk/ gov.uk/ * Refer to LINC for exact location in libraryLINC
UK Statutes and Statutory Instruments Where to find it?
Decisions of Singapore Courts. Law reports are the published judgments of court cases. Cases are only selected for reporting if they raise or expand upon significant points of law. Therefore, only a small proportion of cases are reported, and these are mainly from the Supreme Court (i.e. High Court, Court of Appeal and Constitutional Tribunal).
A. Singapore Law reports The principle law report series in Singapore is the Singapore Law Reports. It covers cases from Law Reports of Singapore Ref: K7599 SLRK7599 SLR
Ref: K7599 SLR K7599 SLR B. Singapore Law Reports Reissue The Academy of Law has re-issued the Singapore Law Reports from 1965 through 2009 with re-written head notes for the reports from 1965 to 2002 and re-edited judgment texts that conform to the SAL house-style. This set of reports is called the Singapore Law Reports (Reissue).
Unreported judgments Court These are full text transcripts of all written judgments as handed down in the Subordinate Courts, the High Court and Court of Appeal. They are available on LawNet.LawNet “Case Law & Decisions” of the Subordinate Courts and Supreme Court are available for free for the last 3 months in LawNet under its links to Free Resources. Free Resources Earlier judgments are also available in print in the law library. Ref: K7599 CA (Court of Appeal, Civil Appeals) K7599 CRA (Court of Appeal, Criminal Appeals) K7599 DC (District Court) K7599 J (High Court) K7599 MC (Magistrates’ Court) Other sources of law
Decisions of Boards/Tribunals Decisions of various tribunals and boards are available on LawNet. Most of them are not readily available in print. LawNet Decisions include those of the Copyright Tribunal Income Tax Board of Review Military Court of Appeal Syariah Appeal Board Strata Titles Boards. LawNet access: via NUS Faculty of Law ResourcesNUS Faculty of Law Resources Other sources of law
A case citation is a reference to a legal case in the law reports. It generally includes the names of the parties to the case year the decision of the court was delivered or published volume number of the law report abbreviation of the law report series first page at which the case is reported. Example Anwar Siraj and Another v Ting Kang Chung John [2010] 1 SLR 1026 What is it?
1. The Law Reports (1865- ) The official set of law reports published by the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales Text of each report is reviewed by judges before publication So, it takes between 10 and 14 months to report cases The only set of reports that has a summary of the arguments of counsel The High Court and the Court of Appeal require that where a case has been reported in the Law Reports, it must be cited from that source. Other series may only be used when a case is not reported in the Law Reports. See Practice Direction (Judgments: Form Citation) (Supreme Court) [2001] 1 WLR 194. A. Modern Reports
1.The Law Reports (1865- ) (contd.) The 4 current series of the Law Reports are: TitleReports Decisions ofRef Appeal Cases (AC) House of Lords, Privy Council & Court of Justice of the European Communities K2022 4C Queen’s Bench (QB) Queen’s Bench & Court of Appeal & ECJ on appeal from QB K2022 2E Family (Fam) Family Division & Court of Appeal on appeal from Fam D K2022 1C Chancery (Ch) Chancery Division & Court of Appeal on appeal from Ch D K2022 3B
2. The Weekly Law Reports (WLR) (1953- ) Timely, full text reports. Ref: K2020 WNR 3. All England Law Reports (All ER) (1936- ) Timely, full text reports; contains editorial notes. Ref: K2020 AELR
4. Specialist series Contain a selection of cases in a discrete practice area. e.g. Lloyds Law Reports (maritime and commercial law) Ref: K2020 LLLR 5. Newspapers Brief, edited reports. e.g. The Times Law Reports Ref: K2020 TR/ K2020 TLR
Secondary sources are publications which refer and relate to the law, but are not themselves sources of law. These include: Textbooks, casebooks, etc. Legal encyclopaedias Legal periodicals Research literature. E.g. Theses Reference works. E.g. Dictionaries, directories, bibliographies, digests, citators, indexes, etc. Secondary sources assist in locating relevant primary sources of law assist in the interpretation of relevant primary sources.
Secondary sources are important: In legal research, referring to a secondary source is often the first step in the learning the basics of a particular area of law; Thorough legal research requires the use of the various categories of secondary sources; Secondary sources may be cited in court in support of a particular proposition in law - a court may not be bound by secondary authorities, but books or articles written by eminent authors of reputable standing may have significant persuasive value in selecting between conflicting authorities (see guidelines in Citation of Secondary Authorities in Court, Supreme Court Registrar’s Circular, No.3 of 2004, s.2(b), online: Registrar’s Circulars pdf) pdf
What do Abbreviations Mean? 1. Print Index: Donald Raistrick, Index to Legal Citations and Abbreviations, 3rd ed. (London: Bowker-Saur, 2008). Location: KB280 Rai 2008 (LW RBR; LW Reference Office; LW Reference1) 2. Online: Law Reference Desk library/research/legal-resources-on-the-web/law-reference-desk Librarian’s pick - Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations
3. Journal Articles Dora Neo, “The Sale of Goods (Amendment) Act 1996: Satisfactory Quality, an Undivided Share in a Bulk and other Amendments” (1997) 9 SAcLJ 362. David Feldman, “The Nature of Legal Scholarship” (1989) 52 Mod.L.Rev Find out what journal the abbreviation stands for Search for the journal title in LINC/LINC+
4. Cases Siang Hoa Goldsmith Pte Ltd v The Wing On Fire & Marine Insurance Co Ltd [1998] 2 SLR 777 David Wilson Homes Ltd v Survey Services Ltd (In Liquidation) [2001] EWCA Civ 34; [2001] 1 All E.R. (Comm) 449, CA; [2001] Build LR 267, 80 ConLR 8 Singapore Law Reports Neutral citation. Format: Jurisdiction, Court Citations from law reporters
[Year] reported in this reporter (Year) case was decided If the year is in (), then place the comma after the year Volume Reporter Page Court Lawton v. BOC Transhield Ltd.,[1987]2 All E.R. 608Q.B. Parties: Names in italics
Preferred manual for Faculty of Law: Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation, 7th ed. (Toronto: Thomson Carswell, 2010). Location: KB280.2 Can 2010 (LW Holdshelf, LW RBR, LW Reference Office, LW Reference 1) See also: Citation & Legal Writing How to Cite References
Legal database by Singapore Academy of Law. The following materials are available via Lawnet Singapore & Malaysia cases Journal articles Legislation, subsidiary legislation, Acts supplements etc. Parliamentary reports
For example :Doctor's Associates Inc v Lim Eng Wah (trading as SUBWAY NICHE)
Zimmerman’s Research Guide: Lexis IP Research Guide: Online Research Beyond Lexis & Westlaw: 0research%20guide%22 0research%20guide%22 Westlaw Guides to IP Research:
Intellectual Property Office of Singapore ( European Patent Office ( US Patent & Trade Mark Office ( World Intellectual Property Organization ( WTO TRIPS ( Surf IP ( IP Australia ( UK IP Office (
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