Legal Materials - UK, England, Wales and NI

The following links to websites that the faculty and students at the Law School have found by experience to be useful in research and teaching. See our page UK Parliaments and Assemblies for information on legislation.

UK: General

British & Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII)
This web site provides access to freely available British and Irish Public Legal Information. It is divided by region (England & Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and the UK) and includes the latest news and additions on the home page.

The Home Office
The Home Office is the lead government department for immigration and passports, drugs policy, crime, counter-terrorism and police.

Information Commissioner's Officer
The UK’s independent authority set up to uphold information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals.

The Legal Services Commission
The Legal Services Commission (LSC) looks after legal aid in England and Wales. We also make sure that people get the information, advice and legal help they need to deal with a wide range of problems. The commission works in partnership with solicitors and not-for-profit organisations to provide services to help people in need.

Justice (formerly the Lord Chancellor's Department)
Except for Wales, which shares the same legal structure as England, each component part of the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) has its own separate system of justice. Information on the administration and regulation of the justice system in England and Wales can be found here on Justice.gov.uk.

Law Courts

Her Majestys Courts and Tribunal Service
HM Courts and Tribunals Service is an agency of the Ministry of Justice. It operates as a partnership between the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chief Justice and the Senior President of Tribunals. The agency is responsible for the administration of the criminal, civil and family courts and tribunals in England and Wales and non-devolved tribunals in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland Court Service
The Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunals Service (NICTS) is an agency of the Department of Justice for Northern Ireland. Before the devolution of policing and justice it was the Lord Chancellor’s Department in Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Court Service rebranded as the Northern Ireland Courts and Tribunals Service on 12 April 2011, establishing a new unified administration for courts and tribunals

The Supreme Court
The Supreme Court is the final court of appeal in the UK for civil cases. It hears appeals in criminal cases from England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It hears cases of the greatest public or constitutional importance affecting the whole population.

Law Reporting

Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England & Wales
The ICLR was set up by members of the legal profession to rectify inaccurate reporting of law cases. The site includes recent and current cases are indexed in each of the Weekly Law Reports, Law Reports and Industrial Cases Reports. Forthcoming cases are also listed in the Weekly Law Reports. Some hypertext links are provided to digests of important cases.

Casetrack

Judgments listed at the following courts are available through Casetrack:

• Court of Appeal (Criminal & Civil Divisions) from April 1996 to present
• Administrative Court from April 1996 to present
• All divisions of the High Court from July 1998 to present
• Employment Appeal Tribunal from July 1998 to present
• VAT Tribunal from January 2002 to present
• Searchable links to House of Lords and Privy Council judgments from November 1996 to present
• Access to judgments from the Northern Irish Courts
• Selected judgments from the European Court of Human Rights and the European Court of Justice

The Old Bailey Proceedings 1674 to 1913
A fully searchable online edition of the largest body of texts detailing accounts of over 100,000 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court. This is site currently offers cases heard at the Central Criminal Court between the years 1714 and 1759 . The aim of the Old Bailey Project is to make available on the Internet 100,000 trials held at the Central Criminal Court from 1674 to 1834. The final release of trials for the period 1800-1834 is scheduled to take place in Spring 2004.

Law Societies

Law Society of England and Wales
The Law Society is the representative body for solicitors in England and Wales. A source of general information, vacancies, directories, and publications.

Law Society of Northern Ireland
Represents and regulates the solicitors' profession in Northern Ireland with the aim of protecting the public. Under the Solicitors (Northern Ireland) Order 1976, the Law Society acts as the regulatory authority governing the education, accounts, discipline and professional conduct of solicitors.