1. LAW 1999
LAW FOR COMPUTING
Catherine Funnell
Liaison Librarian(Law and Marketing)

2. In this workshop we will look at:
•Finding books in the library
•Using your reading lists
•Finding Legislation
•Finding Cases
•Finding Journal Articles

3. Law Subject Guide
http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/law

4. UniHub/My UniHub

5. Access to Resources

6. Reading List
• McLeod,Ian, Legal Method, Basingstoke:Palgrave
Macmillan,8th ed.,2009
• MacIntyre,Business Law,Pearson Longman,5th
ed.,2010
• Elliott&Quinn,English Legal System,11th ed.,Pearson
Longman, 2010
• Spencer&Spencer, Nutshells on Human
Rights,Sweet&Maxwell,3rd ed.,2007

7. What Does it All Mean?
Mcleod,Ian, Legal Method,Basingstoke:Palgrave Macmillan,8th
ed., 2011
Author of Book
Title of Book
Place of publication
Publisher
Edition
Date of Book

8. Understanding the Catalogue

9. Finding it in the Library

10. Your Turn!
• How many copies of the title Legal Method by
McLeod (8th ed)does the Hendon Campus own?
• What is the Classmark for English Legal
System(13th ed) by Elliott&Quinn?
• What is the Loan Period for Spencer’s Human
Rights Law in a Nutshell(3rd ed)?

11. Electronic Format
• Cases(law reports)
• Journal articles
• Databases
• Current awareness

12. Legal Citation-Journals
[2002] 61 CLJ 684
Year article was written
Journal in which the article appears
Volume of the Journal
Page in the journal where article appears
(We’ll do this one together !)

13. Title Abbreviations?
Use this
website to
find the full
title of an
abbreviated
journal or
law report

14. Electronic Journals
• Have journal citation?-use the catalogue
or databases
• Subject searching-use databases

15. Legal Citation-Cases
• Party Names-Fisher v Bell
[1960] 3 WLR 919
Date-Year the case was reported
WLR-Law Report Series where it was reported
3-Volume of the Law Report Series
Page-In the Law Report

16. Westlaw/ Case Citation Search

17. Understanding the Details
Court=Queen’s Bench
Citation=[1964] 2 QB 7
Party Names=Adler and
George
Read through to find
Judgements
Facts of the case

18. Case Analysis
• Used as an Alerter to ensure you are
using ‘good’ law-up to date law
• Useful for Summary of the case

19. Your Turn!
• Find Fisher v Bell(Hint-Offensive Weapons)
• In which court was the case heard?
• What is the Citation for the case?
• Who are the parties of the case?
• What was the decision/judgement of the
court?

20. Databases-Quick Facts
Heinonline
• -Used to locate journal articles
• -Does not provide cases(Modern)or Legislation
• -English Reports(pre 1865)
Westlaw and Lexis Library
• -Access to legislation,case law,journal articles
• -Also current awareness(status updates ;egislation
and cases)
• -EU case, Legislation, journal articles

21. Journals/Subject Searching
Planning!!
• General Searches-BROAD results
• Specific Searches-NARROWER results
• Synonyms-need to think of them
“fundamental rights”
X The fundamental aim was to discuss her rights
√ Her fundamental rights had not been upheld

22. Terms and Connectors
Boolean Logic
• Most databases use terms and connectors
• They help you search more efficiently
• Some of the most useful are:
/p find in same paragraph
/s find in same sentence
Use “ Quote Marks” around a phrase
Truncation employ*(employee,employer, employment)
Spelling-organi?ation-organization

23. Try This Search!

24. Narrow the Search
Add Another Keyword

25. Your Turn
• Using the phrase European Union construct a
search
• Use terms and connectors to narrow the
results making it more specific or focused

26. Lexis Library
Legislation

27. Finally!

28. Library Calendar
c.funnell@mdx.
ac.uk