How to find UK legislation, using Westlaw

This guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to find UK legislation using Westlaw. It explains how to search for an Act by its name, how to search for a specific section of an Act, and how to browse an alphabetical list of Acts.

Charlie Brampton
20 steps
2 minutes

Westlaw

Navigate to <https://signon.thomsonreuters.com/federation/UKF?entityID=https%3A%2F%2Fidp.brookes.ac.uk%2Fidp%2Fshibboleth&returnto=https%3A%2F%2Fwestlawuk.thomsonreuters.co.uk%2FBrowse%2FHome%2FWestlawUK%3FskipAnonymous%3Dtrue>

1. Searching for an Act

Go to 'Legislation' in the bar that runs along the top of Westlaw, and select 'Legislation Search' from the dropdown menu.

You can search for an Act by its name, using the Title box. Try searching for: Sale of Goods Act 1979

You might see several options appear. The top one here is the Act itself, which is what we want. The bottom one is a Statutory Instrument i.e. secondary legislation. You can spot this by the year/number after its name.

Click "Search"

Click on the name of the Act on the search results page.

Click on any section to view it. The tick icons show that these sections are currently in force.

2. Searching for a specific section of an Act

If you the know the number of the section, you want, there is a quicker way to get to it. Again, go to 'Legislation' in the bar that runs along the top of Westlaw, and select 'Legislation Search' from the dropdown menu.

Put the name of the Act into the Title box. Try searching for: Sale of Goods Act 1979

From the 'provision' dropdown, choose 'section'

Type the section number into the 'provision number' box

Click the 'search' button

Now, rather than seeing the whole Act in the search results, you'll see just this section. Click on the section name to open it up.

Down the left hand side of a section, you'll see a link to 'primary references'. This will show you all the cases that have referred to this particular section.

Down the left hand side of a section, you'll also see a link to commentary references. This will show you any journal articles that discuss this section.

3. Browsing an alphabetical list of Acts

Instead of using the search box, you can see an alphabetical list of all UK legislation, both current and repealed. Again, go to 'Legislation' in the bar that runs along the top of Westlaw, but this time choose 'Primary & Secondary'

Choose "Public & General Acts" on this page.

You could choose a year and then see all the legislation enacted in that year. Alternatively, click on the 'title' tab.

Choose a letter of the alphabet

You will now see list of Acts, arranged alphabetically. Click on the title of any Act to view it.