Library Services
www1.uwe.ac.uk/library
Westlaw UK
1. Introduction to Westlaw UK
Westlaw UK is a full-text internet-based information retrieval system covering UK,
European Union and worldwide legal materials. It is in effect a large number of
databases rolled into one.
The task of extracting and analysing information from the database lies with you the
user, but Westlaw UK can help you find a vast amount of information that may not
otherwise be available to you in a printed law library.
Content
You will already be familiar with some of the resources that are available via Westlaw
UK. For example The Law Reports are taken in print form by the Library. However, no
library could hope to hold the range of material that is available through Westlaw, and
some items are updated much more quickly on Westlaw UK than they will be in print
form. Many practice books, such as Chitty on Contracts can also be found on Westlaw
UK.
UK cases
The Law Reports 1865Weekly Law Reports 1953-
Legislation
Statutes and Statutory Instruments of England and Wales.
Journals
For example, Civil Procedure News, Construction Law Journal, Criminal Law Review,
European Law Review.
Legal Journals Index
Abstracts of journal articles not available in full text via Westlaw may be available to you
elsewhere (check via Library Search).
Secondary Sources including:
Various key practitioner texts including Chitty on Contract and Archbold Criminal
Pleading Evidence & Practice.
Scope
The updating of Westlaw varies from section to section, and the backdating of full-text
coverage can vary between publications. Do not assume that Westlaw is the most
complete or up-to-date database that is available. Further information on the coverage
provided for different resources can be found within each section.
2. Searching Westlaw UK
The standard Westlaw UK homepage is pictured below.
In order to get to this screen at
any time when in Westlaw, click
on the Westlaw UK link here.
Click on the tabs at the top to search or browse
for specific types of information, e.g. Cases or
Journals.
From the Westlaw UK homepage you can search across material types using either
free text terms or the title of a document. To do this, simply enter the search terms
into the search field and select the type of materials you wish to search (Cases,
Legislation etc) by placing a tick in the checkbox next to that material.
You can check on which connectors (AND, OR, NOT etc.) you can use by clicking on
the List of Connectors or Search Tips links below the search box.
Tip:- If you enter words using no connectors Westlaw UK will automatically connect the
words using an AND connector. This means that your search will return documents where
BOTH terms appear.
If you are looking for a specific type of material (e.g. a case, Act of Parliament or
journal article) you can choose to click on the appropriate tab at the top of the screen
(for example, click on the tab marked Cases to search only for cases).
Navigating your way around Westlaw – Breadcrumbs
When you conduct any search within
Westlaw, you may find you want to go
back to the search screen, back to the
full list of search results or back to a
previous set of search results.
Rather than clicking on the Back
button on your browser repeatedly, you
can follow the breadcrumbs trail and
click on where you want to go, as
illustrated.
After any search you can also click on
Edit Search to go back and change or
add to any of the search terms you
have used, or New Search to start a
new search.
Breadcrumbs trail – click on these
links
3. Searching for Case Law
Basic Search
When you first click on the Cases tab you will see the screen below.
Click on one of the Browse
options to limit the search you
wish to run to pick up certain
types of result / specific resources
only.
This is the basic search screen. From here you can search across all the cases held
on the Westlaw UK databases and retrieve them by entering a Party Name, Citation
or by entering terms into the Free Text field. Alternatively, you can combine any of
these fields for a more refined search.
Tip:- If you are unsure how to enter terms into one of the search fields you can hover your
mouse cursor over the
icon next to each field or click on the List of Connectors link in the
top right of the screen for examples.
Search by Party Name
When you know the name of a case you wish to retrieve, type the name of one or both
of the parties in the Party Names field and click Search.
Party names can be typed in any of the following ways:
southwark v mills
southwark v. mills
southwark and mills
southwark & mills
southwark mills
Search by Citation
When you know the citation of a case you wish to retrieve, enter it in the Citation field
and click Search.
Citations can be entered in either of the following ways:
2001 1 ac 1
[2001] 1 a.c. 1 (or (2001) 1 a.c. 1 – Westlaw UK will ignore brackets.
Search by Free Text
You can use the Free Text box to look for terms or phrases relating to the subject matter
of the cases you want to find. Westlaw UK will search for these within the entire text of
all case analyses, official judgments and transcripts.
Case Definitions
The Term Defined search box can be used to find legal definitions in Cases. Search
for a definition across all Cases or in conjunction with the other search options.
Type a few keywords into the Free Text box, for example dangerous driving, and click
Go.
Tip:- If you want to search for multiple terms together as a phrase, you should enter the
phrase within quotation marks, such as ‘dangerous driving’. This can sometimes reduce
the number of results you return to a more manageable number (don’t try and wade
through 4000 cases!)
When you perform a search the screen will then change to show you the case results list.
Case Results List
Westlaw UK will retrieve documents matching your search terms. This is the Case
Result List, and it will look similar to the screen below.
If your search returns too many
results, you will receive a warning
here. You may wish to reduce the
number of results your search returns
by clicking on Edit search and using
the List of Connectors.
This List will include the following information: Party Name;
 Subject/Keywords used to index the case on Sweet & Maxwell services;
 Where the case is reported – a list of all citations where the case has been
reported.
 Documents – links to each of the full-text case reports which are available on
Westlaw UK, as well as case analysis documents and a copy of the official
transcript if this is available. To view the text of any document that is available,
click on the relevant underlined hyperlinks to open the text in the window.
The default order in which documents will be returned on the screen is reverse
chronological (ie the most recent judgment first).
You can change this to Sort by Relevance if you prefer by clicking on the link at the top
right of the screen.
Status Icons
Some of the cases your search returns may show a status icon next to the title of the
case. These icons are there to provide you with additional information, such as if the
case has been judicially considered elsewhere (indicated by ) or that at least one point
of law from the case has since been overruled or reversed (indicated by
).
Advanced Search
You can also search for cases using the Advanced Search option by clicking Advanced
Search the top right of the Cases Basic Search page.
You can select to search using
the Advanced Search function
by clicking here.
The Advanced Search function allows you to enter additional information to further refine
your search.
When limiting the search
by date, you can choose
to search for cases
occuring on, before,
between or after a
specific date.
Tip:- The more information you enter the more accurate your search will be. If you would like
further advice on how to improve your search skills you could try the University of the West of
England’s study skills tutorials at:
http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/students/studysupport/studyskills.aspx
In addition to the search fields you can use in a basic search, using the Advanced Search
function you can also:-
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Search for any cases interpreting a specific section, regulation, rule or article
of legislation by entering the legislation title or Statutory Instrument name or
number into the Legislation Title or Legislation Provision No. fields.
Search for any cases which cite a specific case you are interested in.
Search by the court in which the case was heard.
Search by the name of the judge.
Restrict your search by date.
Search by subject headings or keywords.
If you select to search by
Subject/Keyword, you
must choose terms
defined in the Sweet &
Maxwell Taxonomy.
Click on the List of Terms
link, and a list of the terms
you can use will open in a
new window.
You can then cut and
paste the terms you want
to use into the
Subject/Keyword here.
Browsing for cases
You can also browse Westlaw UK’s entire case database for any full-text case reports,
official transcripts or case analysis documents. The Browse options can be located
towards the bottom of either of the Basic or Advance Search screens.
You can opt to browse either:-
 All the cases monitored by Westlaw UK by clicking on the Case Analysis
Documents link. Westlaw UK monitors many cases which appear in law
reports published by their competitors. Whilst they cannot provide full-text
reports of these cases, the Case Analysis Service provided by Westlaw UK
does provide some of the key pieces of information about the case and
information on where you might be able to find a copy of the full-text Law
Report. For more information on Case Analysis Documents, see the following
section.
 Only those cases to which Westlaw UK has access to the full-text law reports
or official transcripts by clicking on Law Reports and Transcripts link.
Selecting either option will provide a list of Law Reports Series, listed alphabetically by
title. If you click on a title, it will then be broken down by year or volume number, as
illustrated in the diagram on the following page.
Selecting either of the Browse
options will provide a list of Law
Reports Series, listed
alphabetically by title.
The Legal
Abbreviation for
this series is
indicated on the
right hand side.
If you click on a title, it will then be
broken down by year or volume
number, which you can then click on
to browse all issues / cases which
appeared in this issue or year.
Tip:- Browsing for cases allows you to…
 work through a list of law report series down to document level when you can
see exactly what you are searching, e.g. a specific law report series
Case Analysis Documents
The Case Analysis service provided by Westlaw UK summarises the key pieces of
information from every case monitored by Westlaw UK, providing you with the basic
facts of the case without you having to read the full case report.
Tip:- Case Analysis Documents provide an excellent place to start when looking for
relevant case law on a topic. It is important to remember, however, that you should always
dig deeper and use more than one resource to formulate all points of the argument you
are building.
An individual Case Analysis Document will list:
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Where the case has been reported (which series of law reports, in order of
persuasive authority, the case has been reported in).
A case digest, including subject headings, keywords describing the issues
involved, a brief summary and an abstract.
Details of the Judge(s), Counsel and instructing solicitors.
Significant cases which have since cited this case (those indicated with a
hyperlink can be opened by clicking on the citation).
In force legislation cited in the case.
The Appellate history of the case (the reported progress of the case through to
appeal, in chronological order).
References within this section may include some of the following descriptors:-
Positive descriptors
APPROVED
A higher court expressly states that a case before a lower court was correctly decided.
In other words, it approves that decision and considers it to be good law. The alternative
would be to disapprove the case.
APPLIED
Used where the court is applying the principle of a previous decision, the facts of which
are materially different from those of the instant case. In other words, this descriptor is
used where the court has employed the same reasoning in both cases, regardless of
precedent.
FOLLOWED
The court is bound by a previous decision of a court of co-ordinate or superior jurisdiction
in a case where the material facts upon which the principle was determined were the
same or substantially the same.
Negative descriptors
DISAPPROVED
The opposite of approved. A higher court states that a case before a lower court was
not correctly decided. Often the circumstances have changed and the court suggests
that the case may no longer be good law. (For cases where the judge expressly indicates
that a case is no longer reliable authority, see SUPERSEDED below).
DOUBTED
The court in the annotating case, without going to the length of saying that the case is
wrong, adduces reasons that seem to show that it is not accurate.
NOT APPLIED
This descriptor is used rarely. It is appropriate where the court declines to apply a
principle of a previous decision of a court of coordinate jurisdiction where it is not bound
by that decision. This descriptor can be used, for example, if the judge is indicating the
limit to which he thinks the applicability of a legal principle can or cannot be extended.
NOT FOLLOWED
The court declines to follow a decision of a court of coordinate jurisdiction in a case
where the facts were the same or substantially the same.
OVERRULED
The judge expressly overrules the ratio of a decision of an inferior court.
OVERRULED IN PART
As Overruled except that only part of the ratio is being overruled.
SUPERSEDED
This descriptor is applicable primarily in the context of practice directions that become
superseded (or partly superseded – see descriptor below) by more recent practice
directions. It is also used where the ratio of a case has been superseded by subsequent
legislative provisions.
SUPERSEDED IN PART
As above except that only part of the practice direction is being superseded.
Neutral descriptors
CITED
The case was cited as authority by counsel, but was not discussed in depth.
CONSIDERED
The court discusses a previous decision to a significant extent, but none of the other
descriptors apply because there is no dramatic conclusion about its application.
DISTINGUISHED
The court declines to follow a previous case of superior or coordinate jurisdiction (by
which it would otherwise be bound) because there is some salient difference, for
example in the material facts. This is only an appropriate descriptor where the judge has
recognised the relevance of the case to the issue in question. In other words, while
indicating that the other case remains good law, the judge has identified a specific
reason why the present case is not bound by it on the facts of the case being determined.
EXPLAINED
The court interprets a previous decision and states what it means.
MENTIONED
The Case was mentioned in the proceedings but was not discussed in depth.
REFERRED TO
Examples include (1) where the judge makes brief reference to other relevant cases
where decisions are pending; (2) where a previous significant decision was ultra vires;
(3) where a previous decision is cited by the judge for the purposes of placing the current
case in a particular context, e.g. test cases.
4. Searching for UK Legislation
Coverage
Statutes
Westlaw UK contains legislation dating back to 1267, including:
 all UK Public and General Acts which were still in force in 1991, and all published
subsequently;
 all Public and General Acts of the Scottish Parliament
(ASPS);
 all Local Acts published since 1991;
 all Church of England Measures published since 1991
 all Welsh Assembly Measures from 2008
Statutory Instruments
Westlaw UK also contains a selection of UK SIs published between 1948 and 1991. All
subsequent UK SIs are included, as are SIs made by the Scottish Parliament (SSIs) and
English-language SIs made by the National Assembly for Wales.
Legislation versions
The legislation is reproduced "as amended". Westlaw UK contains the most up-to-date
version of legislation. Earlier versions of legislation can be accessed via Advanced Search
(see below) with the Historic Law or Point in Time options selected. The earliest versions
of the pre-1992 Acts are reproduced as they stood at 1991 (approximately) with all
amendments to that date taken in to this first version. The Version In Force Date
"represents law in force as at date shown".
Prospective Amendments are not incorporated into the full text until they are in force, but
are listed in the Analysis and Overview Documents.
Legislation excluded
Westlaw UK does not include:Draft Statutory Instruments.
Northern Ireland Statutes, Statutory Instruments and Statutory Rules
Private and Personal Acts
Local Statutory Instruments
Statutory Instruments in the Welsh language.
Basic Search
When you first click on the Legislation tab you will see the screen below.
Remember, if at anytime you need
additional help, you can use the
Westlaw UK Help pages.
Click on one of the Browse
options to limit the search you
wish to run to that resource only.
This is the basic search screen. From here you can search across all the UK
legislation held on the Westlaw UK databases and retrieve what you are
searching for by entering the title of an Act of Parliament or Statutory Instrument,
the number of the Statutory Instrument, a specific provision, chapter, section or
schedule number or by entering terms into the Free Text field. The Statutory
Definition field enables you to find legislative definitions and Acts and Statutory
Instruments. Alternatively, you can combine any of these fields for a more refined
search.
Search by Title and/or Provision Number
When you know the name of an Act or Statutory Instrument that you wish to retrieve,
type it in the Act/SI Title field (e.g. Health Services Act 1980), and click Go. This will
retrieve all sections of the full-text legislation.
If you know the Statutory Instrument number, you can also enter this into the Act/SI Title
field (e.g. SI 2006/1200). Alternatively, if you know the year and chapter number of an
Act you can do the same by placing this information (e.g. 2007 c 5) into the Act/SI Title
field.
To retrieve the full text of a specific part of an Act or Statutory Instrument, select the
Provision type (e.g. section, rule or regulation) from the drop down menu, enter the
appropriate number in the Provision Number field and click Go.
Tip:- It is always good practice to type in the year of the legislation you are searching
for if you know it. This will avoid retrieving multiple pieces of legislation.
Search by Free Text
You can use the Free Text box to look for terms or phrases relating to the legislation
you want to find. As with searching for cases, Westlaw UK will automatically use the
AND connector between separate terms. For example, entering the search terms Road
Safety like this will return all documents containing both terms. If you want to search for
those terms together as a phrase, you should enter it as ‘road safety’.
Tip:- If you know the Title of a piece of legislation, you should enter the title in quotation
marks. For example, you should type ‘Road Safety Act 2006’.
Advanced Search
You can also search for legislation using the Advanced Search option by clicking on the
Advanced Search option in the top right of the Legislation Basic Search page.
The Advanced Search for Legislation allows you
to further restrict your search by choosing
whether to search just for current legislation or to
expand it to include historic (no longer in force) or
prospective (not yet in force) law.
You can also choose to look for legislation as it
stood at a particular point in time (any point
since 1991 for Acts of Parliament or since 1948
for selected Statutory Instruments.)
Once you have run a search for legislation using either the Basic Search or Advanced
Search screens, you will be taken to the Search Results List (see Section below)
Try running a search for section 10 of the ‘Companies Act 1985’, both historic and
legislation in force. [n.b. This example is for illustration purposes – see diagram
overleaf. From October 2009, section 10, which was awaiting pending
amendments, was repealed.]
Search Results List
When you run a search, Westlaw UK will retrieve documents matching your search
terms. The order of the documents will be primary legislation (Statutes) first, followed
by secondary legislation (Statutory Instruments etc.) The results list will look something
similar to the screen below:You can go back and edit your
search by clicking here.
To narrow down a long list of search
results, you can enter additional
search terms here and click on
Search Within Results. This will
search for documents from within
the results you have already
retrieved.
The results list will show the Legislation Title and the date the legislation received royal
assent (in bold). It will also show the title of the provision (if appropriate).
Depending on the terms you provided for the search, the link available below each of
the results returned will take you to either the text of a specific provision, or to the
Arrangement of Act/SI (see section below – Westlaw UK Legislation Documents).
Status Icons
Some of the results your search returns may show a status icon next to the Legislation
Title. These icons are there to provide you with additional information, such as if the
case has been repealed or superseded (indicated by
) or it has amendments pending
(indicated by
). To see the prospective change, select Legislation Analysis or
Overview document.
Browsing for Legislation
You can also browse by legislation topic and then by Year or Title by clicking on the
appropriate link in the bottom section of either the Legislation Basic Search or
Legislation Advanced Search screens, as indicated on the following page:-
You can browse the legislation on Westlaw UK
by clicking on any of the links in the Browse
window.
Browsing by year
Once you have selected the legislation type, you can browse by year (or period of
years prior to 1990). Within each year you will then be presented with an alphabetical
list of legislation that received its Royal Assent in that year, as illustrated in the
diagrams below:By clicking on the year (in this case, 2010,
you will then be shown a list of the
legislation type chosen in alphabetical
order by title, which received Royal Assent
in that year.
If you click the PDF icon next
to the name of the
legislation in the
alphabetical browse list, the
entire piece of legislation in
its consolidated form,
without page breaks, will
open as a PDF document.
You can then print or save
the PDF to your computer.
For more information on
Printing and Saving, see
later.
Browsing by Legislation Title
If you know the title of a piece of legislation, you can also browse by its title. Clicking on one
of the By Title links will take you to an alphabetical list. Click on the first letter of the title you
are looking for to see an alphabetical list of the legislation available. Select a title to see the
Arrangement of Act/SI for that piece of legislation (see below).
Westlaw UK Legislation documents
There are five types of legislation document available on Westlaw UK:
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Arrangement of Act/SI
Full-text legislation document
Legislation analysis
Overview document
General Materials
Arrangement of Act/SI
The Arrangement of Act/SI provides a summary of the arrangement of a piece of
legislation, listing the provisions that make up the full text of a document. The
Arrangement of Act/SI links, either directly or via Part and Chapter tables to all
provisions of an Act or SI.
You can open, print and/or save a PDF of the
entire Act/SI by clicking on the link here (you
will need access to Adobe Acrobat Reader
software on your computer).
You can see the full
text of any section
of the act by clicking
on the links available
in the Arrangement
Table.
The Arrangement Tables can be accessed from within a document by selecting the
legislation title from the blue left-hand navigation bar.
Full-text Legislation Document
You can view the full text of an individual provision of any Act or SI by either searching
specifically for this, or by clicking on the appropriate link in the Arrangement Table (see
above).
The full text of a legislation provision incorporates any amendments up to the Version
In Force Date. The text contains links to other legislation cited and footnotes describing
amendments. You can also navigate to "Previous Provision" or "Next Provision" by
selecting the relevant link from above the legislation title.
You can link through
to the Arrangement
of Act/SI, Overview
Document or the
Legislation Analysis
by clicking on the links
here.
You can link to other sections or other
pieces of legislation by clicking on the
appropriate links.
Status Icons
Within a result list status icons may display next to the title of the legislation indicating
that either the provision represents the law in force , is not yet in force , is partially
in force , has been repealed , superseded , has pending amendments , or has
prospective amendments applied to it . Within a result list a Statutory Annotation icon
may be displayed indicating an annotation is available.
If you are viewing a historical version of legislation, you will see a red "no entry" flag (
) or a red signal ( ) along with "superseded or repealed" indicating a more recent
version is available. To see the most recent version, select Legislation Analysis from
the blue left-hand navigation bar and click on the link.
Legislation Analysis
The Legislation Analysis is a tool for legislation research that is unique to Westlaw UK.
It provides links to current, historical and, where available, prospective versions of
legislation along with corresponding references to enabling legislation, Statutory
Instruments read with a statute, citing case law and secondary references.
The Legislation Analysis can be accessed from within a section of a piece of legislation
by selecting Legislation Analysis from the blue left-hand navigation bar as indicated in
the diagram above. It contains some or all of the following parts:Current Law in Force: includes a link to the current, consolidated version of a provision.
It also lists the date that the provision came into force and gives details about what
brought it into force and the scope of the amended version, for example if it takes effect
on different days in different parts of the UK
Commencement: gives details about the initial commencement of the provision,
including commencement date, scope of the commencement and links to any
commencing legislation.
Table of Amendments: details any prospective amendments to a provision, the date of
the amendment (if known) and the legislation that will implement those changes.
Historic Law: lists all previous "versions" of the legislation that are available to view. By
selecting any of the entries listed, you can access legislation prior to amendment and
see how the law read at a particular point in time. Each historical version will also list the
date it came into force and the piece of legislation bringing it into force. This enables
access to all Westlaw UK statutes going back to 1991 and SIs from 1948.
Extent: shows which areas of the UK to which the provision extends.
SIs Made under Act: provides details of secondary legislation enacted with the authority
of the legislation concerned.
Enabling Act: details the Enabling Act or SI which gave authority for the SI to be
enacted.
Modifications: provides links to legislation making non-text amendments to the
provision.
Related Legislation: provides links to legislation applying, dis-applying or referring to
that provision.
Cases Citing: lists the cases that cite the section of legislation in alphabetical order. If
Westlaw UK can provide a case analysis for any of these cases, clicking on the case
citation underneath the case name will enable you to retrieve it.
Journal Articles: lists citations to relevant materials taken from legal journals and law
reviews. If Westlaw UK can provide the full text of an article, there will be a link enabling
access to it.
Books: lists the book sections that refer specifically to the provision.
Overview Document
The Overview Document can be accessed by clicking on Overview Document on the
left-hand side of the screen when you viewing the full text of a provision.
It provides a summary of important information about the whole Act or SI detailing:
All Amendments pending (i.e. those amendments not applied to the full text)
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All Commencement information pertaining to an Act/SI (except pre-1991
commencement information for Acts).
 All Amendments made to the full text (except amendments to pre-1991
amendments to Acts)
 All SIs enabled under authority of an Act
 Any EU Law implemented by an Act or SI
 All journal articles that refer to the document as a whole
 Glossary of terms defined within an Act or SI
5. Searching for Journals
Westlaw UK Journals offers two services: full-text articles and article abstracts.
The full-text articles service contains thousands of articles in full text from journal titles
published by Sweet & Maxwell.
The article abstracts service includes the Legal Journals Index (LJI) and Financial
Journals Index (FJI), and contains over half a million abstracts of articles from English
language legal journals published in the United Kingdom and Europe.
Basic Search
When you first click on the Journals tab you will see the screen below.
Click on one of the Browse
options to limit the search you
wish to run to that resource only.
From this screen you can search for articles by entering the Article Title, Author or key
subject terms into the Free Text field. You can combine any of these types of information
for a more accurate search.
As with searching for cases or legislation, Westlaw UK will automatically use the AND
connector between separate terms. For example, entering the search terms Mental
Health like this will return all documents containing both terms. If you want to search for
those terms together as a phrase, you should enter it as “Mental Health”.
You can also combine the Basic Search function with the Browse function, so that you
only search one of the collections / journal titles available (e.g. only the Legal Journals
Index or the Criminal Law Review.)
Advanced Search
You can also search for journal articles using the Advanced Search option by clicking
on the link in the top right of the Journals Basic Search page.
The Advanced Search function allows you to enter additional information to further
refine your search.
The Advanced Search for a Journals search
allows you to further restrict your search by
choosing whether to search for journal articles
which refer to specific cases (by party or
citation) or legislation (by title or provision).
You can also choose to look for articles
published in a specific year or specific
publication
Once you have run a search for journal articles using either the Basic Search or
Advanced Search screens, you will be taken to the Search Results List (see below)
Search Results List
When you run a journals search, Westlaw UK will retrieve documents matching your
search terms.
The results list will list the following information:-
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The title of the article.
The citation of the journal in which it appeared.
The subjects and keywords which relate to this article.
Links to the LJI/FJI abstract and/or full text if these are available.
Browsing for Journal Articles
You can also browse for journal articles, either full-text articles or abstracts from the
LJI or FJI.
As well as limiting any search you make using the Browse function, you can simply
browse through the collections available by clicking through the links in the browsing
pane. Journals are listed alphabetically by title, and then each title is listed by year or
volume number, as illustrated:-
You can select to browse
either the full-text journal
articles available, or one of
the Indexes which abstracts
articles published by different
publishers.
You will then be able to
browse through the journals
6. EU information on Westlaw UK
EU information on Westlaw UK is provided by Ellis and CELEX (the official legal
database of the EU). This information is updated every day, and includes the following:
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Case Law: Primary law, from 2 Courts: Court of Justice (from 1954) and Court
of First Instance (from 1989)
Treaties – primary legislation from 1951: All treaties concluded between the
Member States, which constitute the legal framework of the European
Communities (including founding treaties, accession treaties and
supplementary treaties).
Legislation – secondary legislation from 1952: Regulations, directives,
decisions, recommendations, opinions (non-binding) as published in the Official
Journal L Series.
Preparatory Acts – from 1974: Proposed legislation, Commission (COM)
documents and Opinions from the European Parliament, Economic and Social
Committee and Committee of the Regions.
Parliamentary Questions – from 1992: Written questions and answers
addressed by the members of the European Parliament to the Commission and
the Council as published in the Official Journal C Series.
OJC Series – from 1990: Information and notices and non-binding acts of the
Council (resolutions, declarations, communications), operative part of the
judgments of the Courts and texts of Commission proposals for legislation as
published daily in the Official Journals C Series.
EU Basic Search
When you first click on the EU tab you will see the screen below.
Click on one of the Browse
options to limit the search you
wish to run to that resource only.
This is the basic search screen. From here you can search across all EU information
held on the Westlaw UK databases and retrieve them by entering Party Names (or
Titles), Case or Document Number, the Publication Reference or by entering terms
into the Free Text field. Alternatively, you can combine any of these fields for a more
refined search.

Party Names or Titles can be entered if you know one or more of the parties
involved.
Tip:- The more party names you include, the more precise the search will be.



Case or Document Number: All EU documents are assigned a unique
reference number. The citation does not need to be complete and the entry is
neither case nor punctuation sensitive. The reference should be in the format:
"Case T31/99" or "Regulation 1/2003".
Publication Reference: On publication, a document is assigned a unique
publication reference. The reference will be in the format "2002 C144 79".
You can enter any terms or phrases in the Free Text field relating to the subject
matter of the information you want to find. If you enter words using no
connectors Westlaw UK will automatically connect the words using an AND
connector. This means that your search will return documents where BOTH
terms appear.
EU Advanced Search
You an also search for EU information using the Advanced Search option by clicking
on the link in the top right of the EU Basic Search page.
The Advanced Search function allows you to enter additional information to further
refine your search.
You can select to search a
number of different types of
information by selecting the
tick boxes, e.g. EU Treaties
You can also choose to
limit the time period you
search, such as before or
after a certain date, or
between two points in
time.
You can also select the
document type from the
drop down Document
Type menu, e.g. EEC
Treaty or ECSC Treaty
Once you have run a search for EU information using either the Basic Search or
Advanced Search screens, you will be taken to the Search Results List (see Section
below).
Search Results List
When you search for EU information, Westlaw UK will retrieve documents matching your
search terms and parameters.
The results that are returned will be grouped by content type (if you searched for more
than one type of EU information), with documents returned in reverse chronological
order within each category.
Each result will be listed with, as a minimum, the title of the document returned. They
may also summarise the citation, content type and date of the document, depending on
the type of document and the information available.
Browsing for EU information
As with cases, legislation and journal articles, you can also browse through the available
collections of EU information, or use the Browse function to limit the range of any search
you wish to conduct.
EU full-text documents
There are five main headings of EU documents available through Westlaw UK:-
Cases
EU case law covers all cases from the European Court of Justice and Court of First
Instance.
When you access a full-text
document, the citation will be
displayed at the top of the
screen in the format Case C117/01 or Case T-31/99. Cases
beginning with a 'C' are cases
from the European Court of
Justice and cases beginning with
a 'T' are from the Court of First
Instance.
The judgment of an EU case will be made up of various sections, you can navigate
through these by clicking the
icon next to the Text link on the left hand side of the
screen (if available). This will reveal a list of links to the various sections if not already
visible. These may include: Parties - the parties concerned
 Form of order sought – what the case is about
 Pleas in law and main arguments – the main reason why the case was
referred to the Court (for example an interpretation of a directive or reference
for a ruling)
If the case is broken down into these sections, there will be additional navigation links in
the blue index panel on the left of the screen. These will include: Date: includes date of judgment, date case was lodged in court, the date of the
application to the court and the date the judgment document was created.
 References: displays the unique Celex number assigned to the case and
cases cited and legislation interpreted within the judgment.
 Bibliographic Information: amongst other information includes the Judge's
name, the 'Authoring Institution' (the Court in which the case was heard) and
'document type' (whether a judgment or opinion).
 Analysis: refers to cited and related documents and modifications
Tip:- If you are unsure of where you are at any point during your search, remember to use the
breadcrumbs at the top of the screen to find your current location in the Westlaw UK databases.
EU Legislation
EU legislation covers a variety of comprehensive and current primary materials
including materials of the Official Journal L Series (the official series of EU Legislation),
International Agreements, Secondary Legislation and Supplementary Legislation.
Tip:- Legislation published in the Official Journal L from 1998 are available as PDF documents.
Click on the PDF icon to display the document in its original format.
When you access a full-text document on screen, the document number will either take
the form of a Directive (such as 79/11/EEC) or unique Celex number in the format
379L0112.
As with EU cases, you can navigate through the various sections of the legislation by
clicking the
icon next to the Text link on the left hand side of the screen. This will
reveal a list of links to the various articles making up the legislation text. You can also
link to-:
 Index: subject/keywords used to index the legislation
 Date: includes date the document was created and the date it was published.
 References: provides links to prior and subsequent related documents as well
as a list of modifications made to the legislation.
 Bibliographic Information: including document type, authoring institution and
authentic language.
 National Measures: details which Member States have implemented the
legislation into national legislation.
If you need to navigate back to the
original text (from any analysis
documents for example), click the
citation link under the Documents on
Westlaw title.
Click on the PDF icon,
if one is available, to
display the document
in its original format.
Under the Related Information section on the left hand side you can click the Analysis
link to access the Table of Authorities which lists the documents that cite or interpret
the legislation. You can also access a list of Related Documents.
To navigate back to the original text, click the citation link under the Documents on
Westlaw title.
Status Icons
If a case has been overruled or reversed, you will be directed to this by the
icon at
the top of the judgment advising you that a major point of law has been overruled or
reversed.
Similarly, if a piece of EU legislation has been superseded or repealed, a
also be displayed.
icon will
Treaties
An EU Treaty document includes the official CELEX number and links to the dates,
references and bibliographic information
Preparatory Acts
An EU Preparatory Act document includes the official CELEX number and links to the
dates, references and bibliographic information.
Information and Notices
An Information document will contain links to the following information: Index: subject/keywords used to index the legislation
 Date: includes date the document was created and the date it was published.
 References: provides links to prior and subsequent related documents as well
as a list of modifications made to the legislation.
 Bibliographic Information: including document type, authoring institution and
authentic language.
Tip:- Documents published in the Official Journal C from 1998 are available as PDF documents.
Click on the PDF icon to display the document in its original format.
7. Commentary and the Common Law Library on Westlaw UK
As well as case law, legislation, journal articles and EU information, Westlaw UK also
provides access to comprehensive analytical commentary from titles such as Archbold,
The White Book, Woodfall, Copinger, CIPA Guide to the Patents Act and more.
Westlaw UK also now contains analytical commentary from Sweet & Maxwell’s Common
Law Library, including Chitty on Contracts as well as the other Common Law Library titles.
As with anything on Westlaw UK all content is interlinked and cross-referenced. You can
search the commentary available by using either the Basic Search, Advanced Search
or Browse functions through a list of individual titles. You can search across all titles in
the Commentary or individual titles such as Chitty on Contracts.
You can access the Book collections
(which includes the full text of Chitty on
Contract) by clicking on the tab available
on the Westlaw UK homepage.
When a title, such as Chitty on Contracts, has both a main work and a supplement you
have the choice of using an enhanced version which merges the supplement into the
main work or using the separate main work and supplement, as they appear in print.
8. Printing, downloading and e-mailing documents on Westlaw
UK
When you open any document on Westlaw UK you will have the options to print it out,
download it to your computer, or e-mail it to yourself or a colleague. Just choose the
relevant icon from the top right corner of the page:
Downloading documents to your computer
You can download any document from Westlaw UK as a Word document or PDF file.
Click on the Envelope icon in the top right hand of the document. Choose Download
from the drop-down list and the Download options page will be displayed:Display status indicator:
this will include any relevant
Status Icon at the start of
the saved document.
Include live links: this will
mark any links used in the
document.
Highlight search terms: the
search terms you used to find
this document will be
highlighted within the text.
Include summary page:
details the number of
documents delivered and
the person making the
request as well as details of
the original search.
You can also download individual documents from a Search Results List. Once the
result list is displayed, use the checkboxes to select the documents you wish to save
and click the Envelope Delivery (
) icon.
E-mailing documents
You can e-mail any document from Westlaw UK as a Word document or PDF file, to
yourself or to a number of your fellow students/colleagues.
Caution:- The copyright license under which you are allowed access to Westlaw UK does not
permit you to e-mail any document from Westlaw UK to a friend or colleague who does not study
at or work for the University of the West of England.
Click on the envelope icon ( ) in the top right hand of the screen and select E-mail.
The E-mail Options page will be displayed (see diagram), where you can decide
between a PDF or Word RFT (rich text file) file format, include an e-mail message, and
select various Output options:-
Remember you must include
your UWE e-mail address here.
Printing documents
You can print any document from Westlaw UK. Click on the envelope icon ( ) in the
top right hand of the screen and select Print. The Print Options page will be displayed
where you can select your Output options:-
From this screen you can also choose whether you want the original search terms to be
highlighted in your printed document.
You can also choose to just print the results screen.
Downloading or printing an entire Act / SI in PDF
There are various ways for you to retrieve and print a full-text legislation PDF document
(You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer in order to read this version of
the document).
 From the legislation browse list and clicking on the PDF Icon.
 Clicking the PDF link from the top right-hand corner of the screen when viewing
any legislation document.
This guide can be made available in alternative formats on request
to the Disability Support Librarians:
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 0117 32 83691