Oxford LibGuides: Criminal law & justice: Legislation & cases

English legislation

The best way to find the current (amended) text of English acts/statutes is to go to a subscription database: holders of an Oxford Single Sign On should consult either Westlaw UK or LexisLibrary. These will not just supply the text of the legislation, but supply links to related commentary - a first step on the next stage of research.

Lexis+ UK This link opens in a new window
This resource requires you to log in with your Oxford SSO again at the homepage.
Alternative names:Lexis ; LexisLibrary ; Lexis Library ; Lexis International

Lexis+ includes extensive primary and secondary legal materials from the UK, EU, USA and many other jurisdictions. It is the only online source for the full text of the All England Law Reports and Halsbury’s Laws. International content can be accessed by following the “International” link on the home page. UK legal news and newspapers are also included
Westlaw Edge UK
Alternative name: West Law UK ; Westlaw UK

Westlaw is provided through a generous donation by Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP
Westlaw is a large database of UK, US and international legal materials including cases, legislation and journal articles.
Coverage:
•UK statutes, statutory instruments and law reports
•England and Wales law reports
•US federal and state legislation and law reports
•Australian federal and state legislation and law reports
•Canadian federal and state legislation and law reports
•Hong Kong SAR law reports and laws
•European Union legislation and law reports
•UK and US law journals and texts
•Common Law Library and over 200 books published by Sweet & Maxwell (Thomson Reuters)
Because of licencing restrictions this database is not available to "Walk-in" users of the library.

The UK government has a freely accessible website for legislation - but it may be slower to incorporate recent developments (eg amendments, repeals of sections). The status of each act is clearly indicated on the site. Legislation.gov.uk is a good source of explanatory notes for recent legislation, and for the text of modern acts as originally promulgated.

Legislation.gov.uk
Official site Use the drop down menu TYPE to limit search to public general acts or statutory instruments or browse by year etc. Excellent for original, historic version (text of act as originally promulgated) and Explanatory Notes for more recent legislation. Pay attention to the current status which is given for each act. More has further details of coverage
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All primary legislation from 1988
All secondary legislation from 1987, including UK Statutory Instruments, Scottish Statutory Instruments and Northern Ireland Statutory Rules. In addition we hold a selection of secondary legislation from 1948-1986, and selected pre-1948 Statutory Rules and Orders
Legislation originating from the EU as set out in Schedule 5 to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 (c. 16) along with corrigenda (correction slips for EU legislation) and EU Directives published up to the end of the EU Exit Implementation Period at 11:00 p.m. on 31 December 2020 ("IP completion day").
Most types of primary legislation (e.g. Acts, Measures, N.I. Orders in Council) are held in 'revised' form, as well as selected secondary legislation, and legislation originating from the EU:

Public General Acts of the United Kingdom Parliament (1801 to date)
Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain (1707 – 1800)
Acts of the English Parliament (1267 – 1706)
Acts of the Old Scottish Parliament (1424 – 1707)
Acts of the Scottish Parliament (1999 to date)
Acts of Senedd Cyrmu (2020 to date)
Acts of the National Assembly for Wales (2012 to 2020)
Measures of the National Assembly for Wales (2008 – 2011)
Acts of the Irish Parliament (1495 – 1800)
Acts of the Parliament of Northern Ireland (1921 – 1972)
Measures of the Northern Ireland Assembly (1974)
Orders in Council made under the Northern Ireland Acts (1972 to date) (effectively the primary legislation for Northern Ireland under direct rule, though in the form of Statutory Instruments)
Acts of the Northern Ireland Assembly (2000 – 2002 and 2007 to date)
Church of England Measures (1920 to date)
UK Statutory Instruments (2018 to date)
Scottish Statutory Instruments (2018 to date)
Welsh Statutory Instruments (2018 to date)
Statutory Rules of Northern Ireland (2018 to date)
European Regulations (1958 to 31 December 2020)
European Decisions (1953 to 31 December 2020)
European Directives (1959 to 31 December 2020)

Printed resources

Halsbury's Statutes (also available online via LexisLibrary)

Classmark: KZ 2 on Level 2.

Multi - volume work arranged by broad subject area. Has statutes as amended and annotated with a looseleaf updating service.

Student-friendly, potential time saver is the most recent edition of Blackstone's statutes on criminal law at KM500 BLA Although this is usually updated annually, it can nevertheless slip behind the current state of legislation.

Current Law Statutes annotated

Classmark: KZ 5 on Level 2
From 1947 onwards. Arranged by year. Contains statutes as originally enacted with annotations.

Foreign Legislation

The Law Bod has a number of Libguides to foreign jurisdictions each of which will have sections on where to find the nation's legislation.

Note That unless English is one of the country's official languages, an English version will be a translation, and in all probability not considered authoritative.

Bodleian Law Library guides to jurisdictions
The Law Bod's guides to both online and print resources for national constitutions, legislation, and case law as well as commentary on the legal systems and their law in books and journals
Criminal Codes (2002)
Unofficial translations of the Criminal codes Part of Legislationline, a free-of-charge online legislative database, created in 2002 to assist OSCE participating States in bringing their legislation into line with relevant international human-rights standards. See more for details on OSCE
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The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe " ... addresses a wide range of security-related concerns, including arms control, confidence- and security-building measures, human rights, national minorities, democratization, policing strategies, counter-terrorism and economic and environmental activities. All 57 participating States enjoy equal status, and decisions are taken by consensus on a politically, but not legally binding basis."
REFWorld: National Legislation
Free resource.
The International Criminal Court's ICC Legal Tools database
Habeas Corpus Rights
Free resource. "May 2007, updated March 2009" Report from US Library of Congress looking at the right available to persons in Canada, Egypt, France, Germany, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Kingdom, and Yemen to challenge the legality of their arrest or detention.
Cornell Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide Database

Finding reports & transcripts of English criminal cases

Lexis+ UK This link opens in a new window
This resource requires you to log in with your Oxford SSO again at the homepage.
Alternative names:Lexis ; LexisLibrary ; Lexis Library ; Lexis International

Lexis+ includes extensive primary and secondary legal materials from the UK, EU, USA and many other jurisdictions. It is the only online source for the full text of the All England Law Reports and Halsbury’s Laws. International content can be accessed by following the “International” link on the home page. UK legal news and newspapers are also included
Westlaw Edge UK
Alternative name: West Law UK ; Westlaw UK

Westlaw is provided through a generous donation by Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP
Westlaw is a large database of UK, US and international legal materials including cases, legislation and journal articles.
Coverage:
•UK statutes, statutory instruments and law reports
•England and Wales law reports
•US federal and state legislation and law reports
•Australian federal and state legislation and law reports
•Canadian federal and state legislation and law reports
•Hong Kong SAR law reports and laws
•European Union legislation and law reports
•UK and US law journals and texts
•Common Law Library and over 200 books published by Sweet & Maxwell (Thomson Reuters)
Because of licencing restrictions this database is not available to "Walk-in" users of the library.
BAILII This link opens in a new window
OA source of transcripts (not reports) of the decisions/judgments of UK and Irish courts and tribunals
Alternative names: British and Irish Legal Information Institute ; British & Irish Legal Information Institute

Free access to British and Irish judgments. General coverage starts mid 1990s, though earlier key judgments are also included. Bailii also includes a subject arrangement of judgments. The judgments are transcripts and do not include arguments of counsel or headnotes. For a wider selection of Law Reports please see Justis, Lexis or Westlaw.

Find case law (The National Archives)
Official Open Access. From April 2022, the National Archives (TNA, UK) is hosting a searchable database of court judgments from the England and Wales High Court, the Court of Appeal, the Supreme Court and tribunal decisions from the Upper Tribunals handed down and made public.
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The initial collection of judgments and decisions will total 50 000 dating back to 2003 for court judgements and 2015 for Tribunal decisions. This does not include settlements made outside of court.

The principal printed reports which include English criminal cases are listed below. The first column shows the usual abbreviation used in citations to each report series

AC	Appeal Cases
All ER	All England Reports
Cox CC	Cox's Criminal Cases
Cr App R	Criminal Appeal Reports
Cr App R (S)	Criminal Appeal Reports (Sentencing)
ER	English Reports
KB	King's Bench
QB	Queen's Bench
QBD	Queen's Bench Division
TLR	Times Law Reports
WLR	Weekly Law Reports

Neutral citations

These citations can be used in subcription databases to find, at least, the transcript of the judgment. If the case was subsequently reported, then the database will alert you to this fact.

UKHL	United Kingdom House of Lords
UKSC	United Kingdom Supreme Court
EWCA Crim	England & Wales Court of Appeal Criminal Division
EWHC ## (QB)	England & Wales High Court Queen's Bench Division

Neutral Citation in the UK
Free resource. Links to the various Practice Directions which introduced the system from 2001 onwards. Also explains why pre 2001 neutral "looking" are not official. It is not recommended that they be used in legal citations.

Puzzled by Crim LR citation?

Crim LR is the abbreivation for the Criminal Law Review - in other words, a specialist law journal (which happens to publish useful case notes) not a law report series.

As it is a journal, it is shelved among the journals.

OU members have online access to this journal - but only from 1986 onwards - via Westlaw UK (see link below)

Westlaw Edge UK
Alternative name: West Law UK ; Westlaw UK

Westlaw is provided through a generous donation by Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP
Westlaw is a large database of UK, US and international legal materials including cases, legislation and journal articles.
Coverage:
•UK statutes, statutory instruments and law reports
•England and Wales law reports
•US federal and state legislation and law reports
•Australian federal and state legislation and law reports
•Canadian federal and state legislation and law reports
•Hong Kong SAR law reports and laws
•European Union legislation and law reports
•UK and US law journals and texts
•Common Law Library and over 200 books published by Sweet & Maxwell (Thomson Reuters)
Because of licencing restrictions this database is not available to "Walk-in" users of the library.

Human Rights & criminal law

Westlaw Edge UK
includes EHRR
Alternative name: West Law UK ; Westlaw UK

Westlaw is provided through a generous donation by Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP
Westlaw is a large database of UK, US and international legal materials including cases, legislation and journal articles.
Coverage:
•UK statutes, statutory instruments and law reports
•England and Wales law reports
•US federal and state legislation and law reports
•Australian federal and state legislation and law reports
•Canadian federal and state legislation and law reports
•Hong Kong SAR law reports and laws
•European Union legislation and law reports
•UK and US law journals and texts
•Common Law Library and over 200 books published by Sweet & Maxwell (Thomson Reuters)
Because of licencing restrictions this database is not available to "Walk-in" users of the library.

Responding to human rights judgments
Free resource. Pdf available from Justice.gov websit of UK's Ministry of Justice's Report to the Joint Committee on Human Rights on the Government’s response to human rights judgments 2010-11 September 2011 Cm 8162
HUDOC: ECHR: database of case law
Search screen for database of decisions. Use the left hand column to set sensible filters or construct a search string
European Convention on Human Rights Case law Analysis
Official website. Free analysis provided by court registry

Foreign court decisions

Bodleian Law Library guides to jurisdictions
The Law Bod's guides to both online and print resources for national constitutions, legislation, and case law as well as commentary on the legal systems and their law in books and journals
World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII): Databases
WorldLII provides a single search facility for databases located on the following Legal Information Institutes: AustLII; BAILII; CanLII; HKLII; LII (Cornell); and PacLII.

WorldLII also includes as part of this searchable collection its own databases not found on other LIIs. These include databases of decisions of international Courts and Tribunals, databases from a number of Asian countries, and databases from South Africa (provided by Wits Law School).
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WorldLII is a free, independent and non-profit global legal research facility developed collaboratively by the following Legal Information Institutes and other organisations: AustLII, BAILII, CanLII, HKLII, (USA) LII (Cornell)), PacLII,
Wits University School of Law