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Sociology

Online Legal Research

Westlaw, a comprehensive online legal research platform, offers a wealth of resources relevant to sociology students focusing on areas such as social inequality, social change, deviance, and social institutions. While primarily designed for legal professionals, Westlaw's extensive collection of international legal resources and powerful research capabilities make it an indispensable tool for sociological research.

Contents of Westlaw Relevant to Sociology Students:

  • Case Law: Access to decisions from various courts, including those dealing with social issues like discrimination, human rights violations, and social welfare disputes, can provide valuable insights into how legal systems address and interpret social problems.
  • Legislation and Regulations: A vast collection of laws and regulations concerning social welfare, labour rights, family law, and criminal justice can be studied to understand how societies codify and enforce social norms and values.
  • Legal Journals and Commentary: Articles and commentaries on legal issues related to social justice, inequality, and social policy can provide theoretical and empirical insights into sociological phenomena.
  • News and Current Awareness: Stay informed about the latest legal developments, court decisions, and policy changes that have significant social implications and can inform sociological research.

Why Sociology Students Need Westlaw:

  • Research: Westlaw is a primary tool for conducting research on legal aspects of social issues, allowing you to find relevant case law, legislation, regulations, and commentary efficiently. This is crucial for research papers, dissertations, and thesis preparation.
  • Critical Analysis: Examining legal documents and court decisions through a sociological lens can help you critically analyse the social, political, and economic factors that influence legal outcomes and shape social structures.
  • Understanding Social Change: Assessing legal changes over time can reveal how social movements, political activism, and evolving social norms have impacted laws and policies related to social issues.
  • Interdisciplinary Approach: Integrating legal research into sociological inquiry can enrich your understanding of complex social phenomena and contribute to interdisciplinary scholarship.

These videos will give you an introduction to using Westlaw for legal research. Watch these videos and then try Westlaw for yourself!

Lexis, a comprehensive online legal research platform, transcends its traditional role as a tool for legal professionals by providing a wealth of resources for sociology students delving into areas like social inequality, social change, deviance, and comparative social institutions. Lexis's extensive collection of international and domestic legal resources and powerful research capabilities allow for a deep dive into the legal underpinnings of societal phenomena.

Lexis Content Relevant to Sociology Students:

  • Case Law: Access to decisions from diverse courts worldwide, addressing social issues such as discrimination, human rights, family dynamics, and criminal justice, offers a window into how legal systems interpret and respond to societal challenges across different cultures and contexts.
  • Legislation and Regulations: A vast repository of laws and regulations from various countries on topics like social welfare, labour rights, family structures, and criminal justice can be studied to understand how different societies codify and enforce social norms and values.
  • Legal Journals and Commentary: Scholarly articles and expert commentaries on legal issues related to social justice, inequality, social policy, and comparative law provide theoretical frameworks and empirical evidence for understanding sociological phenomena through a legal lens.
  • News and Legal Updates: Stay informed about the latest legal developments, court rulings, and policy shifts that have significant social implications and can inform sociological research.

Why Sociology Students Need Lexis:

  • Socio-Legal Research: Lexis is a powerful tool for conducting socio-legal research, enabling you to explore the legal dimensions of social issues, identify patterns in legal outcomes, and uncover the ways in which law shapes and is shaped by social forces.
  • Comparative Legal Analysis: Examining legal documents and court decisions from different jurisdictions through a sociological lens facilitates comparative analysis of how legal systems across diverse societies address similar social problems, revealing the impact of cultural, political, and economic factors on legal outcomes.
  • Unveiling Social Change: Observing legal changes over time and across various societies illuminates how social movements, political activism, and evolving social norms have impacted laws and policies related to social issues in different contexts.
  • Interdisciplinary Insights: Integrating legal research into sociological inquiry provides a richer understanding of complex social phenomena and fosters interdisciplinary scholarship at the intersection of law and society.

This video will give you an introduction to using LexisLibrary for legal research. Watch the video and then try Lexis for yourself!

HeinOnline, a comprehensive online database specialising in legal and scholarly materials, goes beyond its reputation as a resource for US law to offer a wealth of resources for sociology students exploring areas like social inequality, social change, deviance, and comparative social institutions. HeinOnline's unique collections and unparalleled access to historical legal scholarship provide a rich context for understanding the evolution of social norms, legal systems, and the interplay between law and society.

HeinOnline Content Relevant to Sociology Students:

  • Civil Rights and Social Justice: Covers the expansion of civil rights in America through government publications (including the Commission on Civil Rights), legislation, Supreme Court briefs, and more.
  • Open Society Justice Initiative: Contains reports, handbooks, briefing papers, legal and policy submissions, and fact sheets from the Open Society Justice Initiative exploring and advocating on issues of human rights and justice.
  • European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI): Contains publications of the ECMI, which conducts research and offers advisory services concerning minority-majority relations in Europe.
  • Slavery in America and the World: Essential legal materials on slavery offer insights into the legal codification and enforcement of social inequality, the struggle for social justice, and the lasting impact of slavery on social structures and race relations.
  • LGBTQ+ Rights: A collection charting the gay rights movement in America, showing the civil rights codified into law in the 20th and 21st centuries, as well as the inequalities that still exist today.
  • Women and the Law: A collection that brings together books, biographies, and periodicals for research into the progression of women's roles and rights in society over the past 200 years.
  • International Law Collection: A comprehensive collection of international legal materials allows for an in-depth exploration of topics such as human rights, social justice, migration, and the legal frameworks governing social issues on a global scale.
  • Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS): Declassified diplomatic documents offer insights into the historical context of international relations and social policies, revealing the power dynamics and social factors that shape global interactions.

Why Sociology Students Need HeinOnline:

  • Historical and Comparative Analysis: HeinOnline's unique collections enable in-depth historical and comparative analysis of legal systems, social policies, and the evolution of social norms across different societies and time periods.
  • Understanding Social Change: Tracing the development of legal frameworks and social policies over time through HeinOnline's  resources reveals the complex interplay of social movements, political activism, and evolving social norms in shaping social change.
  • Critical Analysis of Law and Society: By exploring the historical and cultural contexts of legal systems and social policies, sociology students can critically analyse the role of law in maintaining or challenging social inequalities, shaping social norms, and regulating social behavior.
  • Interdisciplinary Research: HeinOnline's multidisciplinary collections foster interdisciplinary research that bridges the gap between law, history, and social sciences, providing a richer understanding of complex social phenomena.

This video will give you an introduction to using HeinOnline for legal research. Watch these videos and then try HeinOnline for yourself!

Online legal databases are invaluable resources for sociology students delving into the social implications of law, policy, and historical contexts. Proficiency in using these platforms is key to unlocking a wealth of information relevant to your studies and future career. The library offers comprehensive guidance and support to empower you in your research endeavors:

  1. Workshops and Training Sessions:

    • Legal Research Workshops: The Library offers workshops on both Westlaw and Lexis individually, and also a workshop on legal research in general, which will cover all four legal databases briefly.

  2. Guides and Tutorials:

    • User Guides:
      • Westlaw provides a wide range of user guides, designed to introduce you to the different sections and content within Westlaw. These include step-by-step tutorials, videos, search tips, and answers to frequently asked questions.
      • Lexis' help pages are very comprehensive, containing guidance on performing searches in Lexis, and also includes a video tutorial section.
      • HeinOnline has a simple but helpful user guide available - just ignore the section on "Logging In", always make sure you access HeinOnline via the Library's website to gain access.
    • YouTube: There are a huge number of guidance videos available on YouTube, just search for "search Westlaw/Lexis/HeinOnline etc UK".
      • You may want to start with the sites's own YouTube channels, which contain full playlists of videos on various aspects of each database: Westlaw, Lexis, and HeinOnline.

  3. One-on-One Support:

    • Consult with Your Librarian: Your Academic Librarian, Caroline Ball, is well-versed in legal research and can provide assistance. Book an appointment to discuss your specific research needs.

  4. Practice and Experiment:

    • Hands-on Experience: The best way to master online legal research is through practice. Use these databases regularly for your assignments and research projects to familiarise yourself with their content, features and capabilities.
    • Explore Advanced Features: Don't limit yourself to basic searches. Experiment with advanced search operators and filters to refine your results and uncover relevant information for your sociological research.