Course resource help for Law

Click here to access Westlaw. If prompted, log in with your Brookes student number and password.

The first time you access Westlaw you will be asked for your name and email address.

The homepage contains a single search box. This searches everything in Westlaw, but you can click on options to narrow your search down. However, you will have greater control over your search if you use the tabs along the top of the screen (cases, legislation etc.).

You can return to the homepage from anywhere in Westlaw by clicking on the Westlaw icon in the top left of the screen.

On the Westlaw homepage you'll see the option to browse by topic followed by an alphabetical list of areas of law.

If you click on one of these, you can then see:

• A new search box, allowing you search for materials just in this area of law
• A summary of what this area of law covers
• Latest developments - the most recent cases and publications in this area of law
• Link to the most important legislation on this topic
• Links to more specific areas of law

If you click on one of these more specific areas, you'll see an overview article as well as a selection of recent, relevant cases and journal articles. These overview articles are great places to start researching a topic. They are short posts written by legal experts.

Westlaw overview articles are not sources you should be citing in your coursework. Instead, they are a starting point to help you find other, more scholarly material. This process works in two ways:

• There are links throughout overview articles to key cases and legislation elsewhere in Westlaw. This is a quick way to see what the significant sources of law are in a particular field.
• Reading an overview article on an unfamiliar topic can be a great way to get an overview of the topic and learn some of the vocabulary used in it. You can then go on to use some of this vocabulary in the search boxes in the cases, legislation or journals tabs of Westlaw.

Download a one-page guide (contains screenshots) of how to best use topics on Westlaw (PDF).

Download a two-page guide (contains screenshots) about how to find and use cases in Westlaw (PDF).

Click on Cases in the dark blue bar at the top of any page in Westlaw.

You can search for cases by the names of the parties, citation (e.g. [1967] 1 WLR 716), or just put your topic of interest in the Free Text box. You do not need to fill in every box.

The results list displays a list of results matching your query. Each result includes the case name, subject, keywords and tells you where the case has been reported

You can see an abstract and the history of each case by clicking on the Case Analysis link at the bottom of each result

Westlaw can also provide you with the full text of law report. If a law report is available for the cases in your results list, a link will be included underneath bottom each result.

Down the right hand side of any case, you will be able to download a PDF of the case, print it, or save it to your personal Westlaw folder. You can also click on the alarm bell icon to create an alert. This means if something significant happens with this case in the future, Westlaw will email you and let you know.

English cases are published in law reports and there are many different series of law reports. Westlaw contain a wide variety of law reports but does not contain all law reports. Have a look at the library's case law information to learn more about law reports and case law.

If you have a long or complicated case name, try just using a couple of keywords from your reference. Alternatively you can search for the citation e.g. [1981] 1 WLR 711.

European case law:

• Click on EU in the dark blue bar at the top of any Westlaw page.

• Tick cases, then use the search boxes. You can search by the case name, case citation or a topic.

• If you get too many results you can use the filters down the left hand side of your results to narrow them down. Click on the title of any case to read it.

• Download a two-page guide (contains screenshots) about how to find and use EU content in Westlaw (PDF).
• Watch a video that walks you through finding EU sources on Westlaw and EUR-Lex.

US case law:

• Click on the Westlaw US link on the right of the Westlaw homepage. This will now open in a new window.

• Underneath browse, click on the word cases.

• You can now either use the search box to search all federal and state case law, or pick an individual court or case.

• As you move through categories, the left hand tab on the search box changes name to show you what you'll be searching.

• If you get too many results you can use the filters down the left hand side of your results to narrow them down. Click on the title of any case to read it.

Other international case law

• Click on the Westlaw International link on the right of the Westlaw homepage. This will now open in a new window..

• Underneath browse, click on the word cases.

• You can use the search box to search across multiple countries, or pick an individual country. Note that many countries' cases are not included on Westlaw.

• As you move through categories, the second tab on the search box changes name to show you what you're searching.

• To find multinational materials (e.g. International Court of Justice decisions): use the International materials index on the right of the screen to browse a full list of all sources, including ICJ decisions.

Click on Legislation in the dark blue bar at the top of any Westlaw page.

You can search for the title of the Act or SI (e.g. Equality Act 2010) or search for a phrase or word in the free text box (e.g. "houses in multiple occupation")

If you want a particular section, you can put the name of the Act/SI in the title box and then the section number in the provision number box. Remember to select the appropriate description (e.g. section) from the drop-down provision number box. You will then skip the screen with multiple results and jump directly to that section. You can get back to the whole Act by clicking on the Act's title at the top of the page.

Legislation is always evolving. Westlaw allows you to compare two versions of the same piece of legislation, and highlights the changes for you. Learn more about comparing legislation on Westlaw (PDF).

Download a two-page guide (contains screenshots) about how to find and use legislation in Westlaw (PDF).

Journals covering English and EU law:

• Click on journals in the dark blue bar along the top of any Westlaw page.
• You can search for journal articles by title and author, or search for a topic or phrase in the Free Text box.
• The results list displays a list of results matching your query. Each result includes the article title, citation, subject and keywords.
• If you get too many results, use the filters down the left hand side to narrow your results down. Alternatively, click on edit search to go back to the search page and put in additional search terms or  more precise search terms.
• You can look at an abstract (summary) of each article by clicking on Abstract.
• Westlaw may also provide you with the full text of journal articles. Look for a Full Text link will be included at the bottom of each result.
• If you only want the results list to include articles that have their full text in Westlaw, tick full text available down the left hand side of the results list.
• Remember, if the full text of an article isn't in Westlaw we may still have access to it through another database. To check, search for the journal title in the Journal Titles tab on the search box on the library homepage.
  
• Get more information and advice about using law journals and journal articles.

Download a one page guide (contains screenshots) about how to find and use journals in Westlaw (PDF).

If you search for cases or journal articles on a particular topic, then you may want to know when anything new is published on that topic. To avoid having to return to Westlaw and repeat the search, you can create an alert.

At the top of the results page, click on the alarm bell icon, give your search a name and save it. Westlaw will then regularly repeat the search for you and email you when any new results are found.

If you want to snooze or delete an alert, click on alerts at the top of Westlaw.

Look for the alarm bell icon down the right-hand side of a case. If you click on this, you can ask Westlaw to alert you by email if the case is appealed, cited by another case etc.

You can keep track of all of your research by saving documents into folders. You can have a folder for each module or assignment, to keep things organised.

To add something to a folder, look for the folder icon to the right of any document on Westlaw.

Click on folders at the top of the Westlaw to see all your research in one place.

Do you get too many search results in Westlaw? Are the useful results buried in lots of irrelevant results? One solution might be to use some of these tools.

You don't need to remember any of these. Just remember that next to every search box in Westlaw is a link labelled terms and connectors. This will remind you of all these tricks.

Finding words near each other:

• Use " " to glue words together into a phrase. For example, "gig economy" will find results where the words occur as a phrase.
• Use /s to find words in the same sentence. For example, jury /s reform will find results where both words occur in the same sentence.
• Use /p to find words in the same paragraph. For example, police /p review will find results where both words occur in the same paragraph.

Combining words:

• Use and to combine words and narrow down your search. For example, arbitration and medical will find results where both words occur in the same document.
• Use or to broaden your search. This is useful if there are a number of similar words (synonyms) to describe the same idea. For example, arbitration or mediation will find results where either word occurs.
• Use % to exclude a term. For instance, drugs % narcotics will find results which contain the word drugs but do not contain the word narcotics.

Truncation

• Use ! after the start a root of a word to retrieve all possible endings. For instance, employ! will find employ, employee, employer, employment and employing.

Universal character

• The symbol * represents 1 character. For example, wom*n will retrieve woman or women. When you place the character at the end of a word, you specify the maximum length of the word. For instance, object*** retrieves object, objects, objected, objective, objection and objecting.

A note about using connectors in the International and EU sections of Westlaw:

If you put more than one word in a search box, Westlaw  and Westlaw International will respond differently. Westlaw  assumes all your words are linked with 'and' so will only retrieve results where all your words occur. In contrast, Westlaw International assumes they are linked with 'or' so will retrieve results where at least one of your words occurs. To avoid this in Westlaw International, use and between words.

Lucy Finnis is an Oxford Brookes LLB student and is employed by Westlaw to offer Westlaw support and training. You can email Lucy on 19044816@brookes.ac.uk or see her Facebook page to see when her next drop-in sessions are.

In the black bar at the bottom of every Westlaw page is a link to user guides. Here you will find step-by-step illustrated guides to using different parts of Westlaw.

You can also download or print the library's PDF guide to using Westlaw for English law.

If you are a GDL, LLB, Law Foundation or LLM student you will receive training from the Academic Liaison Librarian for Law at the start of your course. The slides from this training will be available in Moodle for you to refer back to throughout your course.

The library runs Lexis and Westlaw workshops, at both a basic and advanced level. These are open to all students in all years. If you want to come to the advanced workshop without attending the basic one first, make sure you are confident with the content of the basic workshop, as the advanced workshop builds on this. Book your place.

Westlaw UK Certification Training gives you an interactive walk-through of Westlaw UK with the option to then test your skills and become certified. There is no fee to certify, and it shows prospective employers that you are comfortable using this important legal database.

Firstly, step-by-step videos walk you through everything you need to know to be a Westlaw UK power user. You then complete a short online test. If you pass, you'll be sent a certificate in the post to demonstrate your skills, which you can add to your CV.

You can get certification at both basic and advanced levels.

Click here to access LexisLibrary. If prompted, log in with your Brookes student number and password.

From any page in LexisLibrary, click on Cases in the light grey bar that runs along the top.

You can search for cases by case name,  citation (e.g. [1967] 1 WLR 716) or by subject. To search by subject, use the search terms box.

The results screen displays a list of references matching your query. Click on the case name to view the full text.

You may get multiple results for the same case in your results list, if the case was reported in more than one place. If you have a reference, look back at it and see if you can find one of the results that matches the citation in your reference.

On the search page, there are also some advanced search boxes at the bottom. You can use any of these alone or in combination with the boxes above. The advanced search boxes allow you to search for cases in a specific court, with a specific judge or on a specific date.

English cases are published in law reports and there are many different series of law reports. LexisLibrary contains a wide variety of cases but does not contain all law reports. Have a look at the library's case law information to learn more about law reports and case law.

If you have a long or complicated case name, try just searching for a couple of key words from the name. Alternatively you can search for the citation e.g. [1981] 1 WLR 711.

Click on Legislation in the light grey bar that runs along the top of every LexisLibrary page.

If you know the name of the Act or SI you are looking for, type it in the title box and click on Search. You will get multiple results. The top result should be the Act/SI in its entirety, and then each of the following results is for a specific section of the Act/SI. No matter which result you click on, you can use the table of contents tab on the left of the page to navigate between sections.

If you know the number of the section you want to look at you can put the name of the Act/SI in the title box and then the section number in the provision box. You will then skip the results screen and be taken directly to that section. As before, you can still use the table of contents tab on the left to move around the document.

If you don't know the name of what you want, you can use the search terms box to search for legislation on a particular subject.

LexisLibrary allows you to search for cases and  legislation from: Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand and the USA.

International cases:

• Click on Cases in the light grey bar that runs along the top of every page in LexisLibrary. Next, click on international content down the left hand side. This will open in a new tab in your browser.
• Note that the drop-down box to the left of the search box shows what you are searching. It will default to Australia as this is the first alphabetically. Use the drop down box to pick the country you're interested in, and then ensure that the word cases is highlighted.
• You can now use the search box to search for your topic or for a particular case e.g. Brown v. Board of Education.
• If you get lots of results you can: use the date boxes down the left hand side to specify a date range; or pick a particular source or law report down the left hand side; or use the sort by box to change the order of your results.

International legislation:

• Click on Legislation in the light grey bar that runs along the top of every page in LexisLibrary. Next, click on international content down the left hand side. This will open in a new tab in your browser.
• Note that the drop-down box next to left of the search box shows what you are searching. It will default to Australia as this is the first alphabetically. Use the drop down box to pick the country you're interested in, and then click on the word legislation to highlight it.
• You can now use the search box to search for your topic or for a particular document e.g. Respect for Marriage Act
• If you get lots of results you can: use the date boxes down the left hand side to specify a date range; or pick a particular source down the left hand side; or use the sort by box to change the order your results are displayed in.

Journals covering English and EU law:

•  From any page in LexisLibrary click on journals in the light grey bar that runs along the top.
• LexisLibrary contains a large number of journals. To see a list, click on browse to the left of the search boxes.
• If you click on the title of any journal in this list you can either search within it for a phrase or name, or you can navigate to a particular volume by using the date list.
• You can search for articles across all full-text journals in LexisLibrary by clicking on journals in the light grey menu bar and then using the search boxes. You don't have to use them all. If you want to search for articles on a subject, you can use the search terms box.
• You can also use the Journals Index option down the left hand side of the search screen. This searches more journals than the regular journals search, but note that it will pick up results from journals that we don't have access to via LexisLibrary.

Journals covering US and international law:

• LexisLibrary allows you to search for articles from: Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand and the USA.
• Click on  Sources in the light grey bar at the top of any page in LexisLibrary, then click on international content. This will open in a new tab in your browser.
• Note that the drop-down box next to left of the search box shows what you are searching. It will default to Australia as this is the first alphabetically. Use the drop down box to pick the country you're interested in, and then click on the phrase secondary materials to highlight it. You can now search for a title or a topic.
• Alternatively, you can use the lower half of the International page to browse the alphabetical list of journals available for each country. You can select secondary materials in the drop down content type box to make the list more manageable. When you click on the name of a journal you'll get more information about it on the right hand side of your screen. You'll also see a list of volumes you can browse through, or the option to just search in that journal.

Tip for finding journal articles:

• If the full text of an article isn't in LexisLibrary we may still have access to it through one of our other databases. To check, search for the journal title in the Journal Titles tab on the search box on the library homepage.

From any page in LexisLibrary click on news in the light grey bar that runs along the top. This will open in a new tab in your browser.

You can use the big search box to search across a range of UK national and local newspapers at once.

If you click on the drop down arrow next to all All news sources you can choose to search a group of newspapers e.g. tabloids, or select one or more newspapers to search in.

If you click on a newspaper title in the source title section, you'll see more about that title on the right hand side, alongside a link to  search just in that newspaper.

On the results page, you'll see filters down the left hand side. These can narrow your results down to a specific date range or about a particular industry.

If a news story comes from an agency, it might be duplicated in multiple newspapers. If this happens, you can use the hide duplicate results button down the left hand side.

If you get too many results, even when applying the filters, consider using some additional or more precise search words.

You can use the sort by box to change the order your results are displayed in.

If you click on any of the results you can read it, as well as print it, email it to yourself or download it as a PDF.

LexisLibrary will only show you the text of newspaper articles - any photographs or other images will not be displayed.

LexisPSL is designed for practising lawyers, and is full of the tools and documents used on a daily basis in practice. 

In the top left of any page in LexisLibrary, click on the drop down arrow next to the word LexisLibrary. Select LexisPSL. This will open in a new tab.

LexisPSL is arranged by practice area. It will default to arbitration, as this is the first one alphabetically. To change practice area, click on the word arbitration in the black bar at the top, and choose from the list.

You may find the LexisPSL Getting Started guide (PDF) useful. Ignore the section in the guide called 'navigating to LexisPSL' and follow the advice above instead.

All of the search tips below work in any of the search boxes on LexisLibrary. 

Watch this video on advanced searching or book a place at a LexisLibrary and Westlaw: Advanced Searching workshop to learn more about these powerful tools.

Finding words near each other:

• Use W/n, W/P or W/S to specify how close together you want your search words to be in the results.
• Copyright W/5 infringement will find results where copyright occurs within 5 words of infringement.
• Copyright W/P infringement will search for results where copyright and infringement occur within the same paragraph
• Copyright W/S infringement will search for result where copyright and infringement occur within the same sentence.

Combining words:

• Use AND to combine words and narrow down your search. For example, arbitration AND medical will find results where both words occur in the same document but not necessarily together. If you omitted AND, for example in European Union, it would only find results where the two words occur next to each other.
• Use OR to broaden your search. For example, arbitration OR mediation will find results where either word occurs. This is helpful when you can think of several words that have very similar meanings.

Truncation:

• Use ! after the start of a root of a word to retrieve all possible endings. For instance, employ! will find employ, employee, employer, employment and employing.

Universal character:

This works like the blank tile in Scrabble. The symbol * represents 1 character. For example, globali*ation will retrieve globalization or globalisation. 

There is a Help link in the footer of every LexisLibrary page, which provides further details on searching and using the database.

LexisLibrary has produced a handy student guide (PDF) or you can download the library's PDF guide to using LexisLibrary for English law.

If you are a GDL, LLB, Foundation Law or LLM student you will receive training from the Academic Liaison Librarian for Law at the start of your course. The slides from this training will be available in Moodle for you to refer back to.

The library runs Lexis and Westlaw workshops, at both a basic and advanced level. If you want to come to the advanced workshop without attending the basic one first, make sure you are comfortable with the basic workshop content as the advanced workshop builds on this.

These free workshops are open to any Oxford Brookes students who want to improve their Lexis and Westlaw skills. Book your place.

Remember, you can always get in touch with Charlie Brampton, the Academic Liaison Librarian for Law. Charlie can see you individually or in small groups.

LexisLibrary certification improves your legal research skills and confidence. LexisLibrary and LexisPSL are used throughout the legal sector, so it will look good on your CV if you have these skills.

To get certified, you need to watch a video then complete an online test. You can get certified in LexisLibrary and in LexisPSL. Certification will not cost you anything and should not take long.

This video about HeinOnline will show you:

• What HeinOnline is and why it’s so useful
• How to access HeinOnline
• How to search for articles in HeinOnline
• How to find similar articles
• How to see which articles are cited by other articles.

Connect to the database here. If prompted, log in with your Brookes student number and password. 

HeinOnline is made up of a number of smaller databases, and you can see these listed on the homepage. If you click on the i icon next to any database’s name you can learn more about its scope.

However, the simplest option is to use the search bar at the top of the homepage to search across all the databases at once.

You may find this YouTube video on searching HeinOnline useful.

If you have a long list of search results, how do you decide what is most useful?

Use the refine your search tools down the left hand side to narrow down your list, for example to the most recent five years or to only peer-reviewed articles.

Use the sort by box at the top to change the order your search results are displayed in. You can choose to sort by number of times cited by. This will prioritise the articles that have been most referenced by other articles. This is a quick way to see the most influential articles on a topic.

If you click on a result and decide that it’s useful, look for the more like this button above it to get a list of other recommendations. To do this, HeinOnline pulls out 5-6 interesting words from your first article and weights them, depending on how often they are mentioned. You can use the sliding bars to change this weighting and you can add and remove words from their list.

These powerful tools can help make your searching more focused and efficient.

Click on search help under the HeinOnline search box to get a reminder of these tools.

Finding words near each other:

• Use " " to glue words together into a phrase. For example, "gig economy" will find references where the words occur as a phrase.
• Use w/p to find words in the same paragraph. Copyright w/p infringement will find results where copyright and infringement occur within the same paragraph
• Use w/s to find words in the same sentence. Copyright w/s infringement will find results where copyright and infringement occur within the same sentence.
• Use w/n to limit how far apart words can be. Copyright w/5 infringement will find results where copyright occurs within 5 words of infringement.

Words with similar meanings:

• Use OR to broaden your search. For example, arbitration OR mediation will find results where either word occurs. This is helpful when there are several words that have similar meanings. You must use upper case for OR.

Truncation:

• Use * after the start of a word to retrieve all possible endings. For instance, employ* will find employ, employee, employer, employment and employing.

Universal character:

• ? allows you to search for variations of a word. For example globali?ation will find results containing either globalization or globalisation.

From any page in HeinOnline, there is a help link in the top right corner. You can also visit the HeinOnline Knowledge Base to find guides and videos.

You can contact Charlie Brampton if you’ve got any HeinOnline questions or would like to learn more.