Subject resources for Law

The collections provided below are electronic resources (eResources) and give you instant access to high quality scholarly research through journal articles and databases. You can access these eResources 24/7 and each collection has its own to help pages to guide you through accessing and navigating the resources. If you need any additional support to develop your information literacy and research skills please visit the Further Help and Support tab.

Key journals and databases

• Brightmine HR & Compliance Centre are a leading global provider of people data, analytics and insight. They combine critical workforce data, AI-enabled technology, and trusted HR expertise to deliver brighter business outcomes. It was formerly known as XpertHR. From the dropdown list, select Edge Hill University.
• Chitty on Contracts covers contracts for every commercial situation including consumer contracts, offering an interpretation of the legal position, analysis of the relevant legislation and commentary on the relevant case law.
• Family Law Reports contains verbatim case reports of every important Family Division, Court of Appeal, House of Lords and European courts case, including practice directions, covering family law, public and private and child law. Each case report includes a concise headnote summary of the case, the issues involved and the points of law raised.
• Law Trove contains hundreds of law textbooks that have been published by Oxford University Press, one of the leading publishers of legal educational materials.
• Lexis+ is a full-text database containing case law and legislation from the UK, EU, US and some other jurisdictions. It also contains a wide range of local and national UK newspapers, UK law reports, a collection of law journals and a large number of US Law Reviews.
• OSAIL (Oxford Scholarly Authorities on International Law) contains hundreds of full-text online editions of market-leading reference works and treatises published by Oxford University Press, including Oppenheim, and the Oxford Commentaries on International Law.
• Westlaw is a large database of legal materials from the UK, EU, US and other common law jurisdictions, containing full-text case law and legislation, full-text journal articles from a limited number of UK law journals, plus some international materials. Multiple UK and EU databases can be searched from the home page or individual databases selected from the content links.

These resources are great for use across all disciplines and programmes of study.

• Academic Search Premier is a multidisciplinary database with more than thousands of magazines and journals, including full-text access to a range of scholarly and peer-reviewed journals.
• Box of Broadcasts is an on-demand TV and radio service for educational research brought to you from Learning on Screen. The academically focused service enables you to watch and record programmes from over 75 free-to-air channels in the UK and search an extensive archive of broadcasts. The service also includes foreign language channels and allows you to create clips and playlists to share or embed into presentations.
• Browzine gives you access to top journals from your area of study in the Browzine Scholarly Journal Room. Browzine is a browsable newsstand of the University Library’s top journals, which lets you easily discover, read and monitor the key journals in your field. Learn more about Browzine in this short video.
• CREDO Reference is a general knowledge database and a great place to begin exploring your research topic as it has thousands of introductory level reference titles, millions of articles, and lots of images, charts, maps and more covering a wide variety of subjects.
• DOAB (Directory of Open Access Books) is a community-driven discovery service that indexes and provides access to scholarly, peer-reviewed open access books and helps users to find trusted open access book publishers.
• DOAJ (Directory of Open Access Journals) is an online directory that indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals.
• Gale Power Search is a multiple search platform that searches across numerous Gale databases. These include Gale Academic OneFile, Gale General OneFile, Gale OneFile: News, Gale eBooks, Gale Literature: Scribner Writer Series and Gale Literature: Twayne’s Author Series. It gives access to a large number of academic journal articles, eBooks, newspaper articles and other materials.
• Gale Research Complete provides access to proprietary databases, eBooks, scholarly articles and rare primary sources that can enhance your research, learning and discovery, including thousands of journals and other authoritative sources in Academic OneFile.
• Libby (OverDrive) is a reading for pleasure collection of eBooks, audiobooks and magazines, providing you with a new digital library via the Libby app open 24/7 to all Edge Hill students and staff.
• LinkedIn Learning gives you full, free, unlimited access to thousands of high quality online courses and video tutorials written by industry experts. The courses cover many topics including using a wide range of software, and personal development skills in education, public speaking, employability and much more. You can even claim and display certificates for courses you complete on your LinkedIn profile, to give your online CV a boost!
• Overton is the world’s largest searchable index of policy documents, guidelines, think tank publications and working papers. You can access this platform with your University email address to search the literature and find out who is influencing policies and policy makers.
• OED (Oxford English Dictionary) is widely accepted as the most complete record of the English language ever assembled.
• Oxford Reference is an online reference database, covering a wide range of subject areas, providing access to millions of digitised materials from across Oxford University Press’s Dictionaries, Companions and Encyclopedias.
• ProQuest Dissertations and Theses is the world’s most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses from around the world, spanning from 1743 to the present day.
• Sage Datasets is a collection of US and international datasets sourced from governmental, commercial and private organisations, allowing you to search and browse billions of datasets, compare and contrast variables of interest, and create customised exportable charts and tables.
• Sage Research Methods is a database which supports research at all levels by providing material to guide users through each step of the research process. From writing your research question and choosing a method, to analysing data, writing up and publishing the findings. Resources include a methods map, books, reference works, journal articles, podcasts and instructional videos from world-leading academics. With information on qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods, Sage Research Methods is the ideal tool to support you through your research.
• ScienceDirect is a leading full-text scientific database offering access to thousands of journal articles and book chapters for subjects including physical sciences and engineering, life sciences, health sciences, sports and physical activities, social sciences and humanities.
• Scopus is the world’s largest abstract and citation database, containing thousands of journals from a range of publishers. It is excellent for literature reviews or for finding out what has been published in your area as it can locate high quality journal articles, book chapters and more, for any subject. 
• Springer Nature Link provides researchers with access to millions of scientific documents from journals, books, series, protocols and reference works.
• Statista is a comprehensive statistics platform offering over access to millions of data sets. Find studies and reports, forecasts and surveys from thousands of industries that you can download in a range of formats. There are also video tutorials and a quick user guide to help you make the most of Statista.
• Taylor and Francis Online is a collection of multidisciplinary journals covering subjects from arts, humanities, business, computer sciences, social sciences, geography, sports, social work, education and many more.
• Wiley Online Library is a leading scholarly articles databases providing access to thousands of full-text multidisciplinary journals, covering life, health and physical sciences, nursing, psychology, social work, education, media, technology, business, social sciences and the humanities.

Newspapers can be a useful way of keeping up to date with current affairs or recent events and newspaper archives usually contain issues with less recent information, which is useful for finding articles of a more historical interest.

• British Library Newspapers (1800-1900) contains a large range of national, regional and local newspapers from the period. These include the Illustrated Police News, the Chartist Northern Star and the Morning Chronicle.
• Daily Mail Historical Archive (1896-2004) contains news stories and images that capture twentieth century culture and society. Offering full page and article images, with searchable full-text back to the first issue, this is a useful resource for historical research.
• Financial Times contains news and analysis about the world of business and finance reaching back as far as 1999. Business and Economics students, or any researchers wishing to subscribe to daily updates, would benefit from accessing the Financial Times direct. Anyone wishing to research older content would benefit from visiting the Financial Times via Gale OneFile.
• Gale OneFile News contains articles from over 2,300 newspapers from around the world. These include major British newspapers, as well as United States and Australian titles. It also has thousands of images, radio and TV broadcasts and transcripts.
• Guardian and The Observer Historical Newspapers (1791-2003) provides genealogists, researchers and scholars with online, easily searchable first-hand accounts and unparalleled coverage of the politics, society and events of the time.
• Illustrated London News Historical Archive (1842-2003) was the world’s first fully illustrated weekly newspaper, marking a revolution in journalism and news reporting, presenting a vivid picture of British and world events, including news of war, disaster, ceremonies, the arts and science.
• Lexis+ Newspapers provides access to an archive of UK national and regional newspapers, with coverage from the 1990s to the present day.
• Seventeenth and Eighteenth Century Burney Newspapers Collection is Reverend Charles Burney’s collection of early English news media. A comprehensive primary source for this period, which helps track the development of news.
• Times Digital Archive contains every issue of The Times from 1785 to 2019. You can search by keyword or for a particular issue and each story appears as it looks in the original print copy of the newspaper.
• TES (Times Educational Supplement) is the UK’s foremost weekly publication covering primary, secondary and further education and can be accessed by creating a personal account with your Edge Hill University email address.

In addition to journals and databases, you can also access printed and electronic books (eBooks) within your subject area.

The table below is a great place to start browsing the physical Library shelves. It lists a range of useful topics related to your subject area and the associated call number for that subject. The call number is the numbers (and usually letters too e.g. 808.042/GIL) on the spine of the book, which allows them to be arranged in a logical order on the Library shelves.

The call numbers listed below are the general area you will find books on the related subject, but you can also complete a search on Discover More for more specific titles and to access any eBooks on your chosen topic.

There are also a significant amount of eBooks, including essential texts, available in the Westlaw and LexisNexis databases.

Referencing

Referencing is the acknowledgment of all the sources that have been cited in your assignment, whether you have quoted them directly or paraphrased. This can include sources such as books and journal articles. There are various referencing styles available and your tutor will let you know which one they want you to use in your work.

Visit the UniSkills Referencing web page to learn more about academic integrity; the what, why and when you should be referencing; information, guides and interactive toolkits to support your referencing skills development; further Edge Hill Harvard Referencing support; and how to access further referencing support.

Oxford University Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA)

The most common referencing style used in Law is OSCOLA and the University of Oxford Faculty of Law webpage is home to all the resources you will need to support you with this referencing style.

The current version of OSCOLA is the fourth edition, published in 2010 and the Quick Reference Guide provides guidance on referencing the common sources you will need for your assignments. OSCOLA fourth edition does not cover International Law, so please access OSCOLA 2006: citing international law section for further information on how to cite and reference International Law.

You can also access a range of OSCOLA frequently asked questions (FAQs), which provide useful updates on topics such as:

• Citation changes specific to legislation and cases
• Additional source referencing for newer formats such as eBooks and websites
• Judgements citing another judgement,
• General questions

Library and Learning Servies have created a useful toolkit to help you learn more about using OSCOLA.

Westlaw

Thomson Reuters offer a range of academic training webinars to support you with Westlaw.

Accessibility

There are lots of accessibility features available across all eResources and we’ve pulled together a useful A-Z list of these in a new Online Reading List: Database List and Accessibility Information. You can also explore some highlights of these accessibility features in our UniSkills Focus On: eResources Accessibility blog.

Reading Lists

Your Online Reading Lists are a great starting point when beginning your research. Your reading lists contain materials your tutor has identified as essential and/or recommended reading.

UniSkills

UniSkills support all undergraduate (UG) and taught postgraduate (PGT) students with their academic skills.

If you need any further help and support developing your research skills you can access lot of useful information on the UniSkills Finding Academic Information web page.

UniSkills also offer a range of academic skills workshops, including support with finding academic information and conducting literature reviews and you can book on as many UniSkills Workshops as you need throughout the year.

For more tailored support developing your research skills, or getting the most out of your subject resources, you can book a one-to-one Information Skills appointment with an experienced Academic Skills Advisor. 

Research Support

If you are staff engaged in research or a research student (including PGCert in Research, MRes, MPhil and PhD) you can access additional support from the University Library Research Support team. Visit the Research Support web pages for more information.

TechSkills

TechSkills is a package of face to face support, online resources and activities to help you develop and enhance your technology skills. You can find out more about specialist workstations and software available by visiting the TechSkills web page.

Ask Us

You can always access our online knowledge base and help tool Ask Us to search our frequently asked questions (FAQs) and even send us an email, if you can’t find the information you need – accessible 24/7.