Legal Research I using Westlaw UK and other databases PDF

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Legal Research I using Westlaw UK and other databases...

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Lecture 8 – week 3 – Legal Research I using Westlaw UK and other databases Reading: Emily Finch and Stefan Fafinski, Legal Skills (6th edn, Oxford University Press 2017) Chapter 8 Finding books, journals and official publications:

Research using Law Databases •

Law databases are an extremely valuable tool and you will use them regularly during your degree at Anglia Ruskin University.

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You have access to three main general purpose law databases: Lawtel, Lexislibrary and Westlaw. Each has its pros and cons.

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All have excellent training material.

All 3 databases can be found by starting with the library homepage and typing in the name of the database.

Lawtel

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Lexislibrary

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We will look at Lawtel, and Lexislibrary and in lecture 19. In this lecture we are going to look in more detail at the Westlaw database.

Westlaw UK To find Westlaw UK start with the library homepage – remember to log in.

You will need to click on a couple of links; online access available; Westlaw UK Journals and Law Review, and will then reach the Westlaw UK homepage.

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About Westlaw UK

It provides access to the primary sources of law cases and legislation. It has a separate section pulling together all the European law material. It has a very straightforward encyclopaedia of law called Insight. It also contains a very comprehensive set of law journals including the most important journal, for Constitutional and Administrative law, called Public Law. You are able to save your research, but can also email a copy, and print the research. Training The site enables you to train to use it, and you are able to obtain basic and advanced training certificates. You will find it helpful if you have obtained the basic research certificate by the end of week 5. How to find the training material From the Westlaw UK homepage click on the Tutorial Training Link

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Westlaw helpful training videos, which you will need to listen to. They are available on Canvas. 1. Episode 1 – getting to know Westlaw UK 2. Episode 2 – Getting to know Westlaw UK insight 3. Episode 3 – Getting to know Westlaw UK cases 4. Episode 4 – Getting to know Westlaw UK - Legislation 5. Episode 5 - Getting to know Westlaw UK – books.

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Westlaw UK training and certification Go to the Westlaw UK homepage. Click on ‘training tutorial’.

Westlaw training material is now on an external site – click on solutions

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Obtaining your research certificates for Westlaw UK – you will need to use the Internet Explorer browser You will need to obtain the basic research certificate during your first semester here at Anglia Ruskin. After clicking on solutions Click on UK Law student from the drop down menu

Click on get certified in UK Westlaw Click on the training material Part 1 Getting started Part 2 Primary Law Part 3 Secondary Sources You are now ready to take the test. Click on Part 4 Basic certificates

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Researching a case We are going to find the case Healthcare at Home Ltd v Common Services Agency [2014] UKSC 49, which we considered in lecture three, when we looked at the distinctions between an objective and a subjective test. Starting from the Westlaw UK homepage Click on the Cases link We are going to find the case using the case citation. The citation tells us the law report, or reports, where we can find the case. If you look at any law text books there will be a table of all the cases in alphabetical order, with the case name and citation. So we type in the citation for the case 2014 UKSC 49.

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Note the cases is reported in a number of different law reports. If you click on the hypertext link in blue the case will open. Westlaw also provided a simple guide to the case in their Case Analysis feature. This sets out all the important elements of the case, including the Court, the facts and the reason the decision.

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