Law - UK law reports and cases: Finding cases by subject

Use LexisLibrary or Westlaw to search by subject term:

In Lexis, click on Cases and enter text in the Search Terms field, or choose Add Topics to Search to select from a list.

In Westlaw, click on Cases, select Advanced Search, and either enter text in the Subject/Keyword field or select from the List of Terms.

If you are searching for cases which cite a specific piece of legislation, Westlaw has a separate Legislation Title search box with a further option to refine to a particular article, paragraph, section etc.  In Lexis, just enter the legislation title in the Search Terms field.

1.  If you are looking for cases on a particular topic, then the following printed resources all have a subject arrangement:

• Halsbury’s Laws of England [shelved on the 2nd floor of the BJL at KB 30 H1];
• Current Law Monthly Digest and Current Law Yearbook [both at KB 1 C9]
• The Digest [KB 30 E5] which summarises British, Commonwealth and European cases.  Please note: Our subscription was cancelled at the end of 2005.

2.  If you are looking for cases which refer to a specific piece of legislation, then you can use the following:

• Current law : legislation citator, 1947 onwards  [KB 1 C93] - the acts (statutes) and statutory instruments are listed chronologically.
• Current law : year book, 1947 onwards, and monthly digest, current year only [both at KB 1 C9] - search under the appropriate subject heading.
• Law reports index, 1951 onwards [KB 100 L4 I3] indexes the Weekly law reports and other series - look in the "Statutes judicially considered" section.
• All England law reports, 1936 onwards [KB 100 A4] - look in the "Statutes considered" sections of the “Consolidated tables and index”, the “Current tables and index”, and recent issues.