Instead of referring to a case or journal article by its full details, lawyers use abbreviations and legal citations:
All reported cases will have a case citation (or law report citation) which you need to use for referencing purposes.
Cases since 2001 also have a neutral citation which does not refer to a particular law report but instead to the year and court in which the case was heard. This is an electronic reference for the case.
Journal names are referred to by an abbreviation rather than listed the full title (e.g. Crim LR for the Criminal Law Review).
Check the tabs above to see examples of how case citations and neutral citations are broken down, and for some common legal abbreviations for law reports and journals.
You should generally include the neutral citation along with a law report citation in your work. See Referencing on the side menu for more help.
When you look at a case online in one of our law eResources such as Westlaw or Lexis+ UK, you will be given the citations you need.
Always use the neutral citation and the first law report citation listed - the law reports are cited by most authoritative first!
Watch the video from the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting, the authorised publisher of the official series of The Law Reports to see how important they are to the legal profession: A Tale of Two Citations
Fisher v Bell [1961] 1 QB 394
| Fisher v Bell | Party names |
| [1961] | Year of publication |
| 1 | Volume number |
| QB | Law report abbreviation |
| 394 | Start page |
Taiwo v Olaigbe [2016] UKSC 31
| Taiwo v Olaigbe | Party names |
| [2016] | Year the case was heard |
| UKSC | Court abbreviation |
| 31 | Number |
| AC | Law Reports, Appeal Cases |
| All ER | All England Law Reports |
| Ch | Law Reports, Chancery |
| Cr App R | Criminal Appeal Reports |
| Crim LR | Criminal Law Review |
| ER | English Reports |
| EWCA | England and Wales Court of Appeal |
| EWHC | England and Wales High Court |
| KB | Law Reports, King's Bench |
| NLJ | New Law Journal |
| QB | Law Reports, Queen's Bench |
| SJ | Solicitors' Journal |
| WLR | Weekly Law Reports |
| UKHL | UK House of Lords |
| UKSC | UK Supreme Court |
You can check legal abbreivations in the Law Library using Raistrick's Index to Legal Citations or online via:
Decipher the full titles of law reports and journals from their recognised abbreviations.
Cases are heard in different courts and the transcript of what the judge(s) said are published in law reports (judgments).
Law reports can be accessed electronically through Westlaw and Lexis+ UK.
In Westlaw and Lexis+ UK you will generally find the full judgment as well as extra information such as a summary and links to related materials.
Only 2,500 out of 250,000 cases heard each year or 1.25% ever get reported so many cases will not be available!
This includes all cases heard in the lower courts and even some of the most sensationalist cases that are very popular in the media. Only cases of legal interest in the upper courts make it into law reports.
For high profile cases where a law report is not available, try using our newspaper database:
Full text news content from both the UK and Europe including UK broadsheets, tabloids and regional presses. More extensive international content can be accessed via International Newsstream and content specifically relating to North America can be accessed via US Newsstream listed under 'I' and 'U' from the tabs above.
To Log in, enter your University email address and password.
Judgments from legal cases are reported in Law Reports.
There are many different law reports produced by different publishers.
In the Law Library, these are shelved in alphabetical order by series title.
Some law reports are very general (All England, The Law Reports, Weekly Law Reports) whilst others are specialist (e.g. Medical Law Reports).
Many more law reports are available online via Westlaw, LexisLibrary and i-law.
Search the Library Catalogue to see which law report series (but not individual cases) are available.
A full case citation will give you all the information you need to locate a copy:
1) Work out which series of law reports your case is in by looking up the abbreviation (see above)
2) Locate the correct Law Report series
3) Find the volume with the right date and number printed on the side.
4) Turn to the start page or case number.
You can also use LexisLibrary or Westlaw to find a case by searching for the party names or entering the citation.
Use i-law to access the online version of the Lloyds Law Reports.
Legislation includes Acts (Statutes) and Statutory Instruments (Rules, Regulations and Orders), abbreviated to SIs.
Before a new Act can be created, the Government will normally produce a White Paper or a consultation document on the topic, to outline their ideas.
This will be put before Parliament as a draft act, known as a Bill, and will be discussed and amended.
Once Parliament have agreed on the clauses, the King will give his approval (Royal Assent), and the Bill will become an Act.
Parliament's Making Laws video explains how Bills become Acts and the process involved.
Legislation is changing constantly so always make sure you have the latest information available. Fully updated Acts and SIs can be accessed electronically through Westlaw and Lexis+ UK
Producing a Bill is the first stage of the process to create a new Act.
Once a Bill has been through all the parliamentary stages, the King will give his approval (Royal Assent) and the Bill becomes an Act.
Bills Before Parliament provides detailed information on current bills and their progress.
Remember: legislation is changing constantly so always make sure you have the latest information available.
Fully updated Acts and SIs can be accessed via Westlaw and Lexis+. These eResources also include additional useful material such as annotations and forthcoming amendments.
This topic video includes:
Searching and browsing legislation - in force, bills, draft legislation and policy materials.
Filtering your results.
Status icons and versioning - historical, prospective and proposed.
Navigating around a piece of legislation.
Legislation Analysis tools - citing/cited references, status information, Act/SI overviews, and commentary references.
Finding the latest legislation and tracking legislative developments.
Legislation.gov.uk contains the official revised version of UK primary legislation including all in-force Public General Acts of the (now) UK Parliament, Acts of the pre-1707 Scottish Parliament and Acts of the devolved Scottish Parliament. At present there is a delay in revising legislation, but that which is awaiting revision should be noted as such. The service also provides access to unrevised versions of some SIs and SSIs and post-1991 UK Local Acts.
The Law Commission reviews the law and makes recommendations for reform - access current and previous consultations and final reports, including draft Bills.
Legal journals provide opinion and commentary on legal issues and cases and are very useful sources of information for specific legal topics. They are written by legal experts and professionals.
Listed below are some example legal journals which are relevant to your course.
Many more can be found on Lexis+ UK and Westlaw. (Westlaw video 'Finding journals')
Most journals are subscription-only so you must access them through the links below and login using the instructions provided.
If you search for a journal title in the Library Catalogue, use the Journals option under Resource Type. Click on the Available Online tab for access details. We often have multiple providers for journal titles and you will need to check the available date to select the one which best suits your needs.
Printed journals can be found on Floor 0B but most journals are now electronic only. Ensure you check which dates are available online and read the off campus instructions:
Many other titles can be found in our eResources tab.
Parliament plays a vital role in ensuring that the Government remains accountable by:
Use the resources below to locate important documents generated from these processes.
Includes all parliamentary publications including Bills and related documents, Commons and Lords Hansard (debates), Weekly Information Bulletin, Committee and Research publications.
Includes all Government Command Papers and other key documents from 2005 onwards.
Filter documents using the options on the left.
For older publications, try the University of Southampton's archives:
Hansard is the official record of what has been said in both Houses of Parliament. As such it carries a "substantially verbatim" report of proceedings. It includes records of debates, votes, and written statements in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
House of Commons Official Report (Hansard) from 1988 - www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmhansrd.htm
House of Lords Official Report (Hansard) from 1995 - http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld/lords_hansard_by_date.htm
Hansard 1803-2005: This Hansard corpus contains nearly every speech given in the British Parliament from 1803-2005. Comprehensive text searches for speeches prior to 2005 (e.g. tracking how often a word appears) can be carried out using Hansard Corpus (Please note you will need to register for a free account) - https://www.clarin.ac.uk/hansard-corpus
These are two key legal resources that you must use to access primary legal materials (cases/legislation) as well as secondary sources (legal journals, encyclopedias, practitioner texts).
Further help and advice is located in the eResources section but quick access and getting started are below:
Access a wide range of legal materials including UK cases and updated legislation, legal journals, books and dictionaries.
To Log in, enter your university email address and password. Users must enter their details the first time they use Westlaw after logging in. This creates a separate Westlaw account so you can use the personalisation features of the site.
Access UK cases, legislation and legal journals as well as national and regional newspapers and legal materials from countries across the world. Includes both Lexis PSL with practical guidance written by solicitors and barristers on legal topics as well as forms, checklists and precedents, and content from Lexis Accountancy Lite including Tolley's Tax Handbooks Series, the Yellow and Orange Tax Guides, Simon's Taxes, Tax Journal, and the Finance Acts.
To Log in, enter your University email address and password
Westlaw have produced videos offering guidance on searching - Videos
An introduction to the new version of Westlaw UK: Westlaw UK: An introduction to Westlaw UK
Finding case law on the new version of Westlaw UK: Westlaw UK: Finding Case Law
Finding legislation on the new version of Westlaw UK: Westlaw UK: Finding Legislation
Lexis+ UK Student Hub
A range of videos demonstrating the different features and functions of the Lexis+ UK service via Lexis+ UK video hub
You can do this in a number of ways:
Try the Current Awareness tabs on Westlaw or Lexis+ UK to browse by topic or format
Lexis+ UK - set up email alerts for new resources on a subject or set of search terms (you must be logged in with your University email address and password)
Set up a My Westlaw profile to get email alerts on the latest developments for a subject or search
Set up email alerts for key journals - receive new table of contents alerts for the latest issues
Use UK Parliament for email alerts and newsletters
Track changes to proposed legislation via email updates from Bills Before Parliament
Register with the Law Commission to receive updates on consultations and also Ministry of Justice topic areas.