Access
vLex is available on site and off site to all academic members of IALS Library.
Content
IALS Library's subscription covers UK legislation; Caribbean and UK judgment transcripts; and law reports from Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Ireland, Jersey, Scotland, and Singapore. A case citator is available, and there is some free additional content, such as blogs and news.
- UK Legislation
- Public and general acts from 1235 onwards, and Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish acts and measures; everything in this category is available in its original form with lists of amendments; many consolidated versions are also provided. Local acts are available from 1797 onwards.
- UK statutory instruments (SIs), including Northern Ireland orders, 1949 onwards, as originally made, plus those earlier instruments that were still in force at the end of 1948; Scottish statutory instruments (SSIs) and Welsh statutory instruments are also available.
- UK cases
- Transcripts of judgments from the House of Lords/Supreme Court, Privy Council, Court of Appeal (Civil Division), Court of Appeal (Criminal Division), High Court, Court of Session, and various tribunals. Includes a case citator.
- Session Cases, the leading Scottish law report.
- vLex offers links to Lexis and Westlaw for reported cases, from the ‘Citations and Sources’ tab for each case. (Lexis and Westlaw are available on site to academic readers, but Lexis is not available remotely; remote access to Westlaw is restricted to IALS staff/fellows/students)
- Caribbean cases (under ‘Central America and Caribbean’)
- Cases from the Caribbean Court of Justice, Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Christopher & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago, and Turks & Caicos. Consists mostly of transcripts, but also includes the Cayman Islands Law Reports and the Bermuda Law Reports.
- Appeals to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council are on vLex under ‘UK Non-devolved'.
- Irish Reports and Digests
- The Irish Reports, the leading law report for Ireland, and the Irish Digest (under ‘Irish Reports (Digests)’), covering cases from 1808 onwards. Both titles are published by the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for Ireland.
- Jersey
- Jersey Law Reports from 1969 onwards, and unreported cases from the Royal Court and appellate courts.
- Bermuda
- Bermuda Law Reports, the official reports for Bermuda, and unreported cases from Bermuda.
- Cayman Islands
- Cayman Islands Law Reports, the official reports for the Cayman Islands, and unreported cases from the Cayman Islands.
- Singapore
- Singapore Law Reports: Reissue, covering all cases of legal significance from the higher courts of Singapore, 1965 onwards.
Searching
The main search bar has a drop-down menu for selecting a jurisdiction. Search connectors must be in capitals, for example: medical OR clinical, arbitration AND evidence.
Advanced Search allows users to search all content, or a particular collection. Select ‘Case Law’ to search by party name. Instead of using search connectors (AND, OR, NOT), put search terms in the boxes marked ‘All the words’, ‘Any word’, and so on.
Search results can be sorted by relevance, date, 'Most cited’ or ‘Most visited’. They can be filtered by material type and other criteria, using the options on the left.
Browsing
UK legislation can be browsed by jurisdiction: England & Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, or ‘UK non-devolved’.
UK cases can be browsed by court, report series*, or ‘category’ (area of law).
To browse material from other jurisdictions, select ‘All jurisdictions’.
*IALS Library's vLex subscription does not include UK law reports (except Session Cases), but you can link from a case record to the full report on Westlaw or Lexis, where available.
Reading and downloading
Content on vLex can be read online in HTML format.
There are several options for changing the display of the text, including changing font, size, and alignment. You must be logged in to a personal user account in order to modify the text display.
Some content, including cases and legislation, can also be viewed and downloaded in other formats such as PDF and Word. The availability of other formats varies depending on the type of material.
Help
The Help Center is available on the left-hand side of the screen.
There are user guides available on the vLex Justis website.
