Finding cases: IALS Library Guides

Guide last updated by Hester Swift, August 2025

This guide is an introduction to finding cases at IALS Library. It covers printed and online sources. 

Cases are published in law reports and digests. At IALS Library, their classmarks show which jurisdiction (or occasionally which subject) they cover and what kind of publication they are. Law reports have the letter G in the middle of the classmark and digests have the letter H. For example:

GA2.G.5  is the classmark for Lloyd's Law Reports 

GA2 = United Kingdom
G = law report
5 = fifth UK law report on the shelves

GD1.H.1  is the classmark for Australian Digest

GD1 = Australia
H = Digest
1 = first Australian digest on the shelves

To find where a particular classmark is shelved, see the list of locations in the Introduction to our classmarks guide.

Using print resources

You can look up printed law reports from a particular jurisdiction by classmark, subject and/or other criteria.  

Method 1: Search by classmark

1. Go to Classmarks and the Location of Resources in the Library and find the classmark prefix for the jurisdiction you're researching, e.g. GP1 for United States.
2.  On Library Search, Advanced page, select the Classmark option.
3. Enter the classmark, adding .G for law reports, or .H for digests (e.g. GP1.G for US law reports). 
   
    
4. Note down the full classmark for any reports of interest.
5. Check the floor guides by the library lift to see where the classmark is located, or use our online list of classmark locations.

Method 2: Search by subject heading

Every law report on Library Search has a subject heading saying 'Law Reports, digests, etc' plus the name of the jurisdiction. A Canadian law report would have the subject heading 'Law Reports, digests, etc - Canada', for example.

1. On the Advanced page of Library Search, select Subject + contains exact phrase.
2. Enter Law Reports, digests, etc - Canada  - or whichever jurisdiction you are researching - and click Search.
   
   
    
3. Note down the full classmark for the report you want, then look up the location on the floor guides / on the classmark locations list.
    

Method 3: Use an IALS Library research guide

Our jurisdictional research guides often list the titles of key law reports and digests. 

1. See if we have a Jurisdiction guide for the place you are researching. 
2. If the guide gives the title of a series of law reports, but there is no link, note down the title and look it up on Library Search. For example, the Nordic Countries guide says the main Danish law report is Ugeskrift for retsvæsen: enter this title in double quotation marks on Library Search.
   

Using online resources

Many law reports are available on databases that IALS Library subscribes to, but they do not all have links on Library Search (the online catalogue). For instance, Lexis+ has law reports from jurisdictions including the US, UK, EU, Australia, Canada and New Zealand; Westlaw has law reports from the US, UK, Canada and EU. 

If you are not sure which database covers your jurisdiction:

1. Use the Jurisdiction filter on the Law Databases page; alternatively, use the Content Type filter and select 'Case Law' (it is not possible to filter by both jurisdiction and case law content at the same time). Each database has an information page that should say whether it contains cases, and from which jurisdictions. 
2. Alternatively, refer to our Databases Guide, or look at the appropriate Jurisdiction Research Guide (if available) / International Law Guide.

For help navigating your chosen database, select it from the A-Z list of databases and read its information page. For HeinOnline, Westlaw and Lexis, there are detailed guides on our Resources and Collections page, under 'Databases'.

Using print resources

If you have a citation for a reported case: 

1. Decode the law report abbreviation (e.g. QB) using the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations, or Raistrick, Index to legal citations and abbreviations (classmark RF73 RAI). QB stands for Law Reports, Queen's Bench.

2. On Library Search, enter the title in double quotation marks and select 'IALS Library' (then click the Search button):


Alternatively, use the Title filter on the Advanced page of Library Search.

If you cannot find the law report on Library Search, contact IALS Library for help, or go to Finding cases in law reports not held in the library, below.
 

Using online resources

Many online databases contain law reports, but not all of these sources are listed on Library Search. 

Databases that contain case law usually cover specific jurisdictions: for instance Lexis+ contains cases from jurisdictions including the US, UK, EU, Australia, Canada and New Zealand; Westlaw has cases from the US, UK and Canada. To check which databases cover the jurisdiction you are interested in:

1. Use the jurisdiction filter on the IALS Law Databases page, then read the description of the database to find out whether it contains case law. It is best to filter by jurisdiction only, rather than jurisdiction and content type.
2. Alternatively, refer to our Databases Guide, or to the relevant Jurisdiction Research Guide (if available) / International Law Research Guide.

For help navigating your chosen database, select it from the A-Z list of databases and read its information page. We also have detailed guides to using HeinOnline, Westlaw and Lexis.

Using printed resources

To find cases on a particular area of law using printed materials, consult a case digest or a specialist law report:

1. Search for the word digests or law reports + your subject on Library Search (selecting the 'IALS Library' option). For example:
   "international law" digests
   arbitration "law reports"
    
2. Filter the search results by Location = IALS Library.
    
3. Find the digest or law report on the shelves and look up your topic. Digests are arranged by subject, while law reports often have subject indexes.

Alternatively, check encyclopaedias or case citators that list cases by subject. Titles of key encyclopedias and citators are given in our jurisdiction research guides and international law research guides.

Using online resources

IALS subscribes to a few databases that have cases on a particular subject: 

• arbitration - Westlaw International Materials has an 'International Arbitration Materials’ collection.
• international law - see IALS Law Databases page under 'international' for specialist modules of Oxford Reports on International Law; for details of other international law case collections, see our international law research guides.
• maritime law -  i-Law 
• tax law -  IBFD Online 
• trade law (WTO/GATT) - see TradeLawGuide

To find cases on other areas of law, select a database that covers the jurisdiction you are interested in, then enter key words. To see which database covers which jurisdiction, use the jurisdiction filter on the Law Databases page, or consult our Databases Guide.

For help navigating your chosen database, select it from the A-Z list of databases and read its information page. We also have detailed guides to using HeinOnline, Westlaw and Lexis.

If you need to locate a case from a series of law reports that is not available at IALS Library in print or online, here are some suggestions for tracking it down elsewhere.

Check other libraries

Library Hub Discover searches the collections of academic and specialist libraries in the UK and Ireland, including the British Library

Worldcat  searches the collections of thousands of libraries worldwide

To locate law reports for a particular foreign jurisdiction, try the FLAG Foreign Law Guide database. This is an online directory of print (and microform) holdings of foreign primary legal materials in 63 UK libraries. FLAG was last updated in 2013, so any information you find there should be verified with the holding library.

Look online

A few law reports may be freely available online: check Eagle-i or WorldLII for links.

IALS Library does not hold hard copy transcripts / unreported cases, but many are available online.

For the UK, see:

• BAILII, the British and Irish Legal Information Institute;
• Find Case Law - The National Archives;
• Lexis+ UK and Westlaw UK (via IALS Law Databases page).

For cases from jurisdictions outside the UK, see:

• WorldLII - databases of cases from around the world, together with links to websites that provide cases;
• Eagle-i - global internet portal for law, searchable by jurisdiction;
• IALS jurisdiction guides;
• Globalex foreign law research guides.

US and Canada: find the case on Westlaw International Materials (via IALS Law Databases page), then consult the Keycite tabs at the top.

India: find the case on SCC Online, then click on the 'Case Reference' icon at the top; this produces a list of cases, articles and other documents citing the case (see How to use the Case Reference feature).

South Africa: see Butterworths Consolidated Index and Noter-up to the South African Law Reports (GF1.G.2), a print publication covering cases that have appeared in the South African Law Reports or the All South African Law Reports. The latest issues of Butterworth's Index and Noter-Up may not be listed on the catalogue record - check shelves. 

Australia: see the Australian Case Citator (GD1.H.1), which includes quarterly updates in a looseleaf binder.

(IALS Library holds some other printed case citators, though not all are current. They usually have .H. or .G after the jurisdictional classmark, as in the examples above; you can search by classmark on the Advanced page of Library Search.)

Other jurisdictions: the vLex case citator covers Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, the Caribbean, Ireland, Singapore, the UK and other common law jurisdictions. Look up the case on vLex, then consult the 'Cited In' tab to see how it has been cited; labels such as 'considered'- 'applied', and so on - are assigned by vLex editors (more about the vLex citator). 

Free resources

A number of free online resources provide details of cases citing other cases, but the content is usually automatically generated and does not include annotations by editors. Users of these free resources need to make their own assessment as to whether a case is still good law.

• LawCite is a case citator covering Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Pacific islands, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the UK and other jurisdictions; the content is automatically generated;
   
• Indian Kanoon has a citator for Indian cases;
   
• Jade has a citator covering Australian and New Zealand cases;
   
• CanLII, the Canadian Legal Information Institute, has a case citator (now automatically generated - see RefLex information page). 

This section concerns the series entitled The Law Reports, published by the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting (ICLR). It is on Westlaw UK and Lexis+ UK, but IALS Library also has the full set in print. It is at classmark GA2.G.2, on the fourth floor, and the sub-series are arranged on the shelves in the following order:

APPELLATE SERIES 

               
EQUITY SERIES 

COMMON LAW SERIES 

OTHER SERIES 

There is further information about The Law Reports in our United Kingdom research guide.