+27 21 959 2946library@uwc.ac.za
United Kingdom
The Supreme Court is the final court of appeal in the UK for civil cases, and for criminal cases from England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It hears cases of the greatest public or constitutional importance affecting the whole population.
The Court of Appeal is the highest court within the Senior Courts of England and Wales and deals only with appeals from other courts or tribunals.
The High Court of England and Wales is the third highest court in the UK and deals with civil cases and appeals of decisions made in lower courts. It consists of three divisions; the Queen's Bench Division, the Chancery Division and the Family Division. Its name is abbreviated to EWHC.
legislation.gov.uk includes the original (as enacted) and revised editions of the primary legislation of the United Kingdom. These statutes are published by and under the authority of the Controller of HMSO (in his capacity as The Queen's Printer of Acts of Parliament, and Government Printer of Northern Ireland) and the Queen's Printer for Scotland. It includes the full-text of Acts of Parliament from 1267 to date.
Historical documents made available to support personal research including Public Acts, Private Acts and Parliamentary Papers.
The Law Commission is the statutory independent body created by the Law Commissions Act 1965 to keep the law of England and Wales under review and to recommend reform where it is needed.
Promoting and upholding equality and human rights ideals and laws across England, Scotland and Wales. This is Great Britain's national equality body operating independently to safeguard and enforce the laws the protect people's rights to fairness, dignity and respect.
AccessToLaw is a gateway site, providing annotated links to selected UK, Commonwealth and worldwide free legal websites. Over 1,300 sites are currently included.
EUR-Lex provides a single entry point to the complete collections of EU legal texts, including CELEX, PreLex, Oeil, and other sources. It has separate search pages for the Official Journal, Treaties, Legislation, Legislation in Preparation, Case-Law, and Documents of Public Interest.
Information from the European Court of Human Rights. It includes access to the HUDOC database, which provides access to the case-law of the ECHR: Grand Chamber, Chamber and Committee judgments, decisions, communicated cases, advisory opinions and legal summaries from the Case-Law Information Note, the European Commission of Human Rights (decisions and reports) and the Committee of Ministers (resolutions).
HUDOC provides access to the case-law of the Grand Chamber, Chamber and Committee judgments and decisions of the European Court. For help with the database, click on 'Help' in the top right-hand corner of the website.
Europa.eu is the official website of the European Union. It is a good starting point if you are looking for information and services provided by the EU but you don't know your way around our sites.
Available documents include the UN Journal, as well as documents from the General Assembly, Security Council, Human Rights Council, Economic and Social Council and others.
AccessToLaw is a gateway site, providing annotated links to selected UK, Commonwealth and worldwide free legal web sites. Over 1,300 sites are currently included.
The United States Supreme Court (“USSC”) is the highest court in the United States. Opinions rendered by this court are considered the law of the land and the Court is the final arbiter on issues regarding the United States Constitution. The Court consists of a Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices who are nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed by the United States Senate. Decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court are binding on all federal and state courts.
AccessToLaw is a gateway site, providing annotated links to selected UK, Commonwealth and worldwide free legal websites. Over 1,300 sites are currently included.
The Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII) provides free internet access to Australasian legal materials.
CanLII is a non-profit organization managed by the Federation of Law Societies of Canada. CanLII's goal is to make Canadian law accessible for free on the Internet.
The Commonwealth Legal Information Institute (CommonLII) aims to provide one central Internet location from which it is possible to search - for free - core legal information from all Commonwealth countries.
AccessToLaw is a gateway site, providing annotated links to selected UK, Commonwealth and worldwide free legal websites. Over 1,300 sites are currently included.
Legal Information Institutes
AfricanLII convenes a network of 16 African LIIs - a collaborative group of organizations and individuals in Africa, dedicated to free access to the law on our continent. It also provides a Pan-African legal search engine, and hosts regional legal materials for free access.
AsianLII provides for searching and browsing databases of legislation, case-law, law reform reports, law journals and other legal information, where available, from each country in the region.
EISIL has been designed as an open database of authenticated primary and other materials across the breadth of international law.
SAFLII, the South African Legal Information Institute, is an online repository of legal information, e.g. case law and legislation, from South Africa. It aims to promote the rule of law and judicial accountability by publishing legal material for open access in line with the objectives of the global free Access to Law movement.
WorldLII provides a single search facility for databases located on the following Legal Information Institutes: AustLII; BAILII; CanLII; HKLII; LII (Cornell); and PacLII. It also includes databases of decisions of international Courts and Tribunals, databases from a number of Asian countries, and databases from South Africa.
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Additional Resources
The Court is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. It was established by the United Nations Charter, signed in 1945 at San Francisco (United States), and began work in 1946 in the Peace Palace, The Hague (Netherlands).
Gateway to UN information.
AccessToLaw is a gateway site, providing annotated links to selected UK, Commonwealth and worldwide free legal websites. Over 1,300 sites are currently included.
University of the Western Cape,
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Tel: 021 959 2946
