Transcript Common law sources - Bodleian Libraries

Introduction to UK Common
Law Legal Research &
Resources
Postgraduate Induction Session
Ruth Bird 2009
Topics
 The system of justice
 Law Reports
 Legislation
 Other sources of information
The Judicial System:
England & Wales
 Criminal and civil cases are decided on
adversarial, not inquisitorial, basis.
 Ultimate source of law is statutes passed
by Westminster or Scottish Parliaments.
 Legal duty to comply with EC Law; courts
must apply EC law where there is a
conflict between the two.
 EU Convention on Human Rights built into
UK Law in 1998 and binding on public
authorities and courts
The Judicial System:
Nthern Ireland and Scotland
 Nthern Ireland system broadly
similar to E&W, with Lord Chancellor
as highest officer & Scty of State
responsible for criminal law and
policing.
 Scottish Parlt makes laws on matters
devolved to it, with a Minister for
Justice responsible for civil and
criminal law and justice.
Court Structure
Reference can be
made to the
European Court of
Justice from any
court in the system.
The European Court
of Human Rights
enforces the
European Convention
on Human Rights
.
Role of the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court will:
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be the final court of appeal for all United Kingdom civil cases, and
criminal cases from England, Wales and Northern Ireland
hear appeals on arguable points of law of general public importance
concentrate on cases of the greatest public and constitutional
importance
maintain and develop the role of the highest court in the United
Kingdom as a leader in the common law world
The Supreme Court will hear appeals from the following courts in
each jurisdiction:
 England and Wales
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Scotland
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The Court of Appeal, Civil Division
The Court of Appeal, Criminal Division
(in some limited cases) the High Court
The Court of Session
Northern Ireland
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The Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland
(in some limited cases) the High Court
Law Reports – what and how…
 Doctrine of Precedent
 Court hierarchy
 Structure of a law report
 Which cases are reported
 Which reports to use?
 Citations & abbreviations
What is precedent?
 Precedent - a court is bound by the decisions
of a court above it and, usually by a court of
equivalent standing. Superior courts are able
to overrule decisions of lower courts, and
sometimes their own decisions.
 Law reporting was made more efficient when
the Judicature Acts of 1873-1875 created a
proper pyramid of authority, completed when
the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876 made the
House of Lords the final Court of Appeal. (The
House of Lords has been replaced (Oct 2009)
by the Supreme Court.)
What is a law report
 A law report is a record of the judge’s
reasons for a judgment in a dispute.
 In England and Wales, only a proportion of
cases decided by courts are reported
 In most report series, the cases are
selected by law report editors – not the
courts
 Layout of a report has consistent elements
 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 which
illustrate new applications of accepted
principles
What are primary and secondary
sources?
 Primary sources are direct sources of
law - eg, legislation, treaties, law
reports (or case law), parliamentary
papers, etc.
 Secondary sources - opinions,
commentaries, articles, discussions.
Which reports to use?
 Sometimes a case located online will have
parallel citations to different report series.
 If there are several versions of a case in
several report series, use and cite
authorised or best versions of reports.
 Authorised versions are written by
barristers, read & signed off by judge(s).
 The Law Reports, established 1865,
are closest to a set of ‘official’
reports (practice direction at [1998]
1 WLR 825)
 If a case is not reported there, then
cite the All England LR or the Weekly
LR; beyond that, no further series
are identified
Citing law reports
 Citation is the abbreviated reference to a case
– in a civil case, the names of the Plaintiff
and the Defendant, the year, abbreviation of
law report, page number, eg:
Mond v Hyde [1999] 1 QB 1097
-in a criminal case usually by the abbreviation
R (for Rex or Regina) and the accused, eg:
R v Rowe [2007] 2 Cr App 171
 Square brackets are used when there is no
running volume number
 Round brackets are used when the date is not
necessary for cite, eg Brasstington v Guthrie
(1996) 64 TC 435
Neutral citation
 Used for electronic version of law reports
 Refers to year of decision, the court, a
running number for the case, and then
uses paragraph numbers instead of page
numbers, eg:
Morris v KLM [2001] EWCA Civ 790 at (3)
This refers to paragraph 3 of the 790th
judgment of 2001 in the Civil Division of
the Court of Appeal.
R v Rowe [2007] EWCA Crim 635
This refers to the 635th judgment of 2007
in the Criminal Division of the CA
How to identify abbreviations
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Online at Cardiff site http://www.legalabbrevs.cardiff.ac.uk
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Raistrick, D. Index to legal citations and abbreviations. Cw
UK R159c2
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Card catalogue section of abbreviations in the law library
(red drawer labels)
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Index volumes of Halsbury’s Encyclopedia, and of The
Digest
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K.U. Leuven site –
http://www.law.kuleuven.be/rechtsaf/index.phtml?page=uk
Searching Case Law using paper
 The Law Report Indexes (“Red Book”) - all
citations to a case; search by subject;
research judicial history.
 All England Law Reports (“All ERs”) have an
index by subject, case name, and list cases
and legislation judicially considered.
 Current Law Yearbook - summaries of
significant cases, legislative details, words
and phrases judicially considered. Also the
Current Law Case Citator for judicial history
Searching Case Law - The Digest
 Compendium of case law, covers the UK,
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Ireland, the Commonwealth & the EU, from
medieval times to the present day.
Provides summary (“digest”) of cases organised
by subject, with the citation to the full text
report and the judicial history of each case
The Digest volumes are revised and reissued
when necessary to take account of changes in
law and practice.
It follows the same title classification and
arrangement as Halsbury’s Laws of England.
Includes a cumulative supplement, consolidated
table of cases, and a consolidated index
Why use The Digest?
 Provides key case law in a subject area
 Citations to law reports
 Judicial history of cases
 Useful source for tracing older case law
 Is not available in electronic format
Shelf location: Cw UK 150 E58a3
Searching Case Law - Halsbury’s
Laws of England
 Encyclopedia of law including
authoritative commentary, statute and
case law, analysis and background
information
 Arranged alphabetically by subject.
 Updated by yearly supplement and
monthly updating service
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K1
Searching & updating the law Current Law
 Case law and statutory developments from
1947-date
 Digests cases from most series of law reports
and quality newspapers
 Current Law Case Citators give citations for
cases and judicial history
 Alphabetical table of cases and index to
subjects
Shelf location: Cw UK 200 C976c
Finding cases by name
In books:
 Current Law Case Citator
 Law Report indexes – red indexes
 The Digest
 Halsbury’s – Table of Cases volumes
On-line:
 Key databases such as Lexis,
Westlaw, Bailii
Finding cases by topic
 The Digest
 Halsbury’s Laws of England
 Current Law
 Lexis, Westlaw, Bailii
Legislation
 Types of legislation
 How statutes are made
 Structure of an act
 Commencement of an act
 Citation
 Statutory instruments
Types of Legislation
 Primary legislation
 Bills – precursors to Acts – Public,
Private & Hybrid
 Acts or Statutes – Public general, Local
and Personal
 Secondary or delegated legislation
 Statutory instruments, (S.I.s) or
Regulations
 Other subsidiary legislation – Bye-laws,
Orders, Codes of Practice etc
How an act (statute) is made
Need for a law comes about from various sources
– election promises, a specific event, law
commission reports, Royal commissions and
Public Inquiries
Preparatory Stages
 Consultation stage – organised by
government dept. sponsoring the bill – (this
is a Green Paper, which, once agreed,
becomes a White paper – basis of bill)
 Bill is drafted by parliamentary draftsmen
within the relevant department.
How an act is made (ii)
The House Of Commons
 First Reading (letting Members know about
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the Bill)
Second Reading (explaining the purpose of
Bill, questions)
Committee Stage (detailed examination by a
Standing Committee)
Report Stage (further consideration & changes
by whole House
Third Reading (Overall examination – can only
pass or reject at this stage)
How an act is made (iii)
The House Of Lords
 First Reading
 Second Reading
 Committee Stage (usually a C’tee of the whole
House
 Report Stage (Consideration of Amendments)
 Third Reading (Can still be amended in HoL)
(If amended, Bill has to go back to Commons)
 Royal Assent (granted via Letters Patent or, at
end of a session, via a Commission)
Where to find…
 Information on pre-legislative materials
online:
 Current Legal Information (CLI) – LRDI
(‘grey papers’) database
http://cli.sweetandmaxwell.co.uk/
(Also on Westlaw)
 Lawtel – Bills, Command Papers and News
& Press databases
http://www.lawtel.com/my_lawtel/welcome.asp
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Internet – check Government websites and
the Parliament website
http://www.parliament.uk/
Where to find bills
 Information on Bills
 Parliament website
• http://www.parliament.uk/bills/bills.cfm
Hansard
 Weekly Information Bulletin
 Sessional Information Digest
 LexisLibrary
 CLI
 Lawtel
 BLL list of bills received 
http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/law/e-resources/legislation
(under UK& Ireland - ‘Parliamentary Bills’)
Where to find acts
 Original text of Acts as passed:
Queen’s Printer’s copy
 Office of Public Sector Information (OPSI) website
• http://www.opsi.gov.uk/
 Current Law Statutes
 Justis
 Westlaw & LexisLibrary
 Law Reports Statutes
 Current Acts incorporating amendments:
 Halsbury’s Statutes (Cw UK 30 H196a4)
 Statute Law database
http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/
 LexisLibrary
 Westlaw
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Commencement / coming into
force
 Once a bill receives Royal Assent, it
usually will come into force
However:
 Some Acts require a Commencement
Order before they take effect – (use noter
ups, or LexisLibrary to check)
 Some Acts are never brought into force
(eg. Easter Act 1928)
Citing legislation
 Acts are numbered sequentially during the year
as they receive Royal Assent
 Acts are referred to either
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by their short name or
by their Act or Chapter number – eg,
• Name of Act 2003 (c42)
or c42, 2003
 Public General Acts are cited using Arabic
numerals, e.g.:
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Companies Act 1985 (c 6)
 Prior to 1963 Acts cited by regnal year, e.g.:
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Debtors Act 1869 (32 & 33 Vict cap 62)
Citing legislation (ii)
 Acts (continued):
 Local and Personal Acts are cited using
Roman numerals, e.g.:
• British Railways (Liverpool Street Station)
Act 1983 (cap. iv)
 Private
Acts are cited using Arabic
numerals given in italics, e.g.:
• Hugh Small and Norma Small (Marriage
Enabling) Act 1982 (cap. 10)
Citing Bills
 Bills
 A Bill is assigned a new number each
time it is reprinted
 References to Parliamentary Bills should
include short title, Parliamentary
Session in round brackets and Bill
number, e.g.:
• Prevention of Terrorism HC Bill (2004 –
2005) 61
• Prevention of Terrorism HL Bill (2004 –
2005) 34
Where to find…
 ..the status of a piece of legislation
 Online:
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LexisLibrary
Justis
Lawtel
Westlaw and CLI
• http://bills.parliament.uk/AC.asp
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In paper:
• Current Law Statute Citators Cw UK 20 C976
• Halsbury’s Statutes –Is it in force? Cw UK 30 H196a4
• Halsbury’s Statutory Instruments Cw UK 90 S5797.2
Example of Annotation in Westlawand exclamation mark next to the
section:
Once section is selected, a warning note
appears
Statutory instruments
 Statutory instruments are also known as
Regulations – over 3000 introduced each
year.
 SI’s are subordinate legislation, made by
the government department responsible
for an act
 They cover the implementation aspects of
an act, eg. Building Regulations, Road
Rules
Citing Statutory Instruments
 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
 The
Statute Law database lists the date
of deployment of regulations.
Some other book resources
 Legal journals – in paper, and online via
OU e-journals, and on Lexis, Hein Online &
Westlaw. (They have less standing than in
European legal systems)
 Loose-leaf services – often combine
legislation with section commentary, and
analyse related cases
 Textbooks – specialist subject case books
Summary
 Use the list of databases on the Law Library
website
 http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/law/eresources/databases
 Law Library website also contains self-paced
tutorials
 http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/law/guides
 Refer to the Parliament website for
background information and current status
on England’s legislation
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http://www.parliament.uk/