Introduction to UK Cases and Legislation Bodleian Law Library Last updated November 2009

Session overview -legislation  Types of Legislation  The Legislatative process -Bills -Parliamentary process  Sources of Legislation - Unamended and amended - Keeping up to date

Session overview - cases  Reported case law - Cases pre Incorporated Council of Law Reporting - Authority of law reports  Unreported case law  Finding case law - Citations - Sources of case law  Updating case law – is it still ‘good law’

Types of legislation  Primary legislation  Bills – Public, Private and Hybrid  Acts – Public General, Local and Personal  Secondary or delegated legislation  Statutory Instruments (S.I.s)  Orders, Codes of Practice, etc

Pre-legislative materials  Before a Bill is introduced research may have already been conducted in the form of:  Green papers  White papers  Law Commission reports and working papers  Royal Commissions  Public Inquiries

Where to find…  information on pre-legislative materials:  Lawtel – Bills, Command Papers and News & Press databases  Internet – check Government websites and the Parliament website  Westlaw

Progress of a Bill  A bill can start in either the Commons or Lords  First Reading : the bill's title is read out in parliament  Second Reading : debate on the general principles of the bill  Committee Stage : the bill is examined clause by clause and amendments discussed  Report Stage : allows for further amendments to be made on the bill  Third Reading : a final opportunity to comment on the amended bill  Once the bill has completed the same procedure in each House the final text of Bill is agreed  Bill receives Royal Assent and becomes an Act of Parliament

Where to find Bills  information on Bills  Parliament website  Hansard  Weekly Information Bulletin  Sessional Information Digest  LexisNexis Butterworths  Lawtel

Acts  Royal Assent  Act comes in force: Straightaway Day to be assigned Commencement orders

Citing references to…  Acts:  Public General Acts are cited using Arabic numerals, e.g.: Companies Act 1985 (c 6)  Prior to 1963 Acts cited by regnal year, e.g.: Debtors Act 1869 (32 & 33 Vict cap 62)

Citing references to…  Acts (continued):  Local Acts are cited using Roman numerals, e.g.: British Railways (Liverpool Street Station) Act 1983 (cap. iv)  Personal & Private Acts are cited using Arabic numerals given in italics, e.g.: Hugh Small and Norma Small (Marriage Enabling) Act 1982 (cap. 2)

Where to find legislation  Original texts  Queen’s Printer’s copy (hard copy)  Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) website (electronic)  Current Law Statutes Annotated (hard copy)  Justis (electronic)  Law Reports Statutes (hard copy)  Lawtel (electronic)  Amended texts  Halsbury’s Statutes (hard copy)  LexisNexis Butterworths (electronic)  Westlaw (electronic)

Secondary legislation  Majority of secondary legislation is in the form of S.I.s  Over 3,500 S.I.s are made each year  S.I.s are used to add detail to an Act  Also used to bring Acts into force (commencement orders)

Citing references to…  S.I.s  Draft S.I.s are not numbered  Once an SI is approved it receives the next sequential number within the year, e.g.: The Licensing Act 2003 (Personal licences) Regulations 2005 S.I No.41

Where to find Statutory Instruments  information on S.I.s:  OPSI website (unamended)  Halsbury’s Statutory Instruments (amended)  Lexis Library (amended)  Justis (unamended)  Westlaw (amended)

Updating legislation  Important to always check the status of a piece of legislation:  To avoid using out-of-date information  Ensure accuracy

Where to find…  the status of a piece of legislation  Is It In Force?  Lexis Library  Justis  Lawtel  Westlaw Current Law Legislation Citators  Halsbury’s Statutes  Halsbury’s Statutory Instruments

Devolution  Wales The Government of Wales Act 1998 National Assembly of Wales –  Scotland The Scotland Act 1998 Scottish Parliament –  The Northern Ireland Act 1998 Northern Ireland Assembly –

Case Law

Reported case law  Only small proportion of cases decided by courts are reported  Cases are selected by law report editors – not the courts

Reporting criteria  To be reported a case must:  raise a point of legal significance  materially modify an existing principle of law or settle a doubtful question of law  may include questions of interpretation of statutes and important cases illustrating new applications of accepted principles

Law reporting before 1865  Nominate reports  Commonly referred to by the name of the reporter of the cases  Reprinted in the English Reports

Law reporting before 1865  All England Law Reports Reprint  Includes cases between 1558 and 1935  Some cases referred to in the All England Law Reports and Halsbury’s Laws of England  You may also find some older cases in the Digest

The Law Reports  Comprised of the Appeal Cases (AC) or (App Cas), Chancery Division (Ch), Queen’s Bench (QB), Family Division (Fam)  Most authoritative report series  Law report decisions are checked by a judge prior to publication  Published since 1865 – originally as a single series covering the major courts

Authority of law reports Most authoritative The Law Reports: Chancery (Ch), Appeal Cases (AC), Family (Fam), Queens Bench (QB) The Weekly Law Reports All England Law Reports Specialist series e.g. Lloyd’s law Reports, Fleet Street Reports Least authoritative Journals and newspapers e.g. The Times, The Independent, New Law Journal, Solicitors Journal

Unreported judgments  Transcripts are the unreported version of a judgment  Although judgments are “published” on web sites, they remain “unreported” unless published in a law report series  Neutral citation gives a judgment a unique identifying number  e.g. Horkulak v Cantor Fitzgerald [2003] EWHC 1918 (QB)

Deciphering citations  Raistrick, D. Index to legal citations and abbreviations. London: Bowker, 1993  Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations k – or via library web site k  Halsbury’s Laws of England  Current Law  The Digest

Square and round brackets  Round brackets ( ) when the year is additional information  Derry v Peek (1989) 14 App Cas 337  Square brackets [ ] when the year is primary means of identifying the case  Lloyd v McMahon [1987] 1 All ER 118

Sources of Case Law: Hard copy  Printed law reports are arranged in the Library according to jurisdiction  UK reports are shelved in the “100” series e.g. Cw UK 100  Digests are shelved at 200 e.g. Cw UK 200

Sources of Case law: Online resources  Westlaw  This includes the Law Reports series, a large number of subject specialist reports as well as over 180,000 case analysis documents.  Lexis Library  This includes the Law Reports series, the All England Reports as well as a number of specialist reports.  There is a list of online databases on the BLL website at resources/databases or you can access them via Oxlip+ resources/databases

Finding the right source  Easiest way is to use the online database of reports and journals  On the BLL webpage under collections.  Can be found at ions/lawreports_and_journals ions/lawreports_and_journals  Can also use Justcite

Unreported judgments - sources  Westlaw  Lawtel  Casetrack  BAILII  House of Lords uk/pa/ld/ldjudgmt.htm uk/pa/ld/ldjudgmt.htm

Finding cases by name  Online sources such Lexis, Westlaw, Justcite, Bailii  Current Law Case Citator  Law Report indexes – red indexes  The Digest  Halsbury’s – Table of Cases volumes

Finding cases on a subject  The Digest  Halsbury’s Laws of England  Current Law  Online sources such as Lexis Library and Westlaw

Is it still good law?  Has the case been cited in later case law?  Authority of a case may be strengthened by being approved in a higher court  Case may have been overruled

Hard copy sources  Law Reports indexes  Commonly referred to as the “red indexes” this is no longer maintained.  The Digest  Useful for pre and post 1865 cases and includes other Commonwealth jurisdictions  Current Law  Includes citator information for most law reports series, starts from Has alphabetical table of cases as well as a subject index

Online sources  Westlaw  Has over 180,000 case analysis documents which include case history as well as cases and legislation subsequently cited.  Lexis Library  Has a Case Search service which is an online citator similar to Westlaw’s case analysis  Justcite

Further help?  Self paced tutorials for the databases are available at /database_guides /database_guides  Contact to arrange 1 to 1 training