Subject Guides: Law: Undergraduate Support Services: Journals

Journal Citation

Law Journal:

"Contains articles and comments by academic writers on legal issues"

Journal Articles:

Journal articles are written by researchers or scholars who work in a professional or in an academic field.

An editorial board evaluates articles submitted. Subject specialists decide whether or not the article adds valuable, important, or new information to the subject and whether or not the research has been conducted correctly, academically, and in an ethical or moral way. Articles thus reviewed or examined are called ‘peer reviewed’.

Journal articles quote sources to substantiate information or statements and also to have an academic reading list of sources consulted for writing the article.

Consult journal articles:

For scholarly or academic information

For subject-specific articles in your field of study

For subject-specific articles on a topic (The topic can be large or very specific dealing with a small aspect or part of a topic.)

For new research

For research only published in journals

For criticism or comparison of ideas, thoughts, etc.

There are three different websites you can search for law journal articles published in SA:

South African Legal Periodicals Index – https://www.concourt.org.za/ then select iSalpi. This is a free database.
Johannesburg Society of Advocates library – See ‘Library Section’ – www.johannesburgbar.co.za. This is a free database.
Sabinet – www.journals.co.za. This is a free database.

Take note that the first two databases only contain references and not the full text of articles in journals, and only cover journal issues that were published from 1980 onwards.

However, more and more journals are providing free access online and besides using the websites listed below you can also use the Sabinet website (www.journals.co.za) to search most of the law journals published in SA all at once (articles published from 2000 onwards). In order to view the list of the law journals that Sabinet includes in their SA ePublications database, click on the tab ‘Law collection’ (this collection of law journals published in SA includes both subscription-based and open access journals, but not all of them).

You can search by author, keyword, year, the title of the journal article, journal title amongst other fields when you use the Sabinet website. If you are interested in a certain journal you can then view the article and if it is an open-access journal you will be able to download the content at no cost. If the journal is subscription-based, your institution or law firm will have to pay a Sabinet subscription in order to view the article.

To access older law journals (published in South Africa) there is also an archive of older journal articles available at The African Journal Archive (www.ajarchive.org) is a Sabinet Gateway project in conjunction with the Carnegie Corporation. There are some law journals on the platform that can be accessed free of charge.

Directory of Open Access Journals

DOAJ is an online directory that indexes and provides access to quality open access, peer-reviewed journals

SAFLII

Law Journals

African Human Rights Law Journal
De Jure Law Journal
De Rebus Law Journal
Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal
SADC Law Journal
South Africa: Law, Democracy and Development Law Journal
Speculum Juris

eJournals A-Z (now called 'Full Text Finder') Is a next-generation knowledge base, holdings management tool, publication finder and link resolver. Full Text Finder integrates with EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) to provide users fast and reliable access to full text and a better library experience.

HeinOnline It is an online database containing more than 200,000 titles of historical and government documents in a fully searchable, image-based format. HeinOnline provides comprehensive coverage from inception of more than 2,600 law-related periodicals. In addition to its vast collection of academic journals, HeinOnline contains the entire Congressional Record, Federal Register, and Code of Federal Regulations, complete coverage of the U.S. Reports back to 1754, and entire databases dedicated to treaties, constitutions, case law, world trials, classic treatises, international trade, foreign relations, U.S. Presidents, and much more.

Law: Undergraduate Support Services

Faculty Librarian (Law)

Journal Citation

UWC LIBRARY & INFORMATION SERVICES