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Law (HE): Public Law

Public Law

Textbooks for Public Law. Textbooks explain the fundamentals of the law. Public Law books are found in the Hockney Library on Ground floor of the David Hockney Building. The class number is 342.  Recommended textbooks include Bradley’s Constitutional and Administrative Law, Carroll’s Constitutional and Administrative Law, and Craig’s Administrative Law.  Unlocking Constitutional and Administrative Law is a good book to use at the beginning of your course. Some of these books are also available as e-books – check the Library Catalogue for links.
 
Case books explain the law through a selection of the key cases of the subject, illustrating legal principles and how decisions are made.  The key casebooks for Public Law are Thompson & Gordon’s Cases & Materials on Constitutional & Administrative Law and Le Sueur Public Law: Cases and Materials. 
 
Related Subjects: Human Rights books are shelved at 342.085.  Politics, Government and the Constitution books are shelved in the politics section starting at 320.  Books on the English Legal System are shelved at 349.42.
 
Legislation: The study of Public Law requires you to become familiar with a number of key Acts of parliament.  The full text of these is available online at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/. For more in-depth information on legislation you should consult the legal databases.  These provide information such as the status of sections and commentary.  They also include links to journal articles and commentary, which will help you understand the impact of the legislation, and databases also list cases which have used the legislation in court.  See below for more information. 
 
Case reports: It is very important that you consult the full text of key cases, and don’t just rely on summaries in textbooks.  Law Reports publish the key cases in all aspects of law. The library holds the All England Law Reports which are arranged by year. For the main set of law reports called The Law Reports, and the historical law reports English Reports, you will need to consult one of the online databases.  
 
Journals and Newspapers: Journals provide commentary on cases, and advanced discussion of legal issues.  They are published weekly, monthly or quarterly, and the majority are available online. Recommended titles include Public Law Journal, New Law Journal,  Cambridge Law Journal, Law Quarterly Review, Modern Law Review.  
 
Electronic Databases: These provide access to the full text of journal articles, law reports and legislation.  You will be expected to start using these early on, so there are guides and tutorials available on the Law Resources Moodle page.  You should try to become familiar in particular with LexisLibrary andWestlaw UK. 
 
Websites: The UK Human Rights Blog aims to provide a balanced legal update service on the topic of Human RIghts in UK Law.  You can subscribe to the blog by clicking on a link or browse by legal topic. 

Useful Databases