The University of Glasgow Library

Knowledge Base

Introduction to the different

types of legal literature
 Law students are required to use lots of different types of legal materials in
both print and electronic formats – it can seem pretty overwhelming at first
working out how to find them!

In this resource we are going to concentrate

specifically on the following types of legal
materials

• Legislation
• Cases
• Institutional Writings
• Journal articles
• Books
• Parliamentary materials

You will find links to detailed information about finding & using the different types of legal
materials in each section of this resource

Different types of legal literature

1. Legislation

The most important source of law in contemporary society is legislation or statute

law, followed by precedent or case law. The most obvious difference between
legislation and case law is who makes it: legislation is made by legislatures
(parliaments) and case law by the courts

One of the complications of studying Scots law is that there are now three levels
of legislation with which you need to be familiar:

• UK Parliament at Westminster makes laws for the United Kingdom

• Scottish Parliament at Holyrood makes laws (within certain limits) only for
Scotland
• European Union, acting through various institutions, laws for all its member
states.

1. Legislation
1 . Legislation – UK & Scottish Parliaments - Print
Legislation is what is passed by Parliament – which is split into
primary (Acts) and secondary types (Statutory Instruments)

The Library has an extensive collection of printed

Legislation from both the Holyrood and
Westminster Parliaments which you’ll find on
Level 7 of the Main Library

Print copies of Acts and Statutory Instruments

cannot be borrowed and must be used in the
Library.

1. Legislation - UK & Scotland Print

1 . Legislation – UK & Scottish Parliaments Online
Online access to UK & Scottish Parliament statutes is available from several sources

The best online source is

Westlaw UK which has both
fully-updated & historical
versions of all acts & statutory
instruments passed by the
UK & Scottish Parliaments

Library Knowledge Base

For help accessing & using legislation online see : Finding & Using Statutes

Legislation – UK & Scotland online

1 . Legislation – European Union

The terms ‘primary legislation’ and ‘secondary legislation’ are used in a

different sense in European Union law from that used in domestic law.

Primary legislation are the Treaties

 

The three types of secondary legislation are

 
• Regulations
• Directives
• Decisions

Legislation – European Union

 1 . Legislation – European Union
Online access to European Union
legislation is available from several
sources, including Westlaw.

The easiest to use online source for

EU legislation is EurLex. EUR-Lex
provides free access, in the 24 official
EU languages:

• the Official Journal of the European Union

• EU law (EU treaties, directives, regulations,
decisions, consolidated legislation, etc.)
• preparatory acts (legislative proposals,
reports, green and white papers, etc.)
• EU case-law (judgements, orders, etc.)
• international agreements
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/homepage.html

Legislation – EU legislation online

2 . Cases
The legal system relies heavily on case law and so a systematic way of making the
decisions of the courts available for study has been developed – known as law
reporting. Originally, there was only one type of law reporting: the publication of
printed reports of cases. Today reports are also widely available in online.

2 . Cases - Print
2 . Cases
There is a hierarchy or ranking of Law Reports and a distinction between ‘official’ and
‘unofficial’ reports. The term ‘official reports’ refers to reports that have been revised by
judges before publication and may also offer additional content: they sometimes include
excerpts from the arguments made by counsel, which can be helpful in understanding a
case. The official reports are regarded as the most authoritative.

In Scotland, the official reports are the Session Cases (which include reports of
Justiciary cases and of Scottish cases in the House of Lords and Supreme Court)
published by the Scottish Council of Law Reporting.

In England, the official reports series (Appeal Cases, Queen’s Bench Reports etc.) are
published by the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting.

Unofficial reports are produced by a variety of commercial firms including LexisNexis

and Sweet & Maxwell. Nevertheless, other series such as the Scots Law Times and the
Scottish Criminal Case Reports are highly respected and often carry decisions that have
not been published elsewhere. Not all cases are reported in an authorised law report.

2. Cases - Not all Law reports are the same!

2. Cases - Case citations
Houston v BBC 1995 S.C. 433
The structure of legal citations and abbreviations is consistent and straightforward – so once
you’ve worked out what each component of the citation is telling you then you’ll be half way
there!

Learning what the abbreviations stand for is a bit more tricky but there are plenty of tools to help
you, and there are many common series of law reports which you’ll deal with on a daily basis, so
you’ll begin to recognise them very quickly.

Library Knowledge Base

For more detail on deciphering case citations check out the Knowledge Base
Guide: Understanding Legal Citations & Abbreviations

2. Case citations
2. Cases – Print collections

The Library has an extensive collection of print Law reports which you’ll find on Level 7 of
the Main Library – Law Reports cannot be borrowed and must be used in the Library.

They are arranged alphabetically by title – so once you know what the abbreviation of
the case citation stands for just go to the shelves and find the case!

2. Cases - Print
2. Cases Online
The majority of the cases you will need to read
can also be found on one of the legal databases
the Library subscribes to; which one depends on
who owns the publishing rights to specific series
of law reports your case appears in.

It is worth spending a little time getting used to

Which sources appear where – remember you
access these databases via the Library website.

The two most heavily used and popular ones are

Westlaw UK & LexisLibrary – you need to get to
grips with using these as soon as!

Library Knowledge Base

For help accessing & using online case reports see : Cases – Using Online
Sources

2. Cases - Online
2. Want to know more about law reporting in Scotland?
The Scottish Council of Law Reporting has Commissioned a series of five linked short
films about law reporting in Scotland and the place of law reports in Scottish legal
practice. The celebrated case of Donoghue v. Stevenson provides a theme to explain
the role of precedent in the work of lawyers and the courts. It’s a useful introduction
To understanding the role of law reports as a primary source of law.

The five films are:

• Donoghue v. Stevenson: The History of Law Reporting
• The Law of Judges: Precedent and the Criteria for the Reporting of Cases
• Anatomy of the Law: The Authority, Authorship and Arrangement of Session Cases
• In the Case Of: Using the Reports
• Books and Bytes: Accessing the Reports

http://www.scottishlawreports.org.uk/

2. Want to know more about law reporting in Scotland?

3. Institutional Writings
A number of works by academic authors, called institutional writers, have been
identified as formal sources of law in Scotland since at least the 19th century.  Written
over a period of 150 years, from the mid-17th to the early 19th centuries, certain writers
produced systematic treatments covering large areas of Scots law.

• Viscount Stair, Institutions of the Law of Scotland (1681) generally regarded as the
greatest of the institutional writings.
• Sir Thomas Craig, Ius Feudale (1655)
• Sir George MacKenzie, Laws and Customs of Scotland in Matters Criminal (1678)
• Sir George Mackenzie, Institutions of the Law of Scotland (1684)
• Lord Bankton, An Institute of the Law of Scotland (1751-1753)
• Lord Kames, Principles of Equity (1760)
• John Erskine, an Institute of the Law of Scotland (1772) and perhaps also his
Principles of the Law of Scotland (1759)
• Baron David Hume, Commentaries on the Law of Scotland Respecting the
Description and Punishment of Crimes (1797)
• George Joseph Bell, Commentaries on the Law of Scotland and Principles of
Mercantile Jurisprudence (1804) and Principles of the Law of Scotland (1829)
• Archibald Allison, Principles of the Criminal law of Scotland (1833)  
Sir James Dalrymple, Viscount of Stair
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15855559

3. Institutional Writings
3. Institutional Writings

A number of Institutional writings are available

to read online through Google Books or on
databases such as Historical texts and
Scottish Legal History on HeinOnline.

Printed copies of the various editions of all of

the major texts are available in the Library and
you can find through the Specific Book Search
on the Library website. Please note, that you
should use copies listed as being available from
Level 7 Law Collections and the not those in
Special Collections.

3. Institutional Writings – print and online

4. Books

Books are an important source of legal information and the Library

has tens of thousands of law books and ebooks!

Finding books in the Library is easy! -- there

are a few ways of doing this, but the simplest
way is to use the Specific Book Search option
from the library home page.

Library Knowledge Base

For help accessing books & ebooks see : Finding Books

4. Books
5. Journal articles
Journal articles are not a formal source of law, but are, nontheless, a key source of
information. They provide academic commentary on a subject and learn about some of
the debates going on. They are published regularly throughout the year, with each issue
identified by a volume number and an issue number.

The Library provides access to thousands of legal journals from Scotland, the UK and
worldwide. Most are now available in electronic format only, but we still have a very
large collection of print titles

Library Knowledge Base

For help accessing journal articles see : Finding Legal Journal Articles

5. Journal articles
6. Official publications
While not formal legal sources, ‘Official‘ or government documents will be something that
you will use during your legal studies. Official publications include documents and reports
issued by parliaments or government departments and agencies of international
organisations such as the United Nations or the European Union.

Google is probably the best way to locate contemporary government information that you
know exists and there are specialist databases that provide access to the historical materials.

The Library has excellent UK & Scottish Parliament collections and European Union & Council
of Europe print collections – these include:
• Parliamentary Debates
• Reports of Parliamentary committees
• Government White and Green papers
• Reports of judicial inquiries
• Reports of authoritative bodies
• European Union documents
• Council of Europe documents CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47976505

Library Knowledge Base

For more detailed information see: Official Publications

6. Official Publications
College Librarians for Law are

Kay Munro & Lynn Irvine

Kay.Munro@glasgow.ac.uk
Lynn.Irvine@glasgow.ac.uk

We are very happy to meet with you if

you want to find out more about using
databases and other Library resources

Getting help with all this

The University of Glasgow Library

Knowledge Base

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