Legal Resources

 

TYPES OF RESOURCES

 World Legal Information Institute defines law information in the five categories viz. Case Law, Legislation, Law Journals and Scholarships, Law Reform Reports and Treaties.

Resources of a law library may be categorized in the following three types on the basis of its generation.

 a) Primary Source of Law

 i. Constitutional Documents ( Constitution of India, US Constitutions) Constitution of India; World Constitutions

 ii.Legislation/ Code/ Acts/ Statute Bare Acts, Central Legislation; State Legislation

i.                    Case Laws (Supreme Court of India and High Courts Judgments) SCC; AIR; JT; SCALE; All England Reports; Weekly Law Reports Dominion Law Reports; Australian Law Reports; Law Reports

ii.                   Research Journals: Harvard Law Review

b) Secondary Source of Law

 i. Commentaries and Treatises

 ii. Legal Encyclopaedias American Jurisprudence; Corpus Juris Scandium; Hulsbury’s Laws of England; Hulsbury’s Laws of India; Forms and Precedents; The Digest

 iii. Law Dictionaries Black’s Law Dictionary; Aiyar’s Advanced Law Lexicon

 iv. Digests SCC Yearly Digest; AIR Yearly Digest; Criminal Law Digest; Labour Law Digest

c) Tertiary Source of Law

 i. Case Index AIR Case Index for Parallel Citation; SCI Nominal Index & Comparative Tables ii. Directories UGC Directory; Judges Directory; Institutional Directories

HOW TO FIND BOOKS, LEGAL ACADEMIC JOURNALS AND LAW REVIEWS

Any particular case law Case laws on a specific topic Legislative intent of any act Material for speeches to be delivered Legislative history of any particular enactment Corresponding foreign law to any statutory provision in India Meaning of any particular “word” or “phrase.

 HOW TO FIND LEGISLATION

Objects and Reasons of the Act (published in the bill) Parliamentary debates

Law Commission Reports (if the bill has been introduced on the recommendation of the Law commission)

Standing Committee/ Joint/Select Committee Reports

  Reports of the Committee appointed by the ministries for enacting/reviewing any existing enactments.

HOW TO FIND LAW ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN LAW JOURNALS Law libraries generally maintain article indexing & abstracting system. It is a pre requisite of a law library to maintain an indexing system containing bibliographical details of articles published in each academic journal received within the library. ILI, New Delhi, 2008 is published by the library of the Indian Law Institute. Index to Legal Periodicals as published by H.W. Wilson, may be browsed for academic articles published in foreign journals.

Online databases have changed the way of legal research. The following databases are used for searching legal articles. 1. Westlaw International

 2. JSTOR

 3. Social Science Research Network

 4. HeinOnline

 5. Global Legal Information Network

 6. LexisNexis Online

HOW TO FIND CASE LAW

Law libraries must maintain a sound collection of Reporting Journals at international and national level. Library specific to law must subscribe at least one reporting journal from each state.

 Foreign Law Reports

 • All England law Reports

 • Australian Law Reports

• Canadian Supreme Court Reports

 • Commonwealth Law Report

 • Dominion Law Reports

 • Federal Law Report

English Reports

 • Law Reports Reprint Rainbow Series 1874 onwards

 • US Supreme Court Reports

 • Weekly Law Reports

Indian Law Reports

 • Supreme Court Reports

 • Supreme Court Cases (SCC)

• All India Reporters (AIR)

 • Scale

 • Judgments Today

 • Indian Law Reports

 • Law Reports of all States

Digests and Commentaries are the starting tools for finding cases on particular subject based on nominal, index, subject index and court index. All India Reporter Manual, Supreme Court Digest, Labour Law Digest, Criminal Law Digest and All Indian High Court Case Manual are some example of leading digests.

In digital era, Case law on a particular subject or party name or citation, may be searched with the help of various online databases. Westlaw International, LexisNexis may be used to search foreign caselaw. SCC Online, AIR SC& HC, Criminal Law Journal, Manupatra, Indlaw, Law Premium may be used to search Indian case law

TO FIND CONSTITUTIONS OF DIFFERENT COUNTRIES

 A constitution is the system of fundamental principles by which a political body (state or nation) governs itself. Law libraries have a separate section maintaining constitutional laws of all countries in the world. Constitution of any country of the world may also be downloaded from various websites i.e. http://confinder. richmond.edu

WHERE TO FIND COMMISSION & COMMITTEE REPORTS In India, various commissions and committee are in existence like Women Commission, Commission for SC/ST National Human Right Commission etc. Reports of such commissions are maintained within the law library Collection. Parliamentary Committee Reports are also major sources of legal information which may be referred through website of Parliament of India. Annual Reports of the Government Departments are also useful for legal research.

HOW TO FIND LEGISLATION Law library must have a good collection of following International and National Legislations i.e. Bills and Acts of the concerned Parliaments like: US Supreme Court Code, General Public Acts (UK), Australia Consolidated Common wealth Act, AIR Manual, India Code, Act of the Parliament, Civil Court Digest, Gazette of India, Current Central Legislations, and Current Indian Statutes etc. Acts and Legislations of all countries are also provided through online services.

PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES AND PARLIAMENTARY COMMIT-TEE

 A law library provides a sound collection of Parliamentary Debates of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. Parliamentary debates may be downloaded from the website of Parliament of India from XIth Lok Sabha 1996 onwards. All Parliamentary Committee Reports as published by the Parliament of India are also browsed to disseminate students within the library through online access. Electronic version of Command Papers i.e. Debates of House of Lords and House of Commons are also available on the websites of UK Parliament. http://www.parliament.uk/ parliamentary_publications_and_archives/parliamentary_archives/archives_electroni c.cfm.

TREATIES AND INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS

 Law Libraries maintain several research tools containing international treaties and agreements like Encyclopaedia of the United Nations, Consolidated Treaty Series, and League of the Nations Treaty Series. Treaties as available in digital form in various online databases are also provided to students and end users in anywhere in the world.

SEMINAR REPORTS AND THESIS/DISSERTATIONS

 Law libraries, especially supporting university system maintain International and National Seminar Reports conducting inside and outside of the countries. Digital version of these reports may be preserved within the law library. Thesis and dissertation submitted by research scholars may also be useful for legal researchers.

TYPE OF REFERENCE TOOLS

 Law libraries maintain a good collection of reference tools like Index to Legal Periodicals, Legal Encyclopedias, Legal Dictionaries, Professional Legal Directories,Legal Bibliographies, Biographies etc. Besides a law library must also maintain subject based search tools like Corpus Juris Secundum, American Jurisprudence, Halsbury’s Laws of England, Halsbury’s Laws of India, Supreme Court Yearly Digest, Criminal Law Digest, Supreme Court Case Citator, Supreme Court Case Comparative Tables etc.


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