Wex: the online legal dictionary and encyclopaedia

Today I learnt about Wex, a freely available online legal dictionary and encyclopaedia, written by legal experts. It’s hosted by the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School. 

It’s aimed at “law novices” but can be handy for those researchers who want to do a quick web search rather than refer to the tried and trusted hardcopy dictionaries and encyclopaedias we librarians tend to prefer. 

To ensure quality of entries, contributors are currently limited to those in the “selective author pool”. There is no hard and fast rule about who may contribute, but preference is given to legal academics and distinguished practitioners, and those with legal qualifications.

The entries are quite comprehensive and sometimes links are provided to the relevant entry in Nolo’s Plain-English Law Dictionary, which can be useful for non/new-lawyers. You can search and browse, as you’d expect.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/

Welsh Legal System

Today I learnt what’s unique about Welsh Law.

A new article has been added to Globalex called Researching Welsh Law: What is unique in Wales. The article provides a brief overview of the development of the Welsh Legal System and provides details on where you can access sources of Welsh law. It’s written by Lillian Stevenson & Dr. Catrin Huws from Aberystwyth University:

http://www.nyulawglobal.org/Globalex/Wales.htm

I also learnt that there was a consultation earlier this year to seek views on whether Wales should become a separate legal jurisdiction. Although this has huge implications on the jurisdiction of England and Wales, I’m ashamed to say this passed me completely. You can read the consultation and summary of responses on the Welsh Government’s website.

http://wales.gov.uk/consultations/finance/seplegaljurisdiction/?lang=en

US Code of Federal Regulations - Checking for amendments to Federal Regulations

Today I learnt how to check for amendments to a US Federal Regulation.

Believe it or not that is not an easy task for a UK law librarian like me, who is not overly familiar with the US legal system. The first step was to find out what exactly is a Federal Regulation. IALS Research Guides by Jurisdiction (United States) told me that Federal Regulations are equivalent to UK Statutory Instruments; i.e. secondary legislation.*

Federal Regulations are codified on an annual basis, and this codification takes the form of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). This is not the same as the US Code. The CFR (annual edition) is available on the US Government Printing Office (GPO) website. It is divided into 50 titles, which correspond to broad subject areas. The Code is codified every year as follows:

Titles 1-16 are revised as of 1 January

Titles 17-27 are revised as of 1 April

Titles 28-41 are revised as of 1 July

Titles 42-50 are revised as of 1 October

When you have found the most up-to-date version of the Title / Chapter you need you can view it in a PDF document which includes a list of all of the amendments that have been made to that Title to date. There may be better ways to tackle this kind of research, but it worked for me!

Access the CFR on the GPO website:

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/collectionCfr.action?collectionCode=CFR

* IALS Research Guides by Jurisdiction: United States

http://ials.sas.ac.uk/library/guides/research/res_united.htm#fedregs

Library of Congress Research Guides for Foreign Law

Today I learnt that the Library of Congress provides guides to conducting legal research for a selection of countries.

They're along the same lines as IALS's research guides by jurisdiction but they cover different countries. Today I needed to find out how to access Lebanese legislation, which IALS does not produce an online guide for. Each guide includes:

• an introduction to the legal system
• official sources of law
• print resources
• web resources

Library of Congress Research Help: Foreign and International Law
http://www.loc.gov/law/help/foreign.php

Linking from PLC to Westlaw UK

Today I learnt that PLC users can opt to “link seamlessly” to legislation on Westlaw UK (provided you subscribe to both services).

Legislation references in PLC’s 'maintained' material will now be hyperlinked. You can choose to link to legislation.gov.uk or Westlaw UK (if you are a subscriber). The hyperlinks will be rolled out in the Corporate practice area first, and across all 'maintained' content by the end of the year.

Sounds interesting.

http://uslf.practicallaw.com/9-508-4108?source=rss

OSCOLA (Oxford University Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities)

Today I learnt that OSCOLA stands for the Oxford University Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities.

OSCOLA, edited by Oxford University's Law Faculty is "widely used in law schools and by journal and book publishers in the UK and beyond."* How come I've never come across it before now? It covers legal authorities, journals, cases and legislation (from the UK and EU) as well as key secondary sources such as Halsbury's, Hansard and Law Commission reports.

You can download the fourth edition from the OSCOLA website as well as a separate guide to citing international law sources. Links to tutorials and quick reference guides are also helpfully provided.

* http://www.law.ox.ac.uk/publications/oscola.php

Index of Legal Terms on Westlaw UK

Today I learnt there's a "new way to start your legal research" on Westlaw UK. Westlaw has launched an Index of Legal Terms, that provides the full text of the following legal dictionaries:

• Jowitt's Dictionary of English Law
• Stoud's Judicial Dictionary of Words and Phrases
• Osborn's Concise Law Dictionary

This is in addition to the Statutory Definition search on the legislation tab, launched a couple of months ago, that allows you - no surprises here! - to search for statutory definitions in UK legislation.

http://westlaw.co.uk/books/index_of_legal_terms.shtm

Authoritative Legal Dictionaries for English Law

Today I learnt which are the most authoritative legal dictionaries for English law. I was asked whether Black's Law Dictionary was the best resource for English law, so I got it off the shelf to take a look. A quick flick established that it was published in the US, but it wasn't clear whether it covered US law, English law or both. I could see no explanation of which jurisdictions were covered in the book itself or on the publisher's website. Needing to confirm coverage from a reputable source, I once again turned to IALS' online Research Guides (by jurisdiction) which told me that Black's is indeed American, so should be used with caution. So for English law I think I'll stick to Stroud's, Jowett's and Words and Phrases Legally Defined:

http://ials.sas.ac.uk/library/guides/research/res_uk.htm#dictionaries

http://www.blackslawdictionary.com/

IALS Legal Rearch Guides by Jurisdiction

What did I learn today?

The Institute of Advanced Legal Studies provides legal research guides on its website that suggest which resources should be used when researching foreign jurisdictions. They cover hardcopy and electronic resources available in IALS library but can also be used as a general reference tool. I found them very helpful for some research I was doing this afternoon. Thank you IALS!

http://ials.sas.ac.uk/library/guides/research_guides.htm