Information Services

Law Reports

• UK Law Reports
• Official Transcripts
• Neutral Citations
• Non-UK Law Reports
• Legal Abbreviations
• A-Z list of UK Law Reports
• A-Z list of UK Law Reports - Help

UK Law Reports

Law reports from published UK law reports series (for example, The Law Reports, All England Law Reports and The Weekly Law Reports) are available at Cardiff University in both print and electronic format.

Published law reports in print format are held on the shelves of Cardiff University’s libraries, while differing collections of law reports series in electronic format can be found on Lexis®Library, Westlaw UK, The English Reports, HeinOnline, Family Law Online and i-law.com.

The A-Z list of UK Law Reports below lists both electronic and print format law reports series available at Cardiff University, along with the yearly coverage for each holding and links to relevant databases and Voyager records.

Official Transcripts

An official transcript of a judgment will provide the full text of a judgment but without the catchwords, headnote, etc that you would expect to find with a judgment reported in a published law report series. If a judgment is unreported (i.e. not reported in a law report series) an official transcript may provide the only way of obtaining the full text of a judgment.

Official transcripts of cases can be found on a number of databases. However, the coverage of official transcripts varies between databases:

• Lexis®Library holds official transcripts dating back to 1980.
• Westlaw UK holds official transcripts dating back to 1999. Official Transcripts on Westlaw will have a citation that consists of a year, WL and a six digit number, for example, 2002 WL 498831.
• Lawtel holds official transcripts dating back to 1980. Official transcripts of cases can be accessed from the case summary screen on Lawtel using the Full Text link when available.   
• BAILLI holds official transcripts dating back to 1996.  

The Inner Temple Library has produced A Guide to Sources to obtaining transcripts of the proceedings of courts and tribunals in England and Wales. Tribunals established within the last five years are excluded from the guide since their decisions are routinely posted on their respective web sites. Similarly what is available via Lexis®Library, Westlaw UK and other major subscription-based Internet services is not mentioned.

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Neutral Citations

The Neutral citation system was introduced in England and Wales in January 2001 and now applies to all judgments from the Supreme Court, Privy Council, Court of Appeal and all divisions of the High Court and is designed to make it easier to retrieve judgments that appear on the Internet. Please note: a neutral citation is not a reference to a law report series.

The neutral citation generally consists of the following: the year, court, case number and division (if required) i.e. [2003] EWHC 2766 (Ch) refers to case number 2766 of 2003 from the Chancery Division of the England and Wales High Court.

The Citations page on the BAILII website provides further information on neutral citations including the format of neutral citations for the various courts and divisions covered by the neutral citation system.

For advice on citing cases and other legal documents when writing an essay, case comment or dissertation please refer to the Citing legal documents guide and the Citing the Law tutorial.

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Non-UK Law Reports

Lexis®Library and Westlaw UK have large holdings of non UK law reports including an extensive range of US law reports.  

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Legal Abbreviations

If you are unsure of a particular law report citation or abbreviation, try the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations.

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A-Z list of UK Law Reports

Below is a list of both electronic and print format UK law reports series available at Cardiff University, along with the yearly coverage for each holding and links to relevant databases and Voyager records.

Click on the blue database links to be taken to the database's home page/welcome screen or click on Printed Copy to be taken to a law reports' Voyager catalogue record. There is a Help section with further information on how to find law reports on Lexis®Library, Westlaw UK and i-law.com.

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A-Z list of UK Law Reports - Help

Lexis®Library

Searching UK law reports on Lexis®Library

To search across all full text UK law reports held on Lexis®Library, from the Home page click on Cases on the navigation bar to be taken to the Cases search screen. With the Sources field set as All Subscribed Cases Sources enter your search terms and click on Search.

To search a single series of UK law reports held on Lexis®Library, from the Home page click on Cases on the navigation bar to be taken to the Cases search, then click on the More sources link found below the Sources field. From the next page click on Cases to view a complete list of UK law reports held on Lexis®Library. Click on the law report title that you want to search then click on OK – Continue. You will be returned to the law reports search screen where your chosen law report will appear in the Sources field. Enter your search terms and click on Search.

Browsing UK law reports on Lexis®Library

To browse the contents of the UK law reports on Lexis®Library, from the Home page click on Cases on the navigation bar to be taken to the Cases search screen, then click on Browse on the left hand side of the screen to display a list of all the UK law report series held on Lexis®Library. The contents of the law reports can be viewed by clicking on the + (plus) sign to the left of a law report series title, then drilling down through the contents of the holdings using the + (plus) to the left of each heading. Click on a case name to view the full text of a law report.

Westlaw

Searching UK law reports on Westlaw UK

To search across all full text UK law reports held on Westlaw UK, from the home page click on Cases from the links at the top of the screen to be taken to the basic Cases search screen, then click on Advanced Search to access additional fields to enable a more detailed search. Enter your search terms and click on Search.

To search a single series of UK law reports held on Westlaw UK from the home page click on Cases from the links at the top of the screen to be taken to the basic Cases search screen, click on Law Reports and Official Transcripts at the bottom of the screen then click on the title of the law report series. You will be taken to a search screen for your chosen law report. Enter your search terms and click Search.

Browsing UK law reports on Westlaw UK

To browse the contents of the UK law reports held on Westlaw UK from the home page click on Cases from the links at the top of the screen to be taken to the basic Cases search screen, click on Law Reports and Official Transcripts at the bottom of the screen then click on the title of the law report series you would like to browse, followed by the year, then the citation link to view the full text of a law report.

i-law.com

To search or browse a law report held on i-law.com, obtain the i-law.com password by clicking on the password link in the right hand column of a relevant law report then click on the i-law.com link, in the same column. Enter the i-law.com username and password then click on continue followed by My Subscriptions to access the law report title. Click on Search to access a search screen or Browse to browse the contents of the title.

For further information contact a member of staff from the Law Library or Legal Practice Library.