There are two main source types.
Primary sources are the law itself. There are two main types:
This page looks at finding primary sources.
You can find case law on legal databases. You will need some details of the case in order to find it.
The Library subscribes to several legal databases. Forensic Investigation students are trained to use Westlaw which is one of two main UK legal databases.
Case law is published in law reports.
There are different series of law reports - some are general, for example Session Cases; others cover a narrow area of law, for example Building Law Reports. Important cases are written up in more than one law report series.
It's important that you read the case report specified by your lecturer because different law reports will present the case differently.
You can find the correct case report by searching using the full citation.
A case citation directs you to a specific case report in a law report series. The format is :
Defender v Pursuer Year of publication Law report series Starting page number of report
Here's an example:
Dunbar (David) v HM Advocate 2015 SCL 465
So this means the case was David Dunbar against His Majesty's Advocate, it was published in 2015 in the Scottish Criminal Law series and starts on page 465.
Law report series are often abbreviated. For example Session Cases is shortened to SC.
You can find UK legislation on the government website Legislation.gov and also on legal databases Westlaw and Lexis+
Westlaw and Lexis+ are updated more frequently than Legislation.Gov and make it easy to find related case law and analysis. This means you can easily see how the legislation is being interpreted by the courts.
Search using the title of the Act. For example:
Inquiries into Fatal Accidents and Sudden Deaths etc. (Scotland) Act 2016 asp 2
The year is the year the Act became law ('date of commencement' or 'date of Royal Assent'). Asp is an abbreviation of Act of the Scottish Parliament and the number following indicates whether it is the first, second, third (and so on) Act to be passed in that calendar year. So this is the second Act to be given Royal Assent by the Scottish Parliament in 2016.
Acts which originate in Westminster have a similar format but use a chapter number rather than asp. For example:
Communications Act 2003 c. 21
Often the Act title is used without the chapter or asp number. You only need the title and year to find the legislation.
There are three main places to search for legislation (listed below). As part of your course you are trained to use Westlaw.