Law reports
The Law Reports - In English law (England and Wales), there has been one 'official' series of law reports since 1865, known as The Law Reports, published by the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting|. This series comprises separate sequences for each court division - Appeal Cases (AC), Chancery (Ch.), Queen's Bench (QB) and Family (Fam.).
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Locate at KD275-KD279 Main Collection, first floor
Many law reports series are produced by commercial publishers such as Education Law Reports or Housing Law Reports.
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Use the Library Catalogue to locate the series required by searching for the title.
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The Catalogue will show if the series is online or in print or both.
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Locate on the first floor in the Law books and Law reports section.
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Key online resources for UK case law.
Westlaw UK| - A useful place to start case law research. Full text UK cases are included from 1865 onwards, as well as summaries judicial history of cases - select Case Analysis feature. Includes full text of the official law reports for England and Wales, The Law Reports from 1865 onwards.
Lexis Library| for the full text of United Kingdom reported cases from 1865 and High Court unreported cases since 1980. CaseSearch feature provides background to cases. Includes full text of the official law reports for England and Wales, The Law Reports from 1865 onwards.
JustCite| - Use as a starting point to search case law and legal citations with judicial histories and precedent maps. Each citation provides a drop-down list of the online resources that hold the full text.
British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII)| is a freely available website that publishes the full text of judgments (the oficial transcript) from the High Courts of the UK from 1997 onwards.
British Tax Library online| - the British Tax Cases from 1875.
Please note that the majority of our online legal resources are available to current LSE staff and students only. External visitors and LSE alumni, should check before you visit that you can access the resources required.
Pre-1865 law reports
Prior to 1865, cases were reported by individuals and these became known as the Nominate Reports.
English Reports, 1235 -1865 (ER), KD270 E51, first floor is a reprint of the Nominate Reports. They are not usually cited as 'English Reports' but by their original citation e.g. (1675) 1 Rolle 360.
Online - Use the English Reports via HeinOnline| or on CommonLII| for easier access than the print volumes.
For the print copy, use the Cardiff Index of Legal Abbreviations| or Raistrick's Index to identify the relevant volumes then use the case index volumes.
All England Law Reports Reprint 1558-1936, KD288.A6 A42 - important older cases.
State Trials - Hein Online's| World Trials Library contains a selection of English trials relating to offences against the State. A wide variety of cases is covered, predominantly high treason but also bigamy, sedition, murder, riot, piracy, witchcraft and corruption.
Proceedings of the Old Bailey 1674 - 1913| A fully searchable service containing over 190,000 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court.
European Union
EUR-Lex| - the official portal to legal and judicial materials of the EU, updated daily. Since 2004, the contents of Celex (see below) is now included.
Judgments of the European Court of Justice since 1952
CELEX| via Justis (LSE staff and students only) - archive of legal and judicial materials. European Court of Justice judgments since 1952. Content should now be on EUR-Lex. Lexis Library| - select Cases, then International Cases
Westlaw UK| - select EU
International and national jurisdictions
Oxford Reports on International Law| is intended to be a single point of reference for all international law jurisprudence from international courts, tribunal and domestic courts.
European Court of Human Rights| search for judgments, decisions and opinions since 1956.
International Court of Justice website| provides all judgments and opinions since 1946.
International Criminal Court |
International Law Reports| (Justis) Complete series since 1919.
Westlaw UK| Select Westlaw International and International/Multinational materials for ICJ ECHR and the International
National jurisdictions The Library holds law reports for selected non - UK jurisdictions, e.g. South African Law Reports.
Use the Library Catalogue| to locate both print and online law reports.
European jurisdictions
Lexis Library| Select Sources to locate.
United States state and federal case law and Commonwealth jurisdictions
Lexis Library| and Westlaw UK|. Select Sources on Lexis Library to locate.
On Westlaw UK, select Services then Westlaw International.
The Institute of Advanced Legal Studies| provides extensive worldwide law reports in print and online. Available to all LSE staff and postgraduate students.