Brief Guide to Westlaw UK
Westlaw is a very large database of legal materials from the United Kingdom, European Union, United States and other common law jurisdictions. It contains full-text case law and legislation, full-text journal articles from United States and Canadian law reviews and from a limited number of UK and other jurisdictions' law journals, plus some international materials.
Material is contained in individual content databases, for example UK legislation, US Court of Appeals cases, Australian Federal Cases, which are arranged in a directory structure. Multiple UK and EU databases can be searched from the Home page or individual databases selected from the content links.
Access Westlaw via the Library's MetaLib search portal. Use the Find database option and if you are off campus, remember to log on to MetaLib with your network username and password before clicking on the Westlaw link. See the MetaLib - off campus page for more details.
Searching from the Home page
The Home page offers a search across multiple databases
- Cases
- UK legislation
- Journals
- Current Awareness
- EU materials
Alternatively, individual databases can be excluded by clicking on the relevant tick boxes. Use quotation marks to search for phrase and case names.
Cases
Click on the Cases content link at the top of the page.
You can search for cases by:
- Party names - enter one or both parties in the Party Name(s) box, eg Smith v Hughes
- Citation - enter the citation without brackets in the Citation box, eg 1991 1 QB 1
- Subject - enter the subject in the Free Text box, eg "marital rape"
The results for each case give a link to Case Analysis and the full text of the case if available.
The Cases Analysis document contains the following information:
- where the case is reported
- summary/digest of the case
- direct history
- significant cases cited
- subsequent history
- legislation cited
- journal articles about the case
The Advanced Search option enables you to refine your search.
UK Legislation
Click on the Legislation content link at the top of the page.
You can search for primary and delegated legislation by entering the name of the act or statutory instrument into the Act/SI Title box. Click on the Arrangement of Act/SI link to to retrieve the legislation.
The overview document has useful information about commencement dates, SIs made under acts and citator details.
The Advanced Search option enables you to refine your search.
Journals
Click on the Journals content link at the top of the page.
This database contains a range of full text journal titles plus the Legal Journals and Financial Journals Indexes. These have references to articles in English language legal and financial journals published in the United Kingdom and Europe. The reference may include an abstract and where the journal title is available in full-text on Westlaw, a link to the article will be provided.
Search for articles on a topic by entering your subject in the Free Text box. Remember to put phrases into quotation marks, or the search will look for any of the individual words in your subject.
The Advanced Search option enables you to refine your search.
Current Awareness
Click on the Current Awareness content link at the top of the page.
Information on the latest cases legislation and legal developments, updated three times a day. Search by topic using the Free text box or using a Keyword from the Sweet and Maxwell taxonomy accessed via the Help and coverage option.
EU materials
Click on the EU content link at the top of the page.
You can search for cases and legislation using names, titles or doucument numbers.
The Browse function is useful for accessing consolidated versions of the treaties.
Commentary
Click on the Commentary content link at the top of the page.
You can search or browse a number of practitioner titles in this section of the database.
News
This database is not included in the Lancaster University subscription.
Finding Material from other Jurisdictions
Select Services then Westlaw International on the toolbar. A new window will open enabling you to access material from other jurisdictions. These can be found via the Directory link at the top of the welcome screen. Select Westlaw International to access non-UK material.
For US law reviews select Law Reviews and Journals, then Journals and Law Reviews - US or World Journals and Law Reviews to search titles from several jurisdictions.
International/Worldwide Materials gives access to individual country materials as well as multi-national materials such as cases from the International Court of Justice.
Once you have selected a database, you are taken through to the standard search screen:
Enter your search terms in the box, remembering to to enter phrases in quotation marks.
Restrict the search by searching in specific fields: double click on the required field from the Fields box below, for example Author. The search will be created in the search box - enter your required author in the brackets and add further fields as required.
The Find by Citation option at the top of the screen is a useful short cut when looking for cases and materials from another jurisdiction. Just enter the citation in the By citation box on the left of the screen, eg 301 US 324, 1962 ICJ 6, 26 ILM 1346, and press Go. There is no need to choose the publication country.