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English Legal Sources Available through BLS Library

Tools to Find Recent Legal Articles & Pre-prints of Legal Articles/Some Book Chapters

  • Links to digital versions of many legal journals and three legal yearbooks published by Oxford University Press (OUP).  BLS provides access to two additional journals not listed: Journal of Church and State and Journal of Refugee Studies. 
  • Most of these OUP sources also provide "Advance articles."  (BLS researchers might need to click: More Content > Advance Articles.)
  • These OUP sources include the option to view articles in PDF.

  • Please note that the following eight titles are not included in the BLS subscription: Arbitration Law Reports and Review, Journal of Cybersecurity, Journal of Law and Biosciences, Journal of Legal Analysis, Parliamentary Affairs, Public Policy & Aging Report, Reports of Patent, Design and Trade Mark Cases and Review of Finance. 

SSRN and bepress Legal Repository (free) might yield "as yet unpublished" legal articles and book chapters. 

Tools to Find Published Legal Articles

OneSearch discovery platform yields published articles in many of BLS Library's subscription databases (HeinOnline, Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier, JSTOR, selected news sources, etc.).  But OneSearch does not index articles in Westlaw, Lexis+, and Bloomberg Law.

For the Westlaw links below, click desired link > enter your Westlaw user name/password. 

Westlaw: Legal Journals Index

  • Indexes articles published in 430+ UK legal periodicals.
  • Scope: 1986-
  • Often, there are no links to articles in your Legal Journals Index search results. 
    • Tips: Try entering the title of the periodical in Westlaw's search box or linking to a source (if available) in Westlaw UK's list of Publications. 
    • Also try entering the title of the periodical in Lexis+'s search box, in SARA catalog's Find a Source tool and in SARA catalog (b/c BLS Library might own the periodical in print form).  No luck?  BLS researchers can request articles through tab: ILL in SARA catalog. 

      • Enter your BLS user name (in format: firstname.lastname) & password > click: Create Request. 

        • Click tab: Article to request an article. 

        • Please monitor both your BLS "In" box and "Clutter" folder for messages about your ILL requests.  Copies of articles and book chapters often arrive within 1-3 business days of placing a request.  (Material arrives more quickly if a lender can fill an interlibrary loan request electronically.) 

Westlaw: Legal and Regulatory Developments Index

  • Indexes UK government departments’ press releases, UK Command Papers, and UK parliamentary publications.
  • Scope: 1994-

 Westlaw: Legal Resource Index

  • Focus: Primarily indexes articles published in U.S. legal periodicals.  Also indexes articles published in selected UK legal periodicals.
  • Scope: 1980-

Tool to Find Historical Legal Articles (Subscription)

Index to Legal Periodicals and Books Retrospective, 1908-1981

  • Publisher's summary states this source indexes 750+ "legal periodicals published in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand"; content from "38 printed compendia"; "annual surveys of laws by jurisdiction; annual surveys of federal court cases; yearbooks; and annual institutes."

Databases of Published, Full-text Legal Articles (Subscription)

Westlaw: United Kingdom Journals

  • Includes journals published by: Sweet and Maxwell and Vathek Publishing.
  • Scope: Varies by publication.

Westlaw UK: Journals Search + Links to specific Publications (including scope of coverage information).

Lexis+: All United Kingdom Law Reviews and Journals

  • Includes selected journals published by: Cambridge University Press, LexisNexis (UK), and Vathek Publishing.
  • Scope: Varies by publication.