Law subject guide: British Isles

includes English Reports

Tips and tricks for getting the best results from BAILII. Mainly focused on case law searching.

Digitised dispatches and reports relating to New Zealand, from selected volumes of the British Parliamentary Papers. This project was supported by a grant from DigitalNZ.

Uses the AUSTLII search engine with free fulltext databases of cases and legislation from the UK, England, Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland, from various dates including Privy Council decisions (1996-) and House of Lords decisions (1996 -). UK legislation (from 1996) is given ‘as passed’ (not consolidated).

The official report of all Parliamentary debates. Find Members, their contributions, debates, petitions and divisions from published Hansard reports dating back over 200 years. Daily debates from Hansard are published on this website the next working day.

The index covers all Public General Statutes from 1801 to 1901.

Government website. Includes current bills, with Explanatory Memoranda, selected Select Committee Reports, search fulltext Hansard from 2010; search Hansard archive by date from 1988; and other information about the progress of legislation.

Includes full text of Hansard since 1994, current public bills, select committee reports, judicial decisions.

Official UK legislation from all jurisdictions (England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland). Statutes date from 1267 to the present day.

Uses the AUSTLII search engine with free fulltext databases of cases and legislation from the UK, England, Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland, from various dates including Privy Council decisions (1996-) and House of Lords decisions (1996 -). UK legislation (from 1996) is given ‘as passed’ (not consolidated).

Searchable facsimile via HeinOnline of the standard reprint source of English case law 1220-1865

Includes full text of Hansard since 1994, current public bills, select committee reports, judicial decisions.

The Judicial Committee of The Privy Council (JCPC) is the court of final appeal for the UK overseas territories and Crown dependencies, and for those Commonwealth countries that have retained the appeal to Her Majesty in Council or, in the case of Republics, to the Judicial Committee.

Archived decisions from 1999 to 2009

A single access point for information relating to civil and criminal courts within Scotland, including the Court of Session, the High Court of Justiciary, the Sheriff Courts, Justice of the Peace Courts, and District Courts. Includes details of significant judgments and details of cases due to call in the Court of Session and the Sheriff Courts.

The Supreme Court is the final court of appeal in the UK for civil cases, and for criminal cases from England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Sarah Carter's guide to legal systems and research resources

Summaries and full text of Reports and Consultation Papers from 1995 (most also available from BAILII).

Use 'UK Legal Resources' and 'UK Government' for detailed, annotated site listings.

For legal history and genealogy research, the site provides searchable full text of details of 100,000 trials, 1674-1834. The 'Proceedings' were initially published for a popular audience.

Free, searchable text of Command ('green' and 'white') papers and 'departmental' House of Commons papers, from at least 2004.