Law

Start with ​ilaw but you may also want to consider other resources listed below:
 

 Books and Journals

Use our extensive maritime law electronic books collection on the Library Catalogue

Search this journal:

• International Journal of Marine and Coastal Law 

Register with Lloyd's List:

 More Journal Articles
 

Try a journals search on Westlaw. This has a useful Legal Journals Index where you can find the details for articles many journals (and those included in i-law).

You may find further articles in Lexis+ UK,  HeinOnline the Law Journal Library or ScienceDirect:

Useful Websites 
​

• International Court of Justice 
  The principal judicial organ of the United Nations - sits at the Hague and deals with legal disputes between sites. Website includes lists of pending and contentious cases, documents, official judgments, advisory opinions and orders
   
• Oceans and Law of the Sea (United Nations) 
  Information and text of the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) along with useful general links
   
• International Maritime Organization (IMO) 
  Includes conventions, documents, news, an extensive directory of weblinks and more..
   
• International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea 
  Access fulltext judgments and related documents for cases brought under UNCLOS

 Books

You can find the most authoritative practitioner texts online via Westlaw: 

• Select the Books tab and choose from Terrell on the Law of Patents, Kerly's Law of Trade marks and Trade names, Copinger and Skone James on Copyright or the CIPA Guide to the Patents Acts.

 Law Reports and Journals
 

• Westlaw contains the Fleet Street Reports as well as the leading journals European Intellectual Property Review (EIPR) along with many other useful articles and abstracts in this area. 

Websites (including decisions and applications) 
 

• World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) 
  Contains a huge amount of information relating to patents (including an international applications search), trademarks, industrial designs and copyright along with WIPO Treaties and WIPO Lex (a search for national members' IP laws and treaties)
   
• UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) 
  Wide range of information on patent, design and copyright issues including Designs and Trademark searches, esp@cenet (a free patent search for all UK applications along with some European and International applications) and much more...
   
• UK Intellectual Property Office – results of past patent decisions
   
• The Copyright Tribunal 
  Information, orders and decisions relating to UK copyright
   
• European Union Intellectual Property Office
  Includes decisions, guidelines, treaties, case law and searchable databases for Community trademarks and designs.
   
• European Patent Office
   
• TRIPS (trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights) material from the World Trade Organisation (WTO)
   
• Copyrightuser 
  An independent resource aimed to help the public and creators of content understand their rights

 eResources
​

On Westlaw, use the Journals tab to look for specific articles. 
Entering the name of a country as a Subject/Keyword will produce fewer and more relevant results.
Some articles will be available in fulltext, others will be abstracts only - check the Library Catalogue to see if there is an alternative fulltext version available elsewhere.

Westlaw International Materials is available under the Services tab - here you can access international and US materials including over 200 US journals covering comparative topics.  See Solent's Westlaw tutorial for more information.

On Lexis+ UK, use the Journals tab and select Journals from the left to search just fulltext articles.
Use the Journals Index to find more results, but some will be abstracts only - check the Library Catalogue to see if there is an alternative fulltext version available elsewhere. 
Use International Journals for further comparative articles.

Locate foreign materials using the Sources tab - use Browse Sources, select a country and a category. Tick the required sources and then OK-Continue to search.

For more articles, try the Law Journal Library:

General websites 

• Eagle-i - provided by the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies
   
• WorldLII (World Legal Information Institute) - access to international decisions and treaties along with country-specific legal materials 
   
• Lawlinks - extensive listings of special legal topics and world wide jurisdictions produced by the librarian at the University of Kent
   
• HG.org - International gateway service to world governmental information and legal internet sites
   
• FLAG (Foreign Law Guide) - physical holdings of foreign, international and comparative law in United Kingdom Universities and national libraries
   
• CommonLII (Commonwealth Legal Information Insitute) - access to court decisions and legislation from 59 Commonwealth and common law countries including Australia, Canada and New Zealand
   
• FLARE (Foreign Law Research) - Collaborative project by the IALS and other universities to increase access to foreign legislation
   
• GlobaLex - look under Foreign Law Research for links to starting points for many countries

United States 

• United States Supreme Court Opinions
   
• Decisions of the US Supreme Court
   
• United States code - Accessible by title, popular name, and keyword
   
• The Library of Congress Thomas service - Legislative information including access to Bill summary, status and text and the Congressional Record giving text of the debates in the US Senate.

Islamic Law 

• Islamic Law Materials
  Useful links provided by the Centre of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law at the University of London.

 eResources

Try these to get started:

• EUR-Lex provides access to the the Official Journal L and C and EU case law, legislation and treaties.
• Westlaw contains cases, legislation and treaties under the EU tab 
• Lexis+ UK also contains EU cases and legislation: use the Cases tab for selected cases from 1995 onwards via the All England Law Reports European; or try International Cases on the left hand side and then select EU Cases from the drop-down menu; use the Legislation tab and then International legislation.

​Case Law

Cases from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and the General Court (EGC) (previously known as Court of First Instance (CFI)) are reported in the European Court Reports (ECR) and the Common Market Law Reports (CMLR). Cases from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) are reported in the European Human Rights Reports (EHRR).

• Court of Justice of the European Union
  This is the official site of the European Courts and it provides full but provisional text of their judgments and opinions searchable from June 1997.

Treaties

Available in our eResources but also here:

• European Union treaties
  Full text of the EU Treaties. Founding and Accession Treaties are also available.

Legislation

• Primary legislation (i.e. the Treaties which established the European Communities and the various amending Treaties) can be found on Westlaw or EUR-Lex.  

• The official source for EU secondary legislation is the Official Journal (OJ), available from EUR-Lex. There are three series – C, L and S. From 1990 onwards, copies of the OJ (C), which contains proposed legislation and cases, and the OJ(L), which contains legislation, can be accessed via Westlaw.

• Adopted legislation (i.e. Directives, Decisions and Regulations) can be found on Lexis+ UK and Westlaw.

• Additional resources include:

Summaries of EU legislation
The main legislative measures and procedures for each of the activities of the EU.

Legislative Procedures
a free service provided by the European Commission that allows you to search and follow the major stages of the decision-making process between the Commission and the other institutions.

European Court of Human Rights

NOTE: This is the judicial body of the Council of Europe and has no connection with the European Union - it hears cases of alleged breaches of basic human rights and freedoms:

• European Court of Human Rights
  A list of pending cases is available and judgments under Case Law (via HUDOC)

You can also find judgments in the European Human Rights Reports (EHRR) via Westlaw.

 If you need international law materials, try these resources:

• International Court of Justice 
  The principal judicial organ of the United Nations - sits at the Hague and deals with legal disputes between sites. Website includes lists of pending and contentious cases, documents, official judgments, advisory opinions and orders
   
• WorldLII (World Legal Information Institute) 
  An excellent gateway site providing access to international decisions and treaties along with country-specific legal materials (cases,legislation and guides).
   
• EISIL - Electronic Information System for International Law
  Provided by the American Society of International Law, this site links to a wide range of resources on all International Law topics
   
• United Nations - Uphold International Law 
  Information on the UN Charter, UN Bodies (including the International Law Commission) and thematic areas such as Oceans and Law of the Sea and Treaties
   
• FLARE Index to Treaties 
  Search for basic information on over 1,500 of the most significant multilateral treaties from 1856-. Links to online versions of the Treaties are included wherever possible

Improve your research skills with tutorials from the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies: 

Customary International Law (login as guest)

Treaties and International Conventions (login as guest)