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Law FAQ's : How do I find a report cited in a Study Guide or the Recent Developments in Law?

If the case is cited in a Study Guide or Recent Developments in Law, the citation itself will give you all the information you need in order to find the case. The process will be illustrated by working through the following example, referred to in the LLB Recent Developments for Criminal Law 2011, page 3:

R v Z [2005] 2 AC 467

You will notice that the citation gives you the following information:

• The name of the case (R [which stands for the Latin words "Rex", King, or "Regina", Queen] v Z
• The date of the case (2005)
• An abbreviated form of the title of the law report in which the case was published (AC)
• The volume number of the law report in which the case was published. Note that the volume number appears before the law report title abbreviation - in this case, it is volume 2 for 2005
• The page number on which the case starts (page 467)

In order to find the case, you will need to know which law report is represented by the "AC" abbreviation. One of the best ways to find out the meaning of a legal abbreviation is to look in the Cardiff index to legal abbreviations, available on the Internet. Using this index will reveal that AC stands for the Law Reports, Appeal Cases.

The next stage is to find out which electronic database includes the full text of the Appeal Cases Reports. The best way to do this is to check finding case reports online table. This will reveal that the Appeal Cases are included on two different databases Lexis®Library and Westlaw. You can also search the Journal Finder to find out which database contains a case report series.

After logging into Westlaw, select the "Cases" link from the menu at the top of the page. On the following screen, try typing R v Z in the "Party names" field and then click on the "Search" button. You will notice that 41 hits are retrieved. What should you do now to narrow your search?

Click on the "Edit Search" button in the top left corner of the screen to return to the "Cases Search" screen. Now try also searching by the citation by typing [2005] 2 AC 467 into the citation search field and click on "Search". You will notice that you have now retrieved the 2005 case R. v Hasan (Aytach). When you click on the case analysis link you will see that the case is also known as R. v Z.

When your search results are displayed in Westlaw, you will notice that you get a summary of the case such as the subjects and keywords, citations of where the case has been reported, and links to full text documents available in Westlaw. To view the abstract, of the case you need to click on the link to the Case Analysis document. The Case Analysis document also contains cases cited, legislation cited and related journal articles. Please note that you will need to click on the [2005] 2 AC 467 link ( in the documents section) in order to view the full text of the case reported in the Appeal Cases Reports.

This example illustrates that you may need to try different types of searches in order to find the case you are looking for. If at any time you need any assistance, please do not hesitate to contact the Online Library.

It is useful to become familiar with all of the major electronic databases for law. Therefore, in order to compare Westlaw with Lexis®Library, please log into the Lexis®Library database. For help on how to log in with your portal password click here. Select the Cases link from the top menu to search the Lexis®Library cases database. Type R v Z in the "Case Name" fields and click on "Search". You will again have retrieved too many cases (64).  Select the Cases - All Subscribed Cases Sources link in the top left corner to go back to the case search. Add the citation [2005] 2 AC 467 to the citation search field and click search to retrieve the case search record for the case. To read the full text of the 2005 Court of Appeal case, select the citation link from the list at the top of the page.