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Legal Research Guide: Maritime & Commercial: Home

Online library support for maritime and commercial law research

A wide range of print and online resources are available to support you in your maritime and commercial law studies and research.. 

 We recommend that you explore the databases early on in your studies so that you can build your skills and confidence in using all the research materials that are available to you.

i-law is a good staring point as you will find lots of full text content there: including books, journals and law reports.


Finding Resources using Library Search Services

The Library Search services will help you discover books, journals, articles, audio visual material and more on your chosen topic. This is a good place to start when you are beginning to research a topic as you can draw on content from a variety of different sources.

Library Search

Search for print and online books, journals, articles + more. Library Search LibGuide available for guidance.

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Penryn Library Search

Search the print and streaming media collections that you have access to at Penryn campus.

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Use the Databases A-Z List to access all the resources available to you.

You can browse by subject e.g. Law or type (e.g.maps, news, images etc.) or search to find your required resource.

These online databases will help you trace books, journal articles and much more, to support your  study and research. 

Key resources are highlighted in the adjacent tabs.

  • i-law is a vast online database of commercial law knowledge from Informa Publishing, containing thousands of pages from many trusted legal sources.
  • At Exeter you have access to all content in the Maritime and Commercial, Insurance & Reinsurance, and the Dispute Resolution practice areas. You will not be able to view the other sources that are part of i-law.com  Tip - You can restrict your search to just the Lloyd’s titles within our subscription via the advanced search.
  • Available Case Law: Lloyd’s Law Reporter / Reports / Reports Plus / Insurance and Reinsurance Reports
  • Available Journal: Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly
  • Maritime and Commercial practice area with titles such as Bills of Lading, Commercial Shipping Handbook, Dictionary of Shipping Terms, Time Charters and many more. 
  • Insurance & Reinsurance Reports with titles such as Law of Insurance Contracts, Insurance Disputes, A guide to Reinsurance Law and many more.
  • Dispute Resolution practice area with titles such as Arbitration Law, Practice and Procedure of the Commercial Court, A Practical Guide to International Arbitration in London and much more
  • Comprehensive online help and support is also available.

There is a 2 step login process for this database

  1. Click on the link to i-law from the Database A-Z list and login with your IT Services username and password
  2. Login on within the i-law site with your email address only to access the full text content
Click on the Login button on the ilaw home page, as shown here.

 

 

Enter your Exeter email address and click on Login

 

Use the Databases A-Z List to access all the resources available to you.

You can browse by subject e.g. Law or type (e.g.maps, news, images etc.) or search to find your required resource.

You will find these three key general legal databases in the Law listing and these are useful for research across all areas of law.

 

LexisLibrary

  • Lexis has the full text of law reports, legislation, journals for the UK, US and other jurisdictions. It also includes legal commentary from the publisher Butterworths, including the case-law encyclopedia Halsbury’s Laws and the Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents.
  • Journal of Maritime Law and Commerce is available in full text 
  • Use the Sources tab to browse and view non UK materials.  Use the Find a Source search box if you want to see if a particular title is available.
  • International materials are also available via Lexis Library International
  • See more information on the Lexis Guide

Westlaw

  • Westlaw provides full text access to law reports, legislation and journals for the UK, US and other international jurisdictions.
  • Several reference works published by Sweet & Maxwell are also available in full text - see the Books option.
  • The Legal Journals Index on Westlaw indexes articles from over 400 legal journals published in the United Kingdom and Europe, and is essential for finding articles on a particular topic. 
  • Westlaw offers various research tools, including ‘case analysis’ which shows the history and subsequent treatment of individual UK cases.
  • International materials are also available via Westlaw International. 
  • See more information on the Westlaw Guide

The Lasok Law library arranges books according to the Moys Legal Classification.

Books about commercial law are found at KN 250 and maritime law can be found in the KN330 - KN 339 classmarks.  

For example:

KN 250 General Commercial Law

KN 332 General Maritime and Shipping Law

KN 335 Marine insurance

KN 337 Carriage of Goods by Sea

You can look up book titles on Library Search - this shows both print and ebook titles. For example:

Shipping law

Carriage of Goods

Commercial Law

There are also a number of free online services that will help you trace case law, legislation and treaties from around the world - including from jurisdictions not covered on our subscription services such as Lexis and Westlaw.  

 

BAILII for British and Irish Legal Sources

Worldlii for global legal sources, includes a maritime law section

UN for international law, including Oceans and the Laws of the Sea

UNCITRAL the core legal body of the United Nations system in the field of international trade law

International tribunal for the Law of the Sea a specialised tribunal to deal with disputes arising out of the interpretation and application of the UN Convention on the LAw of the Sea

International Maritime Organization a specialized agency of the United Nations, IMO is the global standard-setting authority for the safety, security and environmental performance of international shipping.

Admiralty and Maritimer Law Guide includes over 1,500 annotated links to admiralty law resources on the Internet and a growing database of admiralty case digests, opinions and international maritime conventions

Institute of Maritime Law a leading world centre for research, consultancy and training in maritime law, based at University of Southampton

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