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Open Access Legal Resources: Other free legal resources

Open Access legal resources

Introduction

There are many reliable sources of legal information freely available on the web. On this page we have listed free research tools, guides and other resources that may be of interest to legal researchers.

National research databases at IALS

BAILII

BAILII is a searchable database of legal materials. BAILII contains judgments, decisions, legal texts and commentaries of all kinds. BAILII is hosted at IALS.

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Eagle-i

Eagle-i is a free to use portal to high quality legal information sources on the Web. Each web resource included in Eagle-i has been assessed by a librarian and deemed to be of value to legal researchers. Information sources that can be found using Eagle-i include e-books, journals, legislation and cases, amongst others. Eagle-i was developed by the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies as a national service for law.

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FLAG Foreign Law Guide

FLAG Foreign Law Guide is an Internet directory to holdings of primary foreign, comparative and international law in UK national and university libraries, locating and describing the collections in libraries throughout the UK.

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FLARE Foreign Official Government Gazettes

FLARE Foreign Official Government Gazettes is a web database version of the Flare Union List of Foreign Official Government Gazettes. The database provides bibliographic and source information for foreign official government gazettes, including details of print holdings in UK libraries and links to online versions.

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FLARE Index to Treaties

The FLARE Index to Treaties is a searchable database of basic information on over 2,000 of the most significant multilateral treaties concluded from the 1600s onwards and a number of significant bilateral treaties signed between 1353 and 1815. Links to full-text are provided where available.

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Research guides

Library Guides from IALS

Jurisdiction and international law guides

 IALS Library has created over thirty jurisdiction guides and five international law guides. The guides help researchers to identify sources of legal information.

Finding and using resources and collections

The finding and using resources and collections guides assist users in finding what they need in the Library, in a print or electronic resource.

Subject guides

The subject guides introduce some of the main resources available via IALS Library for specific subject areas and include information about useful online resources.

OSCOLA
The OSCOLA guide offers an introduction to OSCOLA, the Oxford University Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities.

Other sources of research guides

GlobaLex

The Hauser Global Law School at New York University has created GlobaLex, a collection of freely available research guides covering foreign, comparative and international law.

Online training and tutorials

Law PORT

Law PORT is a suite of online training tutorials created at IALS Library and designed to improve the legal research and information literacy skills of postgraduate researchers in law. The tutorials are designed to be self-paced, interactive and easy-to-use.

Law PORT tutorials are available on the following subjects:

  • Public international law
    • Researching customary international law
    • Treaties and international conventions
    • Judicial decisions in international law
  • OSCOLA
  • Finding legal journal articles