When you are looking for information regarding new laws or doing research about the old laws it is important to know where you can find the laws pertaining to the United Kingdom’s English law. In the search for English law you will find that there are numerous areas to find the information. Most places will have the law as written while others will index new laws as well as the old laws. You can look in numerous places such as legal periodicals, citations, encyclopedias, dictionaries, digests, and treaties. Each will give you an idea of what is going on in law today, and if you are a solicitor, you will have all of these sources to use for your research.
Periodicals
Many of the laws followed in England are indexed in periodicals; you may find what you are looking for in the “Current Law Index”, the “Index to Legal Periodicals” and many others. There are also many online legal periodicals that will help you to find out what the laws are such as Westlaw.
Citations
You can find many new citations online through databases such as Westlaw, Key Cite and Shepard’s. If you are looking for a specific case you may want to learn to use one of these different systems. You may also find that you can find these citations in print by using the “Current Law Case Citator”.
Encyclopedias
You can find that many encyclopedias may have some of the information you seek, preferable the “Halsbury’s Laws of England”, which contains most of the information you may be looking for including common law practices, statutory law, case law and other instruments of the law that governs England.
Dictionaries
There are many legal dictionaries but if you really want in-depth information you may try the “Shroud’s Judicial Dictionary” or the “Jowett’s Dictionary of English Law”. They both contain cited statutes and some cases to explain the different definitions. With these dictionaries you may also find where you can find more laws for your particular subject.
Digests
For the most part there are a wide range of digests throughout England; however the one that is best for what you are looking for is the “English and Empire Digest”. In these digests you will find that the cases are cited by their case numbers that make them much easier to find when you are looking to make your case or complete your law school assignment.
Treaties
There are many different treaties that give you information about the laws you may need for your study the best ones are the “Command Papers”. These will give you any updated treaties that may have come about throughout the year.
If you are studying English law in the United Kingdom, knowing how to find the information you need will be paramount to how well you do your job or complete your projects. There are many ways to find what you are looking for, and if one does not work you can try any of the others until you find the law you are looking for.
