LibGuides: Law: Cases

Case law

A very small percentage of the cases heard in UK Courts are reported in law reports and available online or in hard copy. Cases are reported if they are of legal significance and these are usually heard in the higher courts i.e. Court of Appeal or Supreme Court.

Find out more by completing this Case citations and law reports tutorial or by reading this Understanding UK Case Law guide from SOAS University of London.

Finding UK and EU cases online from the legal databases

Westlaw
Lexis+ UK

Westlaw This link opens in a new window
An extensive source of information on American and UK law, including UK case law, UK legislation, Legal Journals Index and full text journals.
Please select De Montfort University from the Westlaw sign in screen. You will then be asked to enter your DMU Single Sign On credentials. You will also be asked to enter additional personal information when you log into Westlaw for the first time, including an email account. This is a one-time action.

Finding Case Law This video provides an overview of finding and using case law on Westlaw UK.
Westlaw UK User Guide: Cases Guide to finding and viewing Cases

Lexis+ UK This link opens in a new window
An online legal research service including case law, legislation and commentary materials. Also provides access to a wide range of full-text local and national newspapers.

Please note: LexisNexis terms and conditions do not permit the uploading of Lexis content into third party applications, including artificial intelligence technologies such as large language models and generative AI (e.g. ChatGPT, Bing, Google Bard and Harvey).

Understanding case citations

Follow the Case citations and law reports interactive tutorial below to learn how to decipher case citations, how to find cases with a citation, and to understand how cases are reported;

Legal abbreviations

Legal Abbreviations & Acronyms

Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations This link opens in a new window
From the University of Cardiff, allows you to search from legal abbreviation to title as well as from title to abbreviation.

International Cases

Westlaw This link opens in a new window
To access international Cases, login to Westlaw and select 'Westlaw International' or 'Westlaw US' under 'More resources' below the search box. Westlaw International include Cases from a number of countries but is especially strong on US Cases.
Please select De Montfort University from the Westlaw sign in screen. You will then be asked to enter your DMU Single Sign On credentials. You will also be asked to enter additional personal information when you log into Westlaw for the first time, including an email account. This is a one-time action.

International and US materials on Westlaw
A guide to accessing Westlaw’s International and US materials

WorldLII
The World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII) is a free, independent and non-profit global legal research facility. It provides links law-related web sites in every country in the world. You can search WordLII by type of materials and by Country.

Lexis+ UK This link opens in a new window
To search international content on Lexis, click on the 'Sources' heading (on the top right of the screen) and then on 'International Content' below.

Finding UK and EU cases online for free

BAILII - Case Law Search This link opens in a new window
Include decisions from the Courts of the four jurisdictions of the United Kingdom and from the Courts of Ireland. Coverage of English Court of Appeal, House of Lords and Privy Council cases is from 1996 onwards.