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Law

Articles & Databases
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Find journal articles, newspaper articles, book reviews etc.

Note: the search above won't find every article, because the journal content on two of the main legal databases Westlaw and LexisLibrary are not searchable using this system. For a more comprehensive articles search and other legal information such as cases and legislation, see the information below on databases.

To find relevant and good quality information for your work, searching databases is the most effective method. Legal databases contain quality-assessed journal articles on particular topics, cases and legislation. You have free access to a range of legal databases though you may need your GUID and associated password to use some of them. The most popular are listed below under key databases as well as link to the full legal databases list.

Databases

Help using databases

Westlaw UK - check out Westlaw's elearning modules. These are comprehensive help with finding particular types of legal information: case law, legislation; journal articles or EU information or with using some of the excellent features that Westlaw has, such as Insight - which is like an encyclopedia of law. The Getting Started module is perfect if you've never used Westlaw before

LexisLibrary - the lawcampus website is where you will find help directly relating to student use of the LexisLibrary database - it has videos, guides and an interactive section where you can ask fellow students for help and advice about using Lexis

HeinOnline - the training & guides section of the HeinOnline website is the place to start. The QuickReference guides [PDF] to Getting Started ; Searching and Law Journals Library guides will tell you everything you need to know!

Quick Video Guides

Westlaw videos	LexisLibrary videos
Welcome to Westlaw UK	Intro to LexisLibrary
Cases on Westlaw UK	Using cases on LexisLibrary
Legislation on Westlaw UK	Introduction to Journals
Books on Westlaw UK

Doing research? Don’t know where to start?

This section of the Law guide shows you how to start researching a topic. It will introduce you to the research process and provides help and advice on each element and gives links to more detailed information available elsewhere in this Law guide or on one of the moodles designed for UG Dissertaion students, PG (Taught) or PG (Research) students. Alternatively, make an appointment to meet with Kay Munro the Law Librarian to discuss your topic and get advice on how to locate information you need.

What do you already know?

Before doing anything, think about your topic! - look at what you already know about the topic and examine information you already have from coursework; assignments etc.

Where are the gaps in your knowledge?
What do you need to find out?

Where should you look?

Searching the web using google for example, provides you with one of the most comprehensive web searches available and will find information on almost every legal subject imaginable - however, it can return lots of information that is irrelevant or inappropriate for academic research and will not give you access to the comprehensive coverage of the academic or case literature that searching a database, such as Westlaw or LexisLibrary, guarantees.

Good places to start are:

Check out references from any relevant course(s) documents that you have taken in this area.
Do an initial search on the Library website to find a a selection of relevant books, journals and databases for your topic.
Search a legal database(s) such as Westlaw or LexisLibrary etc to find cases, legislation and journal articles on your topic
Make an appointment with Kay Munro the Law Librarian to discuss your ideas and get advice on how to locate information on your topic

Planning and carrying out a database search

There are some very basic principles you need to master in order to search databases successfully:

using keywords & connecting them into a search strategy
understanding advanced database seaching techniques
learning how to refine search results

For quick guide see the Articles and Databases tab on this guide and for more detailed help see Searching Databases section of the appropriate Moodle course: (available to GU students only).

Evaluating what you find

For journal articles, peer review can provide a guide to academic quality, and articles that you find using a legal database such as Westlaw or LexisLibrary will find those, but you should still carry out your own evaluation, to be sure the information meets your needs.

For more guidance see Searching the Web section of the appropriate Moodle course: (available to GU students only).

Keeping track of what you find and acknowledging your sources

For any material you consult it is a good idea to record what you find, and where and when you found it. This will make it easier to acknowledge your sources correctly and retrace your steps if you need to. When you refer to, or directly quote from, someone else’s work you must refer to the author / editor or case in the text and provide a full reference to the source in the reference list or bibliography. Citing accurate references is important for the following reasons:

To give authority for statements of law
To support claims about other people's opinions
To support factual claims
To acknowledge borrowing from other sources
To ampifly / qualify points in the text
To provide the reader with evidence of the extent of your reading
To allow the reader to locate the cited references easily
To avoid being accused of plagiarism

For quick guidance see the Citation section of this guide and more for more detailed help, check out the Referencing and plagiarism section of the appropriate Moodle course: (available to GU students only).

What if the Library doesn't have what I need?

You might find some resources useful for your dissertation which are not available from this Library. Through our ArticleReach and Inter Library Loan service you can order books and journal articles free of charge. See the Need Something We Don't Have section on our website.

One of the major difficulties facing a new law student is the tradition that lecturers and authors have of referring to journals and law reports only by an abbreviated form of their full title. This short guide will help you understand what legal citations look like, why are they important, and how to decipher them!

A case citation looks something like this:

Morton v. Wiseman 1989 S.C.L.R. 365

Morton v. Wiseman (party names) 1989 (date) S.C.L.R. (law report abbreviation) 365 (page number)

The bit you need to decipher is what S.C.L.R. stands for - you can do this by using the Cardiff Index to Legal Citations (online) or Raistrick's Index to Legal Citations (Print).

Online Index

The Cardiff Index to Legal Citations is a free, web-based service allows you to search for the meaning of abbreviations for English language legal publications, from the British Isles, the Commonwealth and the United States, including those covering international and comparative law. The database mainly covers law reports and law periodicals. More info about Cardiff Index

Print index

There are several publications which list the meaning of abbreviations in common use. The most commonly used in Scotland is Raistricks index to legal citations and abbreviations. There are several copies of this publication in the main Library in the Law Reference section on Level 7 & in the Law Workshop.

S.C.L.R. stands for Scottish Civil Law Reports

So : Morton v Wiseman case can be found in the 1989 volume of the Scottish Civil Law Reports and the report begins on page 365!

Referencing and citing – using your sources

What is referencing?

Referencing is the acknowledgement of items you have read and used while creating a written piece of work for your essay, dissertation, article or thesis.

It is important to keep an exact and complete record of the details of all the sources of information that you use for coursework, essays, dissertations or publications. Sources can include books, journal articles, web pages and legal cases. If you don’t keep a precise record you will have difficulty (and a lot more work) when you need to list the sources in your reference list.

Citations

When writing an essay, report or dissertation, it is usual to cite [mention] the sources that you used, referred to, or took quotes from. These references might describe journal or newspaper articles, books, government reports, web pages

Citing accurate references is important for the following reasons:

To give credit to concepts and ideas from other authors
To provide evidence of the extent of your reading
To use other work to support the arguments you make
To allow the user to locate the cited references easily
To help you avoid plagiarism

Which style of referencing does the School of Law use?

There is no single correct method for citations, footnotes and references, but you need to chose an acceptable method and make sure that you use it consistently. The most commonly used are the Harvard (alphabetical) and Vancouver (numbered) systems. The Oxford Standard for Citation Of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA) is a specific legal system designed to facilitate accurate citation of authorities, legislation, and other legal materials. It is widely used in law schools and by journal and book publishers in the UK and beyond.

The School of Law has produced a document called Presentation of Work with the School of Law. The document is intended only to provide guidance with regard to setting out written work. Remember that good presentation is not an end in itself: it is a means of providing greater clarity of expression.

Referencing Styles Guides

Harvard Style a useful quick guide to Harvard Referencing – from Leeds University
Vancouver Style - guide from the University of Leicester
OSCOLA - guide from Oxford Law

Managing your references using Reference Manager or EndNote software

Reference Manager and Endnote - These are reference management software programs [available locally] which help you to record and store references to books or journal articles and many other sources while you are working on a project. You can then use the stored information to generate bibliographies for your essay, thesis or article using a wide range of styles.

How do I get help with using referencing programs?

See our local Support web pages
IT Services also runs introductory courses where you can make an online booking to attend a training session on an advertised date

Plagiarism – what is it and how to avoid it

You must always acknowledge the sources you use. Use of material without cknowledgement of the sources is called plagiarism which is considered to be an act of fraudulence and an offence against University discipline - see the University Plagiarism webpages
TurnitinUK – in University of Glasgow, Turnitin is a program used by some departments to detect plagiarism in student work submitted for assessment.

Library & information skills moodles for Law students

Check out the moodles that have been created for law students - they are designed to help you find all the information you need

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