Frequently Asked Questions

The citation gives you all the information needed to find the case. The process is illustrated in this example:

R v Z [2005] 2 AC 467

The citation includes:

• The name of the case (R [which stands for the Latin "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 (page 467)

To find the case, you need to know which law report is represented by the abbreviation "AC". One of the best ways to find the meaning of an abbreviation is to search the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations. This will show that AC stands for the Law Reports, Appeal Cases.

The next step is to search Publications Search to find out which database has the full text of the Law Reports, Appeal Cases, and the years available. This will show that the Appeal Cases are available in Lexis+ and Westlaw. You can also search vLex Justis by citation or party names, then select the citations and sources section to discover which Online Library database provides access to the law report.

To retrieve the case from Westlaw, log in then select "Cases" from the menu at the top of the page, then cases search from the drop down menu. On the cases search page, type R v Z in the "Parties" search box and click "Search". You will retrieve over eighty results. So, what should you do to narrow your search?

Click "Edit Search" in the top right corner of the screen. To search by citation type [2005] 2 AC 467 into the citation search box and click "Search". You will have retrieved the 2005 case R. v Hasan (Aytach). Select the case and you will see that it is also known as R. v Z.

Going back to the results page, select the arrow to the left of the party names to display the subjects and keywords assigned to the case, the citations where the case has been reported (with direct links to the law reports available in Westlaw), and the Case Analysis document (highlighted in yellow).

The Case Analysis provides the information you need when looking for relevant case law. This includes the Case Digest (a short summary of the case, the appellate history, cases and legislation citing the case and cited by the case, and related journal articles, books and topic overviews. The Law Reports section contains links to the law reports available in Westlaw.

You may need to try searching by citation, party names or subject, in order to find the case you are looking for. For further information on searching Westlaw see the Quick Start Guide.

It is essential to become familiar with all of the major legal databases To familiarise yourself with Lexis+ search for R. v Hasan (Aytach). For assistance logging into Lexis+ with your student portal password see the login guide.

To search the Lexis+ for cases select Cases, enter your search terms r v z into the search box on the home page, and select cases from the drop down menu in the search box. Again you will have retrieved too many cases (487 total results across all content types, and 172 case reports and 186 judgments). For a more precise search, select advanced search, “select a different content type” and then select cases.  The advanced cases search has more specific search boxes for advanced searching. Type R v Z into the "Case Name" search boxes and click "Search". Now only 8 case reports and 12 judgments are retrieved.

To narrow your search,  you can also search by the citation. Citation search is more effective as the citation is specific to an individual case. Select the Lexis+ logo in the top left corner to go back to the home page. Then under content, select cases, then advanced search, to go back to the advanced cases search. Enter the citation [2005] 2 AC 467 into the citation search box and click search to retrieve the 2005 Court of Appeal law report, select [2005] 2 AC 467.

For further information on searching Lexis+ see the Quick Start Guide, and Legal Information Skills Tutorials.

See the Online Library Nutshell Guide for Laws for an overview of the key legal databases.

For assistance, contact the Online Library Enquiry Service.