Information resources for Land Law

1. Legal Method
Finding information for the Land
Law Coursework Research
Exercise
Sarah Crofts,
Law & Criminology Librarian
January 2015

2. By the end of this session you will be
able to:
 Select appropriate databases for Land Law,
 Formulate a search for cases and journal
articles for a specific topic,
 Attempt the Lexis Certification and/or
Westlaw Training Tutorial,
 Access the library subject guides for remote
login guides.

3. New features: LibrarySearch and
Subject Guides

4. Subject Guides: Law
 Access from:
 the Portal or
 Direct link: http://libguides.gre.ac.uk/law
 Training tab for links to certification pages
for:
 Lexis
 Westlaw
 JustCite
 Resources tab for guides to access to e-
resources from off-campus and from laptops

5. LIBRARY SEARCH & EBOOKS

6. Library Search:
Using MyiLibrary ebooks Off Campus
 If you are off campus or using your own laptop
you need to authenticate yourself in order to
open ebooks in MyiLibrary.
 From the A-Z list of e-resources in the portal,
select EBSCOhost Research Databases,
 Keep the window open in your web browser and
go back to the A-Z list of e-resources to select
MyiLibrary,
 This will enable MyiLibrary to pick up your
authenticated status.

7. LibrarySearch home page

8. LibrarySearch Advanced Search
Contains
Is (exact)
Starts with

9. eBooks
 Dawsonera and MyiLibrary both include a
small number of recent Land Law eBooks, e.g.
 Megarry and Wade, The law of real property
 Thompson, Modern land law, 5th ed.
 Find these using the ebook platforms or
LibrarySearch

10. LibrarySearch
 LibrarySearch does NOT give access to:
 Cases and legislation
 Articles in legal journals on Lexis and Westlaw (but
it may take you to the journal, but not the article)
 Datasets, e.g. Company accounts, Macroeconomic
data, Marketing data

11. DATABASES

12. E-Library: Library Databases

13. Access – See the Subject Guide links
 Resources tab for guides to access to e-
resources from off-campus and from laptops
 Access from:
 the Portal or
 Direct link: http://libguides.gre.ac.uk/law

14. JUSTCITE

15. JustCite Searches
 Cases:
 Tulk v Moxhay (1848) 2 Ph 774
 Thamesmead Town v Allotey [1998] 3 EGLR 97
 Statutes (add s. number for specific section)
 Law of Property Act 1925 s. 78

16. LEXIS LIBRARY

17. Lexis: Quick Find
Find a legal term: Positive covenant
Find a source: New Law Journal

18. Lexis: General
Covenants relating to land

19. Lexis: Cases (Add topics)
Select: Real
Property Law -
Covenants

20. Lexis: Cases Search terms

21. Lexis: Journals

22. Lexis Commentary: including
Halsbury’s Laws of England
Select: Commentary, Halsbury’s
Laws of England

23. Halsbury’s Laws of England
www.lexisnexis.co.uk/HalsburysLaw/halsburys_laws_about.html
This is our print copy
(4th ed.). It is not
updated so use the
online version on Lexis
in preference (5th ed.)

24. Searching in Lexis:
Choose key terms
 These could be a phrase such as:
 “express grant”
 “recreational right”,
 “prescriptive right”,
 “right(s) annexed to land”
 “restrictive covenant”
 “exclusive possession”
 Lexis always searches words as a phrase, unless you instruct
otherwise and will return results with words in that order.
 Or individual words, such as “prescription”
“licence”

25. Searching in Lexis: Using Connectors
 Connectors:
 AND to find both terms anywhere in the
document, e.g. “restrictive AND covenant”,
 OR to find either of two terms, e.g. “land OR
property”
 Proximity connectors:
 w/s to find both terms within the same sentence,
e.g. “Registered W/S land”
 w/p to find both terms within the same paragraph,
e.g. “Registered W/P land”

26. WESTLAW

27. Westlaw

28. Westlaw: Insight

29. Westlaw Insight article

30. Westlaw Cases search

31. Westlaw Cases: Advanced Search

32. Westlaw: Journals

33. Westlaw Search tips:
 Case search enter the names of the parties
without the “v”,
 e.g. Tulk Moxhay
 To search for words as a phrase in Westlaw, you
need “quote marks”
 E.g. “Family home”, “positive covenants”
 Alternative endings – use !,
 e.g. Covenant!
 Too many results?
 Try narrowing your search down or “Search Within”.

34. Westlaw: Refining your search
 Connectors (as for Lexis):
 AND to find both terms anywhere in the
document,
 e.g. “Service charges” AND covenants
 OR to find either of two terms,
 e.g. bankruptcy OR insolvency
 Proximity connectors (different from Lexis):
 /s to find both terms within the same sentence, e.g.
“Service charges” /s covenants
 /p to find both terms within the same paragraph
 “Services charges” /p covenants

35. Westlaw: Books

36. Lexis or Westlaw Certificates
 In case the certificates from Lexis or Westlaw
do not arrive in time, please do a screen shot
of the screen confirming that you have been
successful and include this at the END of your
research assignment.
 A useful tool in Microsoft is the Snipping Tool
which you can find in the Start Menu.

37. New! Cite them right
 Online version of the book available in the
library.
 Help with referencing – includes OSCOLA.
 Will be on A-Z list soon, until then, access on
campus from this link:
 http://www.citethemrightonline.com/

38. Thank you
 Law and Criminology/Criminal Justice
 Senior Academic Services Librarian: Sarah Crofts
 Law Subject Guide: http://libguides.gre.ac.uk/law
 Email: cs02@gre.ac.uk, x9078
 Information & Library Service
 Blog: http://uoglibrary.blogspot.com
 Twitter for latest news: http://twitter.com/UoGlibraries
This room opens into a silent study area. Please leave quietly.
The closest lift and stairs are to your left as you leave.
Thank you.