Tag Archives: research

New trial: Jus Mundi Academic Research

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Recently we have arranged access to the Jus Mundi Academic Research database, which we have until 17th November.

Jus Mundi Academic Research is a comprehensive, multilingual, user-friendly and intelligent search engine for international law and arbitration. It covers over 72,000 international law and arbitration documents, including investment arbitration, commercial arbitration, public international law, law of the sea, and international trade-law. Jus Mundi has international cases from more than 100 institutions globally, namely, WTO, ICSID, ICC, ICJ, CAS, PCA, ICDR, IUSCT, ITLOS, SCC, LCIA, ICAC, RAC, SIAC, HKIAC, Mixed Claims Commissions, and ad hoc arbitration tribunals established under the UNCITRAL rules. Commercial arbitration documents including arbitral awards are made available through Jus Mundi thanks to their partnerships with the IBA, ICC, RAC, VIAC, CEA, UAA, ICDR, CBMA, HKIAC, SHIAC, SCCA, THAC and more.

Image indicates coverage of Jus Mundi: 35k+ Decisions From global arbitration institutions and national courts 10k + Full awards and procedural orders 15k+ Supporting case documents Including dissenting opinions, expert opinions, pleadings, witness statements and more 4.5k+ Treaties Plus thousands of related cases ≈ 300 Wiki Notes On key concepts in ISDS

Jus Mundi is a provider who also hosts the ICC Dispute Resolution Channel, so you may already be familiar with their platform. This means we now have access not only to ICC DRL but also to Jus Mundi’s search engine + Documents on Treaties, Cases and Rules of Arbitration, and Wiki notes.

Students and staff may be interested to know there is a dedicated help center for useful information:

To access Jus Mundi please visit the EResources trials page for links and usernames. Don’t forget to complete the feedback form so we know what you think!

Welcome to Week One!

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Hello, and if you’re a new student joining us for the 2023/24 academic year we look forward to meeting you in the Law Library soon!

We are Anna Richards and SarahLouise McDonald, and we are your Law Librarians. Anna works the first half of the week, SarahLouise the second, and you can reach us both by email on law.librarian@ed.ac.uk at any time.

Photos of Anna and SarahLouise (L-R). The background is formed of a white space with black and blue geometric shapes behind the photos.

You may have already met us at one of the several induction sessions we’ve been running over the past week or two. If you missed them you can find recordings on the Law Librarian Media Hopper Channel:

The slides for each session are added as ‘attachments’ to the videos above. Please note that captions are automatically generated and we’ll endeavour to get them corrected over the coming month.

One session which wasn’t recorded was the Diploma Welcome to the Library session which was delivered face-to-face. If you’re a Diploma student you should already have access to the slides via your Learn pages, but if not you can find them here: Law – Diploma induction 2023.

If you’re looking for information on using the physical library, we recommend you check out the Law Library webpages and take a look at our Virtual Orientation Guide (Microsoft Sway document – other formats are available by request). We hope that you’ll get in touch with either ourselves or our colleagues on the library helpdesk by contacting EdHelp if you have any queries. See you in the library!

New trial: Oxford Encyclopedia of EU Law

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Image showing Oxford University press logo. Text reads Introducing the Oxford Encyclopedia of EU Law: new to Oxford University Press.

You may be interested to know about a trial we have currently running for the Oxford Encyclopedia of EU Law. From the publishers’ website:

A year ago, the Oxford Encyclopedia of EU Law (OEEUL) was launched as a new product within the Oxford Public International Law (OPIL) family. Providing high-level analysis of European Union law by specialized distinguished contributors, OEEUL articles define, explain, and analyze EU law’s key legal concepts in an accessible yet profound way. It is a source of great pride for the OEEUL team that in its first year, the encyclopedia has grown from the initial 100 entries to its current 131 articles – with the team dedicated to increasing this content by tenfold in the coming years to eventually cover the entire EU legal order.

This database is offered via the Oxford Public International Law (OPIL) platform, where we also subscribe to the Max Planck Encyclopedias of International Law, and the Oxford Reports on International Law; both key resources for research and study.

The trial for the Oxford Encyclopedia of EU Law runs from 16th August to 16th October 2023, and the databases can be accessed via the E-resources trials page. Please have a look at the content provided and let us know what you think using the Trial feedback form. All comments will help us decide whether to subscribe to this resource going forward.

New Resource: Law Library of Congress Reports (HeinOnline)

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Image of the Law Library of Congress, exterior. A long white brick building with tall recesses indicating windows is shown on a sunny day. The avenue outside the building is lined with trees.

Recently HeinOnline has added the Law Library of Congress Reports to its online databases offerings. From Hein’s website:

The Law Library of Congress was established in 1832 as a separate department of the Library of Congress. Its mission is to provide authoritative legal research, reference and instruction services, and access to an unrivaled collection of U.S., foreign, comparative, and international law. To accomplish this mission, the Law Library has assembled a staff of experienced foreign and U.S. trained legal specialists and law librarians, and has amassed the world’s largest collection of law books and other legal resources from all countries, now comprising more than 2.9 million items, including one of the world’s best rare law book collections and the most complete collection of foreign legal gazettes in the U.S.

The Law Library produces reports on foreign, comparative, and international law in response to requests from Members of Congress, Congressional staff and committees, the federal courts, executive branch agencies, and others.

This database includes more than 3,500 reports from the Law Library of Congress on foreign, comparative, and international law—all in one easy-to-navigate collection. HeinOnline offer a helpful LibGuide which can help you explore the content further, and you can access the database itself via the Library Databases pages.

New resource: Decolonisation and Legal Knowledge

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In January the School of Law was fortunate to host the book launch event for Professor Folúkẹ́ Adébísí’s Decolonisation and Legal Knowledge: Reflections on Power and Possibility. 

Cover image of the book Decolonisation and Legal Knowledge. The book title and author information is located in a blue box on the centre-left of the cover. Behind is an image of cracked earth meeting green branches and foliage which are growing from the right edge of the cover.

From the publisher:

The law is heavily implicated in creating, maintaining, and reproducing racialised hierarchies which bring about and preserve acute global disparities and injustices. This essential book provides an examination of the meanings of decolonisation and explores how this examination can inform teaching, researching, and practising of law.

It explores the ways in which the foundations of law are entangled in colonial thought and in its [re]production of ideas of commodification of bodies and space-time. Thus, it is an exploration of the ways in which we can use theories and praxes of decolonisation to produce legal knowledge for flourishing futures.

This text is now available via DiscoverEd: Decolonisation and Legal Knowledge: Reflections on Power and Possibility.

If you’re interested in requesting material like this that you think would be a valuable addition to the Law Library, you can complete the Request A Book (RAB) form. Alternatively if you’re interested in the library securing access to subscriptions or expensive items that you think would benefit teaching or research, contact us by email (law.librarian@ed.ac.uk) to discuss your idea!

Bloomsbury Professional Ebooks: formerly on LexisLibrary

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We want to alert students to a change we’re dealing with regarding Bloomsbury Professional ebooks which were formerly offered on the LexisLibrary platform.. Unfortunately going forward these will no longer be available on this database, and we’re working on access to them via Bloomsbury’s own platform instead.

The courses affected are mainly Property, Evidence, Criminal, Employment, and Contract Law, and the book titles are as follows:

  • Walker & Walker: The Law of Evidence in Scotland
  • A fingertip guide to Scots Criminal law
  •  Commercial Leases
  • McDonald’s Conveyancing Manual
  • Conveyancing Practice in Scotland
  • Property Trusts and Succession
  • Mental Health, Incapacity and the Law in Scotland
  • Scottish Law of Leases
  • Scots Criminal Law
  • Employment Law in Scotland
  • Contract Law in Scotland
  • Missives
  • Scottish Planning Law
  • Scottish Older Client Law Service
  • Drafting Wills in Scotland
  • International Sucession Laws
  • Thomson’s Delictual Liability
  • Tolley’s Estate Planning
  • Tolley’s Inheritance Tax
  • Tolley’s Company Law Handbook
  • Style Writs in the Sheriff Court

While negotiations are ongoing with Bloomsbury (and until the end of May 2023) we’ll be able to access all of these titles using a trial they’ve given us to their own platform, providing students from 2022/23 access through the end of Semester Two exams. The procedure for finding these books is as follows:

  1. Visit the EResources Trials page
  2. Click on ‘Bloomsbury Professional Scots Law Titles’
  3. You will be prompted to log in with your usual username and password.
  4. You’ll arrive at a page that will give you the username and password to use on the Bloomsbury site
  5. Click the link to Bloomsbury (it helps to do this in a new tab or window so you can copy the log in details), then enter the username and password to log in.
  6. Use the navigation on the left hand side to access the title of the book you need.

This information has been added to the DiscoverEd records for these books, and I will also be circulating it via newsletters, blogs and other communication channels. Please do share this information with your classmates to assist them with their study or research if they require access to these books.

If you have any issues accessing these items please email us on law.librarian@ed.ac.uk.

Dissertation Support: Referencing for Law

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We’ve set up another date for our popular ‘Referencing for Law’ session, which is always well attended by UG and PG students alike. If you are not familiar with referencing law materials, this is the session for you! We’ll cover:

  • Why we reference and the definition of plagiarism
  • How to use reference systems in assessed work
  • What to include in a reference list for OSCOLA
  • An assessment of how reference manager software works with OSCOLA
  • Hints and tips to make referencing easier

The all-important date for this is Wednesday 5th April, 10am-11am.

The session will be held online using Blackboard Collaborate, with a link to the session provided on the event page and also in reminder emails. The seminar will last just under an hour with time for questions built in. It will be recorded and uploaded to the Law Librarian Resources Media Hopper Channel for access asynchronously afterwards; slides and a link to the recording will be sent out after the event. Please book a place via the MyEd Events Booking system. 

Two highlighters are placed in the centre of an open book. A pair of glasses are also resting on one of the pages.

We understand this is a little late for UG students whose dissertations are due in the next few weeks, but don’t despair! If this is you, we recommend you take a look at the materials you can access at any time here:

If you’ve read and watched all of the above but are still struggling, just get in touch by email: law.librarian@ed.ac.uk.

Referencing, research: one-to-one appointments

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A person stands against a brick wall with a sheaf of papers or documents flapped across their face. They give the impression of being overwhelmed.

Image by Siora Photography via Unsplash

Do you need help with your research? Have you got yourself into a muddle using legal resources online? Do you just need to know what you need to know?

Book a one-to-one meeting with our Law Librarian team to discuss your research issues or library problems. In previous one-to-ones we’ve helped students with:

  • search strategies
  • using our subscription databases
  • finding international case law
  • finding historical Scots material online (specifically the Institutional Writers)
  • referencing (specifically using OSCOLA)
  • setting up news alerts for cases or legislation

We arrange appointments once a fortnight using the MyEd booking system. Search for “Literature search clinic” and select the Law specific event, or search for “Law” and select provider group “IS Library and University Collections” to find all our Law related training. Future dates include:

  • 19th January
  • 9th February
  • 23rd February
  • 1st March
  • 15th March
  • 30th March
  • 13th April
  • 4th May

Please note: due to our current staffing situation these appointments are all on Wednesdays and Thursdays. If you require a different day please get in touch.

We release appointments approximately three weeks before each scheduled date. This semester we’re trialling a combination of online and in-person appointments so when you book feel free to contact us to discuss how you would prefer to meet. If you cannot see an available meeting slot that suits you please email law.librarian@ed.ac.uk and we will find a suitable time.

Finding key resources: Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia

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For those rejoining us in January for Semester Two, welcome back! For those who are new to the Law School or just this blog, welcome! This is where we report news, updates and offer tips for training in library resources. The blog is currently written by SarahLouise, the Law Librarian who works Wednesdays to Fridays, as we have a vacancy for the other half of the post. We hope to have a new Law Librarian joining the team over the next few months and will introduce them when they start!

We’ve received quite a few queries about locating some key resources for research and study over the last few months so we wanted to clarify how best to access these. First up, the Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia. This is a resource which is core for our undergraduate students as they get to grips with Scots Law. We do have instructions listed on the Law Databases Help & Training page under ‘Resources for Scottish Legal System’, but we wanted to add some screenshots here for the visual learners.

  • To log in to Lexis+, you will need to select ‘academic log in’. You may then be presented with a dropdown box to select ‘UK Access Federation’. Select ‘University of Edinburgh’ from the list, and you will be logged in. Alternatively you may have the option to select ‘University of Edinburgh from the front page – do this if available!

Screengrab of login page for LexisLibrary/Lexis+. The words 'use academic sign in' and 'university of edinburgh' have been highlighted in yellow to indicate areas to click on.

  • You may be asked to log in with your UUN at this stage if you’re not on-campus. Use your usual student ID and password.
  • In the middle panel in the centre of the page, select ‘content’ from the navigation menu.

Screengrab of main panel when logged in to Lexis+. In the central pane there are a number of links across a navigational bar, and in this image the link to 'content' is highlighted in yellow.

  • The resource will be one of the first items listed as ‘Halsburys Laws and Stair’. Click this.
  • Then you will see a link to Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia. Click the title, and use the plus and minus boxes to navigate through to find the section you need.
  • If you want to, use the pushpin icon near the title to add this to your pinned sources. This bookmarking tool means that a shortcut will appear under ‘My Sources’ on the main panel when you log in to Lexis in future, which will save you a few steps.

Screengrab of the contents page of the Stair ebook is shown. There is a pushpin icon in the top right of the image which has been highlighted in yellow.

Screengrab of main panel of Lexis+ again, this time with 'My Sources' selected. Below the navigational bar the direct link to the Stair Memorial Encyclopaedia is highlighted in yellow.

We hope this is helpful. If you have a resource you’d like a little more advice on accessing, please let us know by email (law.librarian@ed.ac.uk) or by commenting on this post.

Warm wishes from your Law Librarian

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Working in the Law Library today has been like night and day since the study space scramble of last week, and that’s because most students have now finished up for the term and are beginning their winter breaks. The Law Library is still open until 4.50pm tomorrow (Thursday 22nd December), and we will then close our doors until Wednesday 4th January 2022. If you are studying or conducting research over the winter break you will find our online resources remain accessible via the usual channels, but should you run into difficulties we will not be able to respond to any messages until we return in January. Alternatively the Main Library is available during the holidays, you can find out more on their page on the website.

It’s been a bit of a tricky year in the land of Law Libraries as we’ve been short staffed for much of Semester One both on the Helpdesk and in the Academic Support Librarian team. We appreciate your patience while we do what we can in the time available, and look forward to Semester Two where we hope we’ll be back up to a full complement before too long.

We wish you a pleasant and restful winter break and hope for your health and happiness during your time away from the University. See you next Semester!

 – SarahLouise 

Christmas tree on display in the quad at Old College.