Background
The principal sources of legal authority in Great Britain are Acts
of Parliament, administrative law, court opinions, and Books of Authority.
Acts of Parliament, administrative law and court opinions are discussed below.
Books of authority still play a part in British legal research. These
are books written by authors who are recognized as expert. Examples
include Blackstone's Commentaries (1765) and Coke's Institutes
(1628-1641).
Cases
The House of Lords, the highest court in Great Britain, began as a
central governing body which existed before Parliament. Today the Court is
a committee of the House in Parliament. The Court of Appeal and the High
Court of Justice are known as the Supreme Court of Judicature.
The structure of the courts and the decision about the appropriate court in
which to bring an action was not always as clear as it is today. In
Knight v. Marquis of Waterford, (1844) 11 Cl. & Fin. 653 the
plaintiff had litigated a cause of action in equity for 14 years. The court
eventually dismissed the action stating that it should have been brought in the
common law court instead. Since then the law and equity courts have
merged.
From the thirteenth century to about 1535 cases appeared in The
Yearbooks. From 1535 until 1865 the Nominate Reports
printed cases. Cases from both these sources have been reprinted in
English Reports: Full Reprint (KD270 1220.E53 1900). A complete
table of cases is included in the final volumes. Selected cases are
reproduced in All England Law Reports Reprint (KD288 .A6).
This set includes references to Halsbury's Laws of England and also lists
citing cases.
Since 1865 the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting (the Council) has
published a set known as Law Reports (KD-call number varies depending on
the court. Appeals Cases are KD275.4; Queen's Bench are KD277.7; Chancery
are KD276.3). The Law Reports are arranged by court. They are
read by the judiciary before publication and they also include arguments of
counsel. In 1952 the Council began publishing the Weekly Law
Reports (KD282.W44). These reports are printed much more quickly than
the Law Reports and do print some cases that will not be reproduced in
Law Reports.
The Digest (KD296.E5), The All England Law Reports: Consolidated
Tables and Index 1936-1992 (KD288 .A64), Current Law Case Citator
1947-1997 (KD296.C843), and Current Law Citator 1980 (KD296.C843) are
citators for cases. The latter is updated in the monthly issues of
Current Law.
British cases are now also available on the Internet. See the Court
Service Web site at http://www.courtservice.gov.uk/ for
the text of decisions for various courts. See also the House of Lords
Judicial work and judgments page at http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/ld/ldjudinf.htm.
The British and Irish Legal Information
Institute (http://www.bailii.org) has
British, Welsh, Irish and Scottish case law (for most files, since 1996).
To locate a web site for a specific court, see Government Information Service,
Directgov
Judicial System page available from http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/CrimeJusticeAndTheLaw/Thejudicialsystem/index.htm.
Statutes
Parliament consists of two Houses, the House of Commons and the
House of Lords. Both Houses must approve a bill for it to become law.
Additionally, the bill must receive royal assent, which is when the bill
commences in force. Parliament is the ultimate authority for statutory law
since there is no judicial review by the courts as there is known in the United
States.
Several sets cover statutory law of Great Britain, all of which are kept in
the KD section on the third floor of the Law Library unless indicated
otherwise. Statutes from 1225 to 1868 are found in Statutes at Large
(in the Rare Book Center). Cites to this set are by regnal year which
requires a good knowledge of the history of the British royalty or a chart
showing the regnal years.
In 1866 this set was continued by the Public General Acts
(KD124.G74). This set is published each calendar year by Her Majesty's
Stationery Office (HMSO), which is the government printer in England. This
set is equivalent to our Statutes at Large in that it publishes the text
of the laws in chronological order.
The main index is by subject. There is a list of titles of the public
and general acts of the year which is arranged alphabetically. There is
also a "Table of Derivation and Destinations." The "Table of Derivations"
allows one to look up the law passed during the year and see the previous laws
that dealt with the same subject, i.e., the laws from which the new law is
derived. The "Table of Destinations" allows one to look up previous laws
and determine where those laws have been consolidated in laws passed during the
year. Another table, "Effect of Legislation," allows you to determine how
previously passed laws have been affected by laws passed during the year.
You can look up the previous law and the table tells you how your law was
affected by this years legislation. There is also a "Table of Textual
Amendments" that indicates those provisions of previous laws which were amended
or partially repealed by regulations made during the year.
The official publication of all statutes currently in force is called
Statutes in Force (Storage
(Microforms) Mfiche KD132 1972-), which we have on microfiche
through 2003. The statutes are grouped by broad subject headings and are
updated several times a year. A two-volume index, Index to the
Statutes, is located on the shelf in the microfiche room. This index
is arranged by subject headings and provides the calendar year and chapter
number of the act and where it can be found in Statutes in Force.
Another annual publication of statutes, Current Law Statutes Annotated
(KD135.C8) is published by Sweet & Maxwell. This set includes a
looseleaf "Service File" that includes statutes for the current year. For
each law this set indicates where parliamentary debates can be located and
explains changes brought about by this act. In the index volume for each
year there is a "Current Law Statute Citator" which indicates which statues were
passed during that year, statutes affected during the year by statutory
instruments, statutes repealed and amended during the year, and statutes
judicially considered during the year.
One of the most useful sources for British statutory law is Butterworths'
Halsbury's Statutes of England and Wales (KD135.H3 1985).
This set brings together all statutes currently in force by subject and includes
case annotations. Additionally, this set includes notes, definitions, and
references to statutory instruments for each section of a law. This makes
it an excellent source to use in statutory research.
The third edition, published between 1968 and 1972, contains 39 main volumes,
a 40th volume that includes all changes during 1968 to 1972, and continuation
volumes for each year thereafter. The continuation volumes can be used to
update the main volumes. In 1980 a "Table of Statutes and Index for
volumes 1-50" was published. It contains an alphabetical list of statues,
with wholly repealed statutes in italics, a chronological list of statutes, a
subject index, and a words and phrases statutorily defined, with reference to
the statutory section that gives the definition.
The 4th edition was begun in 1985 and is now complete. Updating the
fourth edition is accomplished through three sources. The latest
Replacement Cumulative Supplement updates the titles published in the 4th
edition and those titles not yet published in the 4th edition. To update
further, one must use the looseleaf volume entitled Noter-up.
Another part of this service is a three volume Current Statutes
Service. This set, which is organized by subject as the main volumes,
must be used to update the bound volumes of the 4th edition. To update the
set one should consult all three titles listed above. An important volume
to check is "Is It In Force." This volume, which is arranged by year and
alphabetically order by statute, provides the commencement date of the law and
indicates whether a section of the law has been revoked.
Current Law Statute Citator (KD135.C8) lists cases that have cited
statutes. The statute is looked up by name. Two volumes cover the
years 1948 to 1990. This is updated in the annual cumulations and monthly
issues of Current Law. This citator gives the history of all
statutes passed since 1947 and includes any statute cited in cases that were
decided since 1946.
With the enactment of the Public General Act of 1996, all public acts passed
by Parliament since 1996 are now available on the Internet. The HMSO Web site provides the full text
of public acts <http://www.hmso.gov.uk/acts.htm>.
All acts appear as originally passed by Parliament, subsequent amendments,
however, are not included. A search engine is also available at this
site. Additionally, full text of public bills currently before Parliament
are available on the Web < http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/pabills.htm>.
A complete list of public bills introduced in Parliament in the current session
along with the progress of each bill is available on this same Web site <http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm/cmwib.htm>.
Also, the Web site http://www.official-documents.co.uk
provides various links to official documents. Finally, the British and Irish Legal Information Institute
(http://www.bailii.org) has both statutes
and case law (for most files, since 1996).
In late 2006 the UK government released a Statute Law Database containing law in
force (i.e., amendments are applied to the laws, so the user does not need to
piece together separate instruments): http://www.statutelaw.gov.uk/.
Administrative Regulations
HMSO publishes these annually in Statutory Instruments
(KD166.G74x). HMSO also publishes Index to Government Orders
(KD170.G74x), which goes from the enabling statute to subject headings of the
statutory instruments. Prior to the 1950's, statutory instruments were
referred to as statutory rules and orders.
Commercially, Halsbury's Statutory Instruments (KD135.H35) arranges
subordinate legislation by subject, giving either the full text or a
summary. A history is included with each instrument. A "Consolidated
Index" is provided for subject access to the main volumes.
Beginning in 1997, all new administrative regulations may also be accessed
through the Internet at http://www.hmso.gov.uk/stat.htm.
The administrative regulations are provided in full text form. A search
engine is also available at this site.
Finding Aids
A legal encyclopedia of British law is Halsbury's Laws of
England, 4th edition (KD310.H34 1973). There is a subject index to the set
and the topics are listed on the spines of each volume. The articles give
reference to cases, statutes, and statutory instruments that are relevant to the
subject. To update the main volumes, first consult the "Annual Cumulative
Supplement," which provides changes since the date of the main volume and the
date of the supplement. The next step is to go to the "Current Service,"
check first with the section called the Key, and locate the article you are
updating. This will tell you whether there have been any further updates
in either the Noter-up or the Monthly Reviews, both of which are in the "Current
Service." When using either of these update tools, you will be using the
volume number and paragraph number from the main volume. Finally, the
"Annual Abridgment" (KD310.H35) will give you other cases since 1973. Each
volume for each year must be examined.
The Digest (KD296.E5), formerly known as The English and Empire
Digest, is a digest of British case law. The main volumes in this set
were originally published from 1919 to 1932. Those volumes have been
replaced with the 2nd release, "Blue-band" volumes, noted by the blue band on
the spine of the book. The blue-band volumes have now replaced the
"Green-band" volumes.
The entries are arranged alphabetically by topic like any other legal
digest. At the beginning of each subject is a reference to relevant
statutory material and articles in Halsbury's Laws of England, followed
by case digests. Each case is given a number, the cases are numbered
consecutively for that subject, and any citing cases are also listed with an
indication of how the citing case treated the cited case. In the back of
each green-band volumes is an adaptor table which tells the number given a case
in the green-band volume when the number you have is for a blue-band volume.
A two volume "Consolidated Table of Cases," which was prepared for the
blue-band volumes, is also available. These tables do not give cites to
the cases but give you the subject and case number in the main digest volumes
where the case may be found. If the main volume with that subject has been
issued in the green-band issue then you will have to find the volume that now
contains that subject (which may be the same or may be different from the
blue-band volume) and then use the adaptor table to determine the new number of
your case.
There is also a "Consolidated Index" which was also issued with the blue-band
set. To update The Digest you must use "Continuation
Volumes," each of which covers approximately two or three years.
Words and Phrases Legally Defined (KD313.W67x 1988) is similar to our
Words and Phrases. The definition is given and the cite to the case
or statute. This volume is updated with annual supplements.
Sweet & Maxwell also publishes the monthly Current Law
(KD296.C82), which is cumulated annually in Current Law Year
Book. The monthly issue includes digests of unreported cases, dates
of commencement of statutes passed during that time, damage awards in personal
injury or death cases for the year, a case citator, a statute citator, cases
digested by topic, words and phrases, and law books published during the
month. When the monthly issues are cumulated annually, the case and
statute citators are removed and put with previous editions of the citator in
Current Law Statute Citator (KD296.C844) and Current Law Case
Citator (KD296.C843).
Law Review articles can be located through Index to Legal Periodicals
(Reference K33 .I53 and CD-ROM Network), Legal Resource Index/Current Law
Index (Reference K33 .C87 and Legal Trac, available electronically at the
Law Library), and the annual volumes of Current Law Year Book
(KD296.C82). Westlaw (available to Law School subscribers) also has
the Legal Journals Index, containing abstracts of legal periodicals from the UK
and other EU countries.
Several Internet sites provide links relating to British law. One site
belongs to the British Official Publications Awareness Service at http://www.bopcris.ac.uk. This
database contains various official government documents including Acts of
Parliament, Departmental Publications, Bills and papers for both the House of
Commons and House of Lords, and Standing Committee reports. Finally, http://www.direct.gov.uk is the Government Information Service Web
site. This site provides links to the legislative branch of the
government as well governmental agencies and resources. All of the sites
liste above contain search engines.
The Cardiff Index to Legal
Abbreviations (http://www.legalabbrevs.cardiff.ac.uk)
offers a free online decoding service for UK legal abbreviations.
Research Guides
The Law Library has several books which may provide assistance in researching British law.
Walker & Walker's English Legal System, 9th ed. (Reference Office KD7100.W35x 2005). Useful background on the administration of justice, including the legal profession and types of courts; civil and criminal procedure; and relevant EU provisions.
Principles of the English Legal System, 3rd Edition (Reference Office KD661.S58 1997) provides an overview of the structure of the English legal system. This book explains how the English legal system operates and how rules and processes are affected by the social and economical environment. Additionally, a discussion of sources of law, the structure and processes of the civil and criminal courts, and the judiciary is provided. A separate chapter covering European Union sources of law and institutions is also included.
Banks on Using a Law Library, 6th Edition (Reference Office KE250.B35x 1994) provides essential information on both Canadian and English sources of law. Both primary and secondary sources of law are discussed. Illustrations and recommended citations are also provided.
Butterworths Legal Research Guide (Reference Office KD392.H65 1993) provides suggested legal research techniques and methodologies for English legislative and case law as well as secondary sources. A separate chapter discussing European Union legal sources is also included.
Foreign Law: Current Sources of Codes and Legislation in Jurisdictions of the World provides relevant information on sources of foreign law for various countries including England. This database contains sections on each country and includes complete bibliographic citation to legislation and selected references to secondary sources. Available from the Law Library's Law-Related Databases page at http://www.law.umn.edu/library/ERDirectory.html, or at http://foreignlawguide.com/ip/ for U of M community members.
Updated 12/06. Links verified 5/14/2008
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