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

• Lexis+ is a full-text database containing case law and legislation from the UK, EU, US and some other jurisdictions. Lexis+ also contains a wide range of local and national UK newspapers, a wide range of UK law reports, a collection of full-text law journals and has a large number of full text US Law Reviews.
• Westlaw is a very large database of legal materials from the United Kingdom (UK), European Union (EU), United States (US) and other common law jurisdictions. It contains 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.

Additional journals and databases

• Chitty on Contracts covers contracts for every commercial situation including consumer contracts. It offers an interpretation of the legal position, analysis of all the relevant legislation and gives 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, and also includes practice directions, covering the whole range of family law, public and private child law. Each case report includes a concise headnote which provides a summary of the case, the issues involved and the points of law raised.
• Law Trove contains more than 200 law textbooks that have been published by Oxford University Press, one of the leading publishers of legal educational materials. Explore the Getting Started guide to learn more about using Law Trove.
• Oxford Reports on International Human Rights Law covers international decisions on human rights from a variety of global and regional courts.
• Oxford Scholarly Authorities on International Law contains over 180 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.
• XpertHR offers more than 24,000 articles, along with an employment law reference manual. It also includes material from Lexis Nexis and Butterworth’s. This resource will be of use to students studying employment law. To access XpertHR off campus choose Edge Hill University from the drop down list and log in with your student number and password. Journals covered in XpertHR include:
  • IRS Employment Trends
  • Industrial Relations
  • Legal Information Bulletin
  • Pay and Benefit Bulletin

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.

Subject	Call Number
Law	340-349
International Law	341-341.78
Employment Law	344.4101
Education Law	344.4207
Criminal Law	345.42
Family Law	346.4
Contract Law	347.4202
Policing	363

There are also a significant amount of eBooks, including essential texts, available in the Westlaw and LexisNexis databases and the University Library also stocks several books on Legal Writing including:

• Successful Legal Writing by Edwina Higgins and Laura Tatham
• Legal Writing by Lisa Webley
• Letters to a law student: a guide to studying law at university by Nicholas J McBride and Jason Varuhas

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

• Academic Search Premier is a multi-disciplinary database with more than 4,600 magazines and journals, including full-text access to nearly 3,900 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 over 2.2 million broadcasts. The service includes ten 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.
• LinkedIn Learninggives 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!
• 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.
• Scopus is the world’s largest abstract and citation database, containing 24,600 journals from 5,000 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 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 1.5 million data sets. Find studies and reports, forecasts and surveys from over 400 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.

Newspapers

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.
• The Financial Times contains news and analysis about the world of business and finance. The electronic collection goes back to 1999, the latest articles cannot be accessed for 30 days but are listed in search results.
• 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.
• The 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.
• Lexis+ contains over 650 regional and national UK newspapers from 1982 to the present. It is possible to limit your search to either national or regional titles, or you can search the whole of the newspaper database.
• 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.
• Times Educational Supplement is the UK’s foremost weekly publication covering primary, secondary and further education and can be access by creating a personal account with your Edge Hill University email address.

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

Additional to this support, Cardiff University has created a useful online tutorial 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 highlight of these 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.