Transcript Introduction to UK legislation and cases

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 1865
- 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
• http://www.parliament.uk/bills/bills.cfm
 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
e.g.:
to 1963 Acts cited by regnal year,
• 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)
• http://www.opsi.gov.uk/
 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. 2005 No.41
Where to find Statutory
Instruments
 information on S.I.s:
 OPSI website (unamended)
• http://www.opsi.gov.uk/
 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
– http://www.wales.gov.uk
 Scotland
• The Scotland Act 1998
• Scottish Parliament
– http://www.scottish.parliament.uk
 The
Northern Ireland Act 1998
• Northern Ireland Assembly
– http://www.niassembly.gov.uk
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 1571-1865
 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
http://www.legalabbrevs.cardiff.ac.u
k – or via library web site
 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 http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/law/eresources/databases or you can access them via
Oxlip+
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
http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/law/collecti
ons/lawreports_and_journals
 Can also use Justcite
Unreported judgments sources
 Westlaw
 Lawtel
 Casetrack
 BAILII http://www.bailii.org
 House of Lords
http://www.publications.parliament.u
k/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 1947. 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
http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/law/guides
/database_guides
 Contact
[email protected]
to arrange 1 to 1 training