Legal information

It is very rare that you will need to consult primary sources such as case law or legislation. However, secondary sources, such as journal articles discussing legislation and laws relating to healthcare can be very useful.

Case Law

Case law decisions are published in the law reports. Note that cases will only be reported if they amend existing law or create new law. Just because a case attracts a lot of publicity it will not necessarily be included in a law report. Key cases however will appear in more than one set of reports. Many reports now appear electronically, on different databases. This particularly applies to recent cases. You are unlikely to need to look at many cases before the 1950s.

In 1865 the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting introduced The Law Report’s for the court divisions:-

• AC Appeal cases in the Court of Appeal and House of Lords
• Ch Chancery Division
• QB Queen’s Bench
• Fam Family Division

There are also several other well established sets of reports such as the All England Law Reports and the Weekly Law Reports. These printed reports can be found in the Park Square LRC. Most significant reports are available electronically from these databases:

• Lawtel - case law goes back to early 1980s with links to other cases. Single username and password to log-in.
• Lexis - the most comprehensive of all our law databases. Includes full-text of The Law Reports (from 1865), The All England Law Reports, and many other reports. Lexis can be used off campus using Athens passwords.
• Westlaw - also includes full text of the Law Reports, Lloyds Law Reports, and Sweet & Maxwell’s specialist case reporting series. Extremely straightforward to search with the Quick Search function.

Legislation

Legislation begins life as a Bill, and passes through a series of stages in the House of Commons and the House of Lords before emerging as an Act, and receiving Royal Assent. During this process legislation can change considerably (eg the Children Act 1989 almost doubled in size).

Green and White papers form part of the legislative process which precede a Bill. Green Papers put forward proposals for legislation, with the public encouraged to comment on them. White Papers firm-up the proposals. There may have been detailed consultation at this stage, in some cases co-ordinated by the Law Commission or other government departments.

The Parliament website includes public ‘Bills before Parliament’, with a coloured triangle indicating whether the Bill is in the Commons or the Lords. The short titles of Bills, which have received Royal Assent are read out in each house.

Obtaining Royal Assent converts a Bill into an Act, but legislation is not automatically implemented on this date. For instance, Human Rights Act 1998 did not come into force until 2 October 2000. It is most important that you check which parts of an Act are in force.

One way which an Act comes into force is by Statutory Instrument. A statutory instrument adds detail to an Act without having to repeat the lengthy Parliamentary procedure. There are thousands of statutory instruments in any Parliamentary year, and these are easily traceable through Lawtel. It is unlikely that you will need to study these in detail.

Acts are also included on the Parliament website (from 1988 onwards), but be wary of the fact that these are not updated after they are posted, so that it may be better to use the other sources which include updates and amendments:

Lawtel

This links to official government site, and includes acts back to 1998 but the Statutory Status Table indicates whether the legislation has been amended or repealed.

The quickest way to find an act on Lawtel where the title is known is to choose the Statutory Law option, select Focused Search and enter a couple of words from the act’s title (for example “disability discrimination 1995”). Then look at the individual sections.

Westlaw

If the Act which you need to consult precedes 1988, Westlaw may be your best electronic source. It includes legislation back to 1267! Legislation is full-text and fully consolidated.

Select UK Legislation from the Quick Search Menu on the left-hand side of the start page. The UK Legislation Quick Search will be displayed in the right-hand side of the screen.

Use the Name text box and a partial name to narrow down your search (for example “local authority social services”).

1

Similar to Westlaw, but if you are looking for a piece of legislation it’s much better to choose Power Search, allow entry of segments (from Preferences), and then search for the title of the Act. If you don’t do this a ‘free text’ search will find references to the Act in any other piece of legislation.

Journal or Newspaper Articles

Because Acts need to be written in precise legal language, to limit ambiguity in court, they are not exactly bedtime reading. You should take every opportunity to use sources which summarise the main points. These would include

• Books on law for health professionals. For example, Bridgit Dimond has written many excellent books.
• Journal articles which comment on legislation (This can be found quite well on Westlaw but you will also find them within health databases such as CINAHL.)
• Newspaper articles (if the Act is of general enough importance to be reported in the press. Newsbank is a particularly effective place to search.

Remember these resources will also discuss Bills, which may become legislation later.

Legal definitions

Sometimes all you will require is a brief legal definition of a phrase such as “compos mentis”. The best source for this would be a law dictionary such as Oxford Reference Dictionary of Law. Law dictionaries are available electronically through the catalogue (for example, Credo contains several).