Skip to Main Content
Bradford College
Library
Account Library User
About your library Library Videos Accessibility Finding Items Borrowing items Returning items Requesting Items Borrowing a Laptop Study Booths Book a Booth @ DHB Book a Booth @ TG VR Tour
Subject guides Library Catalogue Electronic Resources E-Book Collections Discover Online Articles A-Z of Online Journals A-Z of Online Databases Flipster Culture & Wellbeing
Study Skills Ask us for help Essential Study Skills Writing Skills Exams and Revision Skills Citing & Referencing Research Skills Use of AI IT & Digital Skills Academic Phrasebank
Contact Us Meet the Team Book an Appointment About your library Learning Support FAQs Get Involved Staff support College WIFI Student Links Customer Service Library Policies

Law (HE): Current Awareness

Current awareness means keeping up-to-date with developments in your area of interest. In the legal environment, this may be recent cases heard in the upper courts, or judicial consideration of a case you are interested in; government discussions regarding a new piece of legislation; recent journal articles or books; newspaper reports, or the publication of official statistics.

There are a number of ways you can keep up-to-date.  You can set up automated searches which allow you to set the terms of your interest and then receive email updates when there are any changes. You can also set general updates in your topic of interest – eg Criminal Law. You can also follow people and organisations on Twitter, or via Blogs.  Most people prefer alerts via email or RSS feed, but you can also keep up-to-date by browsing through some of the library's current awareness publications.  

Legal News

Law Society Gazette is a 'trade' magazine for solicitors in the UK. It is published weekly and includes news, articles, comments and opinion. You can browse this journal in the Law Reports area of Hockney Library, and you can also follow it on Twitter at @lawsocgazette.

Other trade publications include Legal Week, Solicitors Journal, The Lawyer, New Law Journal.  Follow these on Twitter, or set up email alerts (for example, http://www.legalweek.com/#email_alerts) to get the latest news.

Legal Blogs

Subscribe to legal blogs or podcasts - for example, radio 4 Law in Action Podcast; Inner Temple Library Blog; Supreme Court Blog .

  • The ICLR is the publisher of The Law Reports and the Weekly Law Reports. They produce daily summaries of important cases heard in the higher courts, which are available by email or RSS feed. You can also receive emails or RSS feeds of the latest cases published in any of the ICLR reports.  You can also subscribe to the RSS feed for their Blog.
  • The Supreme Court Blog is dedicated to the new UK Supreme Court, the highest court whose judgements bind lower courts and shape the development of UK law. The blog has been set up to provide commentary on the Supreme Court and its judgements. http://ukscblog.com/
  • The Secret Barrister provides a fly-on-the-wall view of the Criminal Justice system, often with a critical eye. https://thesecretbarrister.com/

    •  
Current Awareness.
 

Westlaw: Current awareness on Westlaw gives access to the latest cases, legislation, and legal developments derived from official publications, press releases and legal news relating to the UK.  You can choose to see the best of the last 5 days, or most recently added. You can also browse by subject or document type (eg case, journal)

Search Alerts

 

Westlaw: Run a search in the normal way. Once you have a list of results that you are happy with, click on the Bell icon near the top of the page. This takes you to the Westlaw UK Search and Topic Alert page where you can name the alert, choose the delivery settings (daily, weekly), set your email address for delivery, and save.

Case Alerts

  • Westlaw: You can set up alerts on a particular case, to keep track of the status of the case, or if the case has been recently cited by another case or journal etc. Click on the case you want to update, and click the Bell icon in the right hand column. This will take you to the Westlaw UK Document Alert page where you can set different options, change the delivery settings and save the alert.
Explore | Access | Engage | Learn | Succeed