Eversheds hosted the first seminar, covering UK legislation, on Wednesday 9th October. Our first speaker was Victor Tunkel, barrister and senior lecturer in Faculty of Law at Queen Mary & Westfield College, University of London. Victor gave a very thorough and entertaining introduction to Statutory Law, concentrating on the hard copy sources that are the building blocks of legal research in this area. Delegates were given a useful handout that covered everything from citing Acts to updating them. We were also treated to several examples of surprisingly irreverent and critical commentary from the Current Law Statutes Annotated series.

Our next speaker was Ian Church, the editor of the House of Commons Official Report Parliamentary Debates, better known as ‘Hansard’ after the man who first produced it in the 19th century. Ian took us through the fascinating history of the publication that has been described as ‘The Ear of History’ and ‘a bloody miracle’. He explained that Hansard is an edited verbatim report which corrects obvious mistakes to convey what the House understood the Member to say. For light relief he threw in this quote by Matthew Parris, journalist and former MP: “in the skilled hands of the parliamentary Hansard note takers, Monday’s gibberish becomes Tuesday’s classic English… As a result, many MPs actually believe they talk sense.”

However, Ian was quick to stress that Hansard reporters use Members' precise words where at all possible, only edit where the argument becomes unintelligible and never allow Members to retract something they said and later wished they hadn’t. Several more amusing quotes followed to illustrate these points.

Our final speaker that evening was Bryn Morgan, Head of the House of Commons Information Office. Bryn talked us through the parliamentary progress of Bills from initial proposal to final Act. Sources of information were also covered and we were directed to the House of Commons Information Office Factsheets for further help and advice (http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/fact.htm). The talk finished with a brief overview of the new, improved Parliament website (http://www.parliament.uk).

UK Case Law

The next Wednesday, October 16th, we gathered again to hear speakers Victor Tunkel and John Spencer. John is chief reporter for The Law Reports, published by the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting (ICLR).

Our first speaker, Victor, covered court structure and sources of case law in his usual entertaining and informative style. In a little over an hour we had covered the basics of decoding citations, finding reports (the pre-eminence of The Law Reports was particularly stressed here) and transcripts and tracking down the histories of cases. All of this was usefully noted on the accompanying handout.

John Spencer’s talk dealt with case reporting and the progress of a case from court to law report. John began with a brief history of law reporting and the formation of the ICLR. He then moved on to detail exactly what goes on behind the scenes when a case is reported in The Law Reports, from initial selection to final publication. We were surprised to learn that the primary responsibility of the reporter is actually to keep cases out of the reports! The aim is to report only cases that contain some new principle, that interpret legislation or settle a question on which the law is doubtful. In other words, those that have value as precedents.

We also learnt that the great advantage of The Law Reports is that they are always checked by the judges before publication and carry details of counsels' arguments. The evening was rounded off by a discussion on the future of law reporting. With so many transcripts becoming available instantly online, how do we filter out the dross? I think we all decided there is still a place for the printed reports that are prepared with such care and which select only the best material.

European Law

The third and final seminar held at Field Fisher Waterhouse on 23rd October proved to be even more popular than the previous two.

Avis Furness, Librarian at the European Parliament’s UK office, and Liz Hawkes from Field Fisher Waterhouse packed a wealth of information into their three hour session.

A brief explanation of the background of the EU and its workings, and an explanation of some commonly used language was followed by the meat of the session.

The legislation session covered citation, hard copy and electronic sources, tracing and updating legislation, finding implementations, and tracking legislation as it progressed through its various stages.

The case law session looked at the European Court of Justice and Court of First Instance, how case law is cited, hard and electronic sources, and a plethora of different approaches to case law research.

Fortunately the attendees were supplied with a splendid set of handouts for future reference and to make sure nothing was forgotten in the morning after!