Law: Legal Research

Legal research skills are the information and digital literacy skills which enable you to find and use legal information. This includes using your reading list, finding law books and journal articles, finding legislation and case law, and evaluating information to ensure it is authoritative and up-to-date.

This guide highlights a range of legal research courses and books available to law students. All new law students are advised to undertake the Doing Legal Research, Foundation Lexis+ UK and Basic Westlaw UK online training courses in their first term at university. 

Your Research & Academic Support Librarian is available for 1-2-1 appointments, both on-campus and online, and can advise on all library, research and referencing matters.

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Law database providers offer their own online training and certification courses to law students. 

online training + multiple-choice test = certificate

• Develop your legal research, digital literacy, information literacy and employability skills
• Learn how to use law databases for success in your academic studies
• Get certificates to evidence your legal research skills to employers on your CV

New law students are advised to undertake the basic/foundation level training courses for both Lexis+ UK and Westlaw UK in their first term at university. Successful completion of both basic/foundation and advanced certificates can contribute 1CSP towards the Warwick Award.

Lexis+ UK
LexisNexis offers three law database training and certification courses:

1. Lexis+ UK Legal Research (Foundation) 
2. Lexis+ UK Legal Research (Advanced)
3. Lexis+ UK Practical Guidance

The Lexis+ UK training materials and certification tests are available via the LexisNexis Law Student Hub. You can complete the online training and certification test independently, or you can join one of our Lexis+ UK training and certification webinars. See 'Law training events calendar' for further information. 

The online test comprises 15 multiple-choice questions to be completed in 1 hour. The pass mark is 13/15 questions, and you can have multiple attempts at the test.

Successful completion of both the Foundation and Advanced level Lexis+ UK Legal Research certifications can count 1 CSP towards the Warwick Award.

Westlaw UK
Thomson Reuters offers three law database training and certification courses:

1. Westlaw UK Basic 
2. Westlaw UK Advanced 
3. Westlaw International 

The Westlaw UK training materials and certification tests are available via the Westlaw Academic Certification website. You can complete the online training and certification test independently, or you can join one of our Westlaw UK training and certification webinars. See 'Law training events calendar' for further information. 

The online test comprises 10 multiple-choice questions. The pass mark is 8/10 questions (no time limit), and you can have multiple attempts at the test. 

Successful completion of both the Basic and Advanced level Westlaw UK Legal Research certifications can count 1 CSP towards the Warwick Award.

Legal Skills by Emily Finch and Stefan Fafinski

Insider's Guide to Legal Skills by Emily Allbon and Sanmeet Kaur Dua

Legal Research: A Practitioners Handbook by Emily Allbon, Ian Hunter and Peter Clinch

The following guides from other university law libraries may be useful to those undertaking legal research on foreign, comparative and international law:

• Bodleian Legal Skills and Research from University of Oxford
• IALS Library Guides from Institute of Advanced Legal Studies
• Squire Law Library Guide from University of Cambridge
• European Sources Online guide to researching European Union law
• Hauser GlobaLex from Hauser Global Law, New York University