The United Kingdom follows a constitutional monarchy system, where the monarch serves as the Head of State instead of a president. The monarch's duties, functions, and powers are limited by convention, one of which is to maintain political neutrality. In England and Wales, a common law system is in place, which involves the enactment of legislation and the establishment of legal precedents through case law.
One of the key developments in the history of the UK legal system was the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215. This document first established the key principle of the Rule of Law, that not even the king was above the law. In addition to which certain rights and liberties should be protected, including key provisions such as Habeas Corpus and Due Process. Founding principles that have been developed and practiced for centuries, even helping form and influence many jurisdictions across the world.
The Legal system is split in to three branches:
Parliament, consisting of the 'Monarch', the House of Commons, and the House of Lords, passes legislation to establish laws.
The House of Commons is elected directly by the people, and traditionally, the Prime Minister is a member of this house.
The judiciary, which is entirely separate from Parliament, controlling the court system and case law.
The Elizabeth Tower, famously nicknamed 'Big Ben' resides at the northern end of The Houses of Parliament
The House of Commons
The House of Lords
Please be reminded that cases or judgments are not indexed in FIND@HKUL. To look for full text cases, you will have to search in relevant legal databases, or search by the full title of a law report in FIND@HKUL with "Books+" search scope.
Alternatively, you may change to Advance Search and enter the following search term for all available law reports within the HKUL Collection:
In common law countries, such as the UK, the law is developed and expounded by the judges in the Courts. It can only be changed by legislation passed by Parliament, but even this must be interpreted and applied by the Courts. The higher the Court, the more authority its decisions have.
As a general rule each Court must follow the decisions of every court above it - this is the doctrine of judicial precedence. For this reason, lawyers and judges look to the case law to decide which decision to follow. Therefore, it is not often easy to establish, and many cases may be referred to before a decision is reached.
There are three separate legal systems operating in the United Kingdom for England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. England and Wales, and Northern Ireland operate a common law system; Scotland operates Scots law system, which is mixed, sharing varies similarities to Roman-Dutch law.
Published by the Incorporated Council for Law Reporting (ICLR) since 1865, the Law Reports have been the semi-official law reports series, and is the largest and most authoritative set. Its arrangement has always reflected the court structure of the day, originally with eleven separate series containing reports from different courts. It is now divided into four series, representing four major divisions of the High Courts:
*Series previously divided based on court division of the day (e.g. Probate Division, Equity Cases), or of previous years, can be located with call number range PR KF55, or search directly in Lexis Advance Hong Kong/ Westlaw Asia (search steps please refer to Key Databases tab).
Weekly Law Reports [WLR]
Also published by ICLR, the Weekly Law Reports contain many cases which later appear in The Law Reports. Since the issues appear weekly, this makes it a useful source in locating more recent cases.
All England Law Reports [All ER]
Published by LexisNexis Butterworths, the All England Law Reports is another highly recognised and reputable publication.
Other than its main volume, series on a specific area of law are also divided. For instance, the All England Law Reports (Commercial Cases) [All ER. (Comm)]. You may either locate these materials with call number range PR KF60, or search directly in Lexis Advance Hong Kong (search steps please refer to Key Databases tab)
These other sets of law reports will select cases relevant to a specialised area of law. Below are some examples:
Lloyd’s Law Reports [Lloyd’s Rep]
This title is a reputable publication focusing on maritime and commercial law.
Similar to other law report series, sub-divisions on specific subjects are available for Lloyd’s Law Reports. They include Banking [Lloyd’s Rep. Bank], Medical [Lloyd’s Rep. Med.] and etc. You may locate these materials by searching directly in I-law.com (search steps please refer to Key Databases tab)
Banking Law Reports [Bank LR]
Published by Business & Medical Publications Ltd., this title is supported by Lloyd's Law Reports: banking.
The Criminal Appeal Reports [CAppR]
This title is published by Court of Appeal, Great Britain.
Industrial Court Reports [ICR]
From 1972 to 1974 the series was titled: Industrial court reports. From 1975 onwards, the series was entitled: Industrial cases reports [ICLR].
Simon's Tax Cases [STC]
Because of the doctrine of precedent, older cases are still relevant and significant in English law today. Other than looking into older divisions of the Law Reports, below are some alternative resources that are useful for locating older English cases:
English Reports [ER]
This historical material consists of reprints of the decisions of the English Courts prior to 1866. The English reports reproduce over 74 reports series covering court decisions from 1220 to 1865.
All England Law Reports (Reprint) [All ER Rep]
Reproducing a selection of cases from 1558 to 1935, this title is being continued by the All England Law Reports.
The Revised Law Reports [Rev LR]
Cases which do not appear in the English Reports may appear in The Revised Reports, coverage 1785/90-1865-66.
Halsbury’s Statutes of England and Wales
This title provides exclusive information on the statute law of England and Wales. To understand how to use it, you may refer to the Guide on How to Use Halsbury’s Statutes provided by LexisNexis for more details.
Halsbury’s Annotations
Officially named as Halsbury’s Statutes Annotations derived and generated all notes presented in volumes of Halsbury’s Statutes of England and Wales. To know more about this publication, check out LexisWeb.co.uk for details.
Halsbury’s Statues Citator
Similar function as case citator, this publication offers a quick and handy access to the current status of all statutes. To know more about this publication, check out LexisWeb.co.uk for details.
Halsbury’s Statutory Instruments
This title provides updated and fruitful information on every statutory instrument in force in England and Wales
Halsbury’s SI Citator
This title lists full title of the statutory instruments presented in Halsbury’s Statutory Instruments in alphabetical order, with consolidated information and latest status. To know more about this publication, check out LexisWeb.co.uk for details.
Published by the Butterworths, the Halsbury’s Laws of England is an authoritative and comprehensive encyclopaedia that covers all English law. To understand how to use it, you may refer to the Guide on How to Use Halsbury's Law of England provided by LexisNexis for more details.
You may also view this slideshow on how to use the Halsbury’s Laws of England in the Law Library. To pause during the slide show, right-click the mouse.
Courts and Tribunals Judiciary
A wide range of information and materials are available from this source, including detailed explanations on the justice system in the UK. Judgments are updated on a daily basis, containing selected cases from County Court, Court of Appeal, Court of Protection, Crown Court, Family Court, High Court, Magistrates, Military Court and Tribunals starting from 30rh November 2007. Searches can be done by entering keywords, or by adding more filters such as the court, jurisdiction concerned, area of law and the time period as a means to narrow down the search results.
Replaced the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords to be the UK’s highest court in October 2009, the Supreme Court maintains as the final court of appeal among England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. The abbreviated form of the court is noted as UKSC.
Coverage of judgements: 30th July 2009 to the present.
House of Lords Judgments Archive
To find judgments prior to 30th July 2009, as stated under the Supreme Court, you may visit the House of Lords Judgments Archive for more information. The abbreviated form of the court is noted as UKHL.
Coverage of judgments: 14 November 1996 – 30 July 2009.
To search for judgments prior to 1996, you may visit the UK Parliamentary Archive for more details. However, electronic versions of documents are not available via this website and access to physical copies must be consulted via the Parliamentary Archives search room in London. Alternatively, BAILII would be a useful tool in searching for older cases.
Legislation.gov.uk (Enacted and revised UK legislation)
This is the official website of UK legislation maintained by the National Archives on behalf of the HM (His Majesty’s) government. It offers comprehensive resources on legislations and relevant materials of the UK covering Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
The Gazette is formally the combination of three publications: The London Gazette, The Belfast Gazette and The Edinburgh Gazette. The Gazettes are official journals of record.
As a publication, The Gazette consists largely of statutory notices. This means that there is some legal requirement for the notice placer to advertise an event or proposal in The Gazette.
There are over 450 different types of notice that are advertised in The Gazette, including:
The Gazette website provides information on these different types of notice and the legislation that governs their publication here.
The legal power to print and publish The Gazette is a prerogative power conferred on the King’s Printer by letters patent. Letters patent are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order, in this case issued by the monarch. The King's Printer and the Controller of HMSO have historically been viewed as one and the same person, and it can be inferred that the functions of the King’s Printer are to be carried out by HMSO operating from within The National Archives, under the direction of the Controller and Keeper (who is the chief executive of The National Archives). The National Archives (HMSO) manages the publication of all three of the individual Gazette titles (London, Belfast and Edinburgh) for the King’s Printer, under a concessionary contract.
Notices printed in The Gazette are afforded legal standing, and The Gazette itself is afforded special protection by the Documentary Evidence Act 1882
This website is maintained by the UK Parliament which archived bills (e.g. public bills , private member’s bills, private bills and hybrid bills) from 1988-current originated by the House of Commons and the House of Lords.
Hansard is useful materials in understanding the debates and decisions made by Members. In the UK, Hansard materials are available for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The Hansard Online generally provides records from 28 April 2017 to the present. For historical records of the two Houses, you may refer to the below links for direct access:
Scottish Parliament (Bills and Laws)
This website is maintained by The Scottish Parliament which archived bills from each stage, including Government Bills, Member’s Bills, Committee Bills, Private Bills and Hybrid Bills that have been examined by the Scottish Parliament up to last 12 months.
This website is maintained by The Northern Ireland Assembly and has archived Bills from the 1st Mandate (from 1999 to present) to 5th Mandate (from 2017 to present).
As a statutory independent body, the Law Commission aims to ensure the current law is fair by conducting “examination of different branches of the law”. From their site, you may find information on a law reform project, statue law repeals, consolidation and more.
This website is maintained by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office of the UK Government. Provides an official record of the UK's treaty obligations under international law and is sourced by Treaty Section of the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office. UKTO gives access to information on over 14,000 treaties to which the UK is or has been a party with links to texts of command papers published in the UK Treaty Series from 1892 to current.
British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII)
Supporting the free access of legal information, BAILII offers an extensive collection of materials.
In particular, selected House of Lords judgments starting from 1709. You may either conduct the search by entering the case citation or party name, or use the advance search which keywords to formulate your search.
You may also conduct searches by selecting the Legislation Search with keywords, or click on the A-Z legislation title index for browsing individual legislation.
Law Reports and the Doctrine of Precedent (Faculty of Law, University of Oxford)
This page explains the UK law reports and its structure in a detailed manner. You will obtain beneficial information to enrich your understanding of UK law reports from this source.