Legal information

Cases can be searched separately from both Westlaw or Lexis. Select 'Cases' at the top of the screen then search by:

• Citation eg 1996 AC 155 - this has the benefit of taking you directly to the citation you need
• Party names eg Page v Smith
• Keywords eg breach of contract

There is duplication across these databases, but each contain unique content.  Remember, if what you need isn't in one, try the other.

Example of a case citation

Further details on how to cite legal resources can be found in the OSCOLA guide.

Example of a piece of legislation:

Human Rights Act 1998

Example of law journal citation:

If you have a reference to a journal article and you're trying to find the full text, search by the article title eg theory pure theory and values in the following sources:

• LibrarySearch - the biggest collection of journals you have access to
• Westlaw - unique journal content not discoverable from LibrarySearch
• Lexis - unique journal content not discoverable from LibrarySearch
• Google - finally, search the web in case it's freely available

Alternatively, if you do not have a reference and you wish to search for journal articles on your topic, search by keywords in the following sources:

• LibrarySearch - the biggest collection of journals you have access to
• Westlaw - unique journal content not discoverable from LibrarySearch
• Lexis - unique journal content not discoverable from LibrarySearch

LibrarySearch will search for journal content from a number of sources including Sage, Taylor and Francis, Wiley etc. Be clear with your keywords, and use the filters to narrow your search to eg peer-reviewed content, or by publication date.

Although LibrarySearch is by far the biggest collection of journals you have access to, it's important to also search for journals in both Westlaw and Lexis as each have unique content that is not discoverable from LibrarySearch or the web.