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Checklist of materials for legal research

The table below, referred to in the chapter of Teaching legal research on curriculum development”:/resources/curriculum-content-and-development/curriculum/, sets out the type of information source which ought to be included in the legal research curriculum for different types of law course.

The six types of course are:

  • undergraduate non-law courses but with a law element (for example BA Business Studies, BA Social Work)
  • undergraduate law courses (LLB)
  • postgraduate vocational courses (Legal Practice Course and Bar Vocational Course)
  • postgraduate non-vocational courses where students already possess a law degree (some LLM courses, and all research degrees)
  • postgraduate non-vocational courses where students do not possess a law degree (for example, some LLM courses)
  • continuing professional development (CPD) courses

Table 3: Checklist of materials to be featured in ‘Finding information’ section of legal research curricula

Table 3: Checklist of materials to be featured in ‘Finding information’ section of legal research curricula
  non-law degree law degree PG voc PG non-voc (law first degree) PG non-voc (non-law first degree) CPD
General encyclopedias, digests and databases  
Halsbury’s Laws/Halsbury’s Direct     *      
Halsbury’s Statutes/Legislation Direct       *    
Halsbury’s Statutory Instruments     *      
EU encyclopedias   (*) * * *  
EU law [*] (*) * * * *
The Digest     (*) (*) (*)  
Current Legal Information * * * * * *
Current Law Monthly Digest   * * *    
Current Law Yearbook   (*) * *    
LexisNexis   * * [*] [*] *
Westlaw   * * [*] [*] *
Lawtel * * * [*] [*] *
Internet free charge sites * * * * * *
BIDS (academic host for non-law databases)     [*] [*]    
Legislation & Parliament  
Current Law Statutes Annotated * * * * *  
UK legislation * * * * * *
Hansard * * (*) [*] [*]  
Parliamentary Papers * * (*) (*) (*)  
Internet free charge sites * * * * * *
Law reports  
UK law report CDs * * * * * *
Internet free charge sites * * * * * *
Citators  
Current Law Case Citators * * * * *  
Current Law Statute Citators     *      
Current Law SI Citator     *      
Secondary sources – commentary  
Legal Journals Index * * * * *  
Index to Legal Periodicals   * * [*] [*]  
Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals   [*]   [*]    
Public International Law (Bib)   [*]   [*]    
newspaper databases * * * * * *
Practitioner sources  
Encyclopedia of Forms and Precedents   *        
other precedent packages   *        
Atkin’s Court Forms   *        
Civil Procedure (The White Book)   *        
Civil Court Practice (The Green Book)   *        
Stone’s Justices’ Manual   *        
Kemp & Kemp on Quantum of Damages   *        
Butterworths PI Litigation Service   *        
other specialist encyclopedias / texts   (*) * * * *
office forms (Laserforms or equivalent)   *     *  
Non-law sources (selected examples)  
Index to Theses (*)   [*] [*]    
ASSIA (applied social sciences) (*)   [*] [*]    
Medline (medical)     [*] [*]    
Psychological Abstracts (*)   [*] [*]    
Datastream (company finance and economics)   (*) [*] [*] [*]  
Kompass UK (business data)   (*) [*] [*] [*]  
Companies House Direct   (*) [*] [*] [*]  
Courseware  
Iolis * (*)        

Key

  • = publication or database upon which students should receive hands-on instruction

(*) = publication or database of which students should be aware

[*] = publication or database the inclusion of which in hands-on training will depend on subject matter of the course

Last Modified: 30 June 2010