Effective Legal Research

Citation

Hannabuss, S. (2007), "Effective Legal Research", Journal of Documentation, Vol. 63 No. 4, pp. 592-594. https://doi.org/10.1108/00220410710759039

This is a particularly welcome addition to the wide range of guides to legal research. It is intended for the “new law student” at college and university level. It will also be very useful to at least two other constituencies – students studying subjects other than law who want a quick immersion in how to identify and use legal resources, and students studying the information and library aspects of legal studies. By extension, too, any practitioner in the teaching and library fields with a specialist interest in helping students use sources like legislation, case law, LexisNexisProfessional and Westlaw UK effectively.

Because things change so fast in law, there is good reason for regular updates on what sources are out there and how best to use them. This work focuses on law in England and Wales, with a nod sideways to the law in Scotland and Northern Ireland (up to 2005). The preface reveals that it builds on a previous work: “most of the coverage of print sources found in Dane & Thomas: How to Use a Law Library, 4th edition, 2001, has been retained and revised for the current work [but] the coverage of online sources has been largely re‐written”. By this token, anyone and any library with that earlier work will check to see what the new one has to offer.

It is nicely adapted to the needs and level of understanding of that new law student but, as with any introduction to the law, rapidly reveals the tacit complexities of the law – not only its principles and instruments but interpretations and processes. It is logically and clearly structured, from using a law library and online legal sources, through law reports and legislation and official publications, to journals and European legal sources. It does not cover (nor does it aim to) North American sources comprehensively or explicitly, though makes it clear that sources like Westlaw are useful portals to US and other sources.

The guide also takes time with each source and database, explaining what it provides and how it works, how you can and should use the indexes, what citators are for, and what internet sources are available (some free and some on subscription). Knowles and Thomas realistically refer to what students can and should expect from their (law) library, hinting that a mere Google search is not enough, but helpfully describing and discussing how to use key sources and why to use them (and why practitioners also use them). After all, many law students plan to become lawyers. Knowles and Thomas also, again realistically, state that the book is not intended to be a textbook associated with a particular course but as “a reference aid to be consulted whenever you have a problem”.

The emphasis on LexisNexisProfessional and Westlaw UK is understandable given that the target readership is UK‐based. Discussion of how they are used is accompanied by screen displays. Knowles (Law Librarian, Queen's University Belfast) and Thomas (a Professor of Legal Studies at Cardiff Law School in Wales) explain how best they can be used, and, as well as covering a lot in chapters on law reports and journals and the like, they devote one whole chapter (chapter seven on “how to find information on a subject”) to using sources – tracing cases on a subject, tracing Statutory Instruments, and the like. They alert readers, too, to free online sources like OPSI (the Office of Public Sector Information, at www.opsi.gov.uk) and BAILII (British and Irish Legal Information Institute, at www.bailii.org), as well as websites like Venables and Sarah Carter. Scattered throughout the book are search tip boxes.

Reviewing is a strange process because it seems almost as if reviewers “should” find fault. In this case, I would have liked the authors to have shared some of the wrinkles they have found with the sources (because an experienced law librarian is not always at hand, particularly for distance learners), even though they remind us that subscriber‐driven websites may not be there for you. Also the practical chapter (seven, along the lines of a series of user education classes, from which it clearly derives) could have come at the very end and incorporated important European materials. But these are cavils about a book I have found well worth recommending for library, course, and personal purchase. Comparatively, the price is good too, and new legal eagles will find plenty about the law itself between the lines.