USING A LAW LIBRARY

//. C. Jain*
Introduction
LIKE ANY other library a law library is a trinity of men, material and
building. It has been aptly remarked about a law library that "the law
library is truly a vital factor in the administration of justice, an institution
of extraordinary social significance in a free society. Inspiring is the
example of men and women of vision who devote their talents to the
creation and perpetuation of law libraries whose benefits reach out far and
beyond the personal interests of the original creators."* In addition, the
law library is a "community trust", which Gilbert Stephenson defined as
"an ocean liner receiving its cargo in part from living trusts, which are
private ships and carrying it over into successive generations as to a distant
port, there to be distributed for the common good." 2
A law library contains highly specialised materials, and this requires
special skill to handle. Basically legal material consists of statutory law
and reports of decided cases. Both these types of legal materials relate
to the "authority" and "precedent" respectively. Hence any type of
research will not be complete unless these materials have been scanned
through. "The term statutory law is more inclusive than is generally
considered by the term in popular parlance for it includes not only
legislative enactments but constitutions, treaties, court rules, inter-
state compacts, municipal ordinances, and administrative rules and
regulations." 3
Any law library has to be well equipped with regard to these two
basic materials. These materials may equip the reader not only with what
the law is but also help him understand that in a complicated society with
complex laws, he may have to take recourse to such secondary materials as
text books, reference books and articles. For a research library these
materials may have to be in abundance, but in addition such a library
has to contain materials in allied fields such as history, political science,
anthropology, sociology and economics and also in comparative law. The
task of a researcher is not only to find the existing law but also to
examine alternative solutions to a problem and to suggest reform in
law.
* Librarian, Indian Law Institute, New Delhi.
1. Frederic D.Donnelly (Ed.), The Law Library : A Living Trust 1 (1964) (Pro-
ceedings, Sixth Biennial, A.A.L.L., Institute for Law Librarians, June 28-July 2, 1963,
Chicago, Illinois).
2. Quoted in ibid from Gilbert Stephenson, Living Trusts 304 (1926) (F.S. Crofts,
New York).
3. Erwin C. Surrency, Benjamin Feld and Joseph Crea, A Guide to Legal Research 7
(1959) (Oceana Publications, Inc., New York).
 576 JOURNAL OF THE INDIAN LAW INSTITUTE [Vol. 24 : 2 & 3

A fresher who goes to a law school cannot manage by reading only the
textbooks which are just a part of the material meant for legal education.
He has to prepare himself fully to handle the complicated legal literature.
"With the mass of material that has to be covered in the classroom, and
normally in large classes at that, only the surface can be skimmed,
while the library is there to give the student his opportunity to develop
depth of thought and to discover the fun of starting to become an expert
in his chosen field."4
A person who wishes to use a law library and wants to make best use of
it must know how to use it. He should have a general idea of the types of
books a law library usually contains. He should know where to look for the
materials for research and also about the guides and aids which would
facilitate locate the materials. In the words of Professor Frederick Hicks,
"Skill in the use of law books...is a requisite of a successful legal
career, along with ability to understand the intricate wording of a
statute, to follow the reasoning of a judicial decision, or to build
up a theory of a case by original thinking...What I refer to is skill in
using law libraries, that is, books in the mass. A law library is not merely
a collection of books. It is a collection of legal literature properly housed,
and organized for service."5

Books in a law library

Books in a law library are arranged, as in any other library, subject-
wise. Each book is assigned a subject number according to a particular
classification scheme which the library uses. Each book will have at least
two catalogue cards in the catalogue cabinet—one arranged according to
the subject or call number and the other in the alphabetical sequence of
the authors and titles. Therefore, if one wants to find a book on a parti-
cular subject he should look into the classified sequence in the catalogue
card cabinet where all the cards of books on that particular subject will be
found together. If one wants to locate a book by a particular author, he
should go through the alphabetical sequence. The purpose of this search
is twofold : To detemine the book that will satisfy the requirement of the
reader, and to find out the call number of the book to facilitate its location
on the shelf. Whether the library follows open access system or the closed
system, this number has to be found out in order to locate the book on
the shelf.
Periodicals and law reports are generally stacked separately in one
sequence by the title. Some libraries may keep those belonging to their
own jurisdiction first, and then the rest of the periodicals may be arranged
alphabetically. Thus it may not be difficult to locate them.

4. Supra note 1 at 24.

5. Materials and Methods of Legal Research 340 (3rd revised ed. 1942) (Lawyers Co-
operative Publishing Co., New York).
1982] USING A LAW LIBRARY 577

In an effort to locate the books help may also be sought from the
library staff.
Textbooks
For a researcher working on a new problem it is advisable to start with
the textbooks on the subject. This will not only give the reader a proper
idea of the subject but also enable him to find out several other sources
of study and decided cases on the subject. After this has been done the
research may be brought up to date by scanning the latest cases, subse-
quent legislative changes, articles and other materials.
Textbooks are also the best source of understanding the basic princi-
ples on the subject. Though they are the secondary source of research,
they are indispensable for having a perspective of the problem and of the
basic materials available on the subject. A textbook suffers from the
limitation of space as it covers a broad area in a compressed form. The
research may not only be incomplete but misleading as well if other legal
materials are not consulted and used.
The Constitution
An official copy of the Constitution of India is always available with
the office of the Controller of Publications (Government of India, Delhi)
and its branches and authorised agents. The government issues a new
edition almost every two or three years as there are amendments to the
Constitution from time to time. As the amendments are quite frequent,
it is always advisable to check further amendments, if any, after the date
of publication of the new edition. For this purpose one has to consult
the Acts-section of the Gazette of India about which a mention has been
made in the following pages. It is quite likely that some bill might have
been introduced in Parliament but did not become an Act. It may be
necessary to make a reference to such a bill which can be found in the
Gazette of India—Part 2 Section II.
Sometimes in the course of research it becomes necessary to refer to the
draft Constitution. The official publication of the same is called Draft
Constitution of India (1948) (prepared by the Drafting Committee of the
Constituent Assembly) and is available with the Controller of Publi-
cations.
Central legislative material
Gazette of India
The current legislative material, i.e., bills, Acts, rules, notifications,
orders etc. are published in the Gazette of India. Not all sections of the
gazette are of use for legal research. Only some of them may be relevant.
The contents of the gazette 5re given below so as to give an idea as to
what it contains :
578 JOURNAL OF THE INDIAN LAW INSTITUTE [Vol. 24 : 2& 3

"PART I—Section 1—Notifications relating to Resolutions and Non-

Statutory Orders issued by the Ministries of Government
of India (other than the Ministry of Defence)
PART I—Section 2—Notifications regarding Appointments, Promo-
tions etc. of Government Officers issued by the Ministries
of the Government of India (other than the Ministry of
Defence)
PARTI—Section 3—Notifications relating to Resolutions and Non-
Statutory Orders issued by the Ministry of Defence
PART I—Section 4—Notifications regarding Appointments, Pro-
motions, etc. of Government Officers issued by the Ministry
of Defence
PART II—Section I—Acts, Ordinances and Regulations
PART II—Section I-A—Authoritative text in the Hindi Language of
Acts, Ordinances and Regulations
PART II—Section 2—Bills and Reports of the Select Committee on
Bills
PART II—Section 3-Sub-Sec. (i)—General Rules (including orders,
bye-laws, etc. of a general character) issued by the Minis-
stries of the Government of India (other than the Ministry
of Defence) and by General Authorities (other than the
Administration of Union Territories)
PART II—Section 3-Sub-Sec. (ii)—Statutory Orders and Notifications
issued by the Ministries of the Government of India (other
than the Ministry of Defence) and by Central Authorities
(other than the Administration of Union Territories)
PART II—Section 3—Sub-Sec. (iii)—Authoritative texts in Hindi (other
than such texts published in Section 3 or Section 4 of the
Gazette of India) of General Statutory Rules and Statutory
Orders (including bye-laws of a general character) issued
by the Ministries of the Government of India (including
the Ministry of Defence) and by General Authorities (other
than Administrations of Union Territories)
PART II—Section 4—Statutory Rules and Orders issued by the
Ministry of Defence
PART III—Section 1—Notifications issued by the Supreme Court,
Auditor General, Union Public Service Commission,
Railway Administrations, High Courts and the Attached
and Subordinate Offices of the Government of India
PART III—Section 2—Notifications and Notices issued by the Patent
Office, Calcutta
PART III—Section 2—Notifications issued by or under the authority
of Chief Commissioners
PART III—Section 4—-Miscellaneous Notifications including Notifica-
tions, Orders, Advertisements and Notices issued bv
Statutory Bodies
1982] USING A LAW LIBRARY 579

PART IV—Advertisements and Notices by Private Individuals and

Private Bodies
PART V—Supplement showing statistics of Birth and Deaths etc. both
in English and Hindi."

Codes—official publications

India Code—This is the official publication containing all the Acts in

force in India without commentaries. This is kept up to date by issuing
correction slips from time to time.
Acts of Parliament—This is an official annual publication containing
all the bare Acts passed in a particular year.

Codes—private publications

Current legislative material—There are many private publications

which are brought out at regular intervals and contain the central as well
as the state legislative materials. The most popular of them is the All India
Reporter (A.I.R.) which has a section containing Acts passed by Parlia-
ment. Other publications give, in addition to the central Acts, the state
Acts. Some publications also contain the rules issued by the central and
state governments.
A.I.R. Manual (22 volumes) (3rd ed. 1969-75) (All India Reporter
Ltd., Nagpur)—In this set one can find all the Acts passed by Parliament
and which are still in force. Their arrangement is alphabetical in each
volume. Also in each volume we find two tables—one arranged alphabetical-
ly and the other chronologically. The last volume contains a topical index
which lists together all the Acts on the same or allied subjects. It also
contains a consolidated list of Acts and unrepealed ordinances. As the pro-
cess of publication took almost seven years, many Acts passed during this
period could not be included at their proper places. Such Acts have been
included in the last volume. This is the most popular set as far as the
central Acts are concerned.
The set has several good features : First, in the footnotes under each
section of the Act relevant case law has been given. Second, every Act
begins with the statement of its objects and reasons. Third, statutes allied
to the Act have been given in the beginning. Fourth, references have been
made of the earlier amendments and also the state amendments, if
any.
The publication of the fourth edition started in 1979 and it should have
around 30 volumes.
Civil Court Manual (12 volumes) (1969-76) (Madras Law Journal
Ltd., Madras)—The arrangement in this set is the same as in the A.I.R.
Manual. The only difference is that it contains only the civil Acts and not
the criminal Acts.
$80 JOURNAL OF THE INDIAN LAW INSTITUTE [Vol. 24 : I & 3

State statutes
The state Acts are published in their respective gazettes. However, it is
difficult for any library to have all the state gazettes because they are
expensive and quite often some parts are not received. We also
find codes in which all the Acts in force in the state are found.
But it is problematic to keep these codes up to date. In almost every state
there is a private publication also which contains all the Acts in force in
that state. But quite often they are out of date. There is no system to keep
these sets up to date.

Subordinate legislation
All the statutory and non-statutory rules, orders, and notifications
issued by the Government of India and the state governments are published
in the official gazettes as stated above. The two major defects of the
system of publication of subordinate rules in the gazette are : First, there
is no index with the result that in order to find out a statutory rule or
order of a particular year, the researcher has to scan through the entire
pages of the gazette, and second, there is no table or any other method
indicating references of the earlier statutory rules and orders. This puts
a very heavy burden on the researcher to find rules on a particular
subject.
General Statutory Rules and Orders—This is the official publication of
all the rules, orders and notifications issued by the Central Government
which are in force. The latest revised edition is still under publication.
The arrangement in this set is subjectwise, i.e., the material has been
arranged on the basis of the subjects of the parent Acts under which the
rules have been framed. Therefore, in order to find out some material in
this publication, the researcher has first to consult the Index to India Code
to find out as to under which subject-heading the parent Act has been
placed. The volumes of this publication have been divided on the basis
of the subject-grouping in this index.
Manuals—-A few government departments publish manuals from time
to time giving the latest rules and notifications, etc. on the subject, for
instance, Central Excise Manual, Civil Services Manual, Customs Manual,
Income Tax Manual and Foreign Exchange Manual.
Rules framed by the judiciary—The Supreme Court and the High Courts
frame their own rules. These are published and revised from time to
time.

Legislative history
The intention of the framers of the Constitution can be ascertained
from the Constituent Assemby Debates. These debates are very useful as
they provide a background to our Constitution. The original clauses of
the Draft Constitution along with the final articles of the Constitution are
 1982] USING A LAW LIBRARY 58l

given in a tabular form in a separate book called Tabular Statement Show-

ing Articles of Constitution of India with Corresponding Clauses in Draft
Constitution and Dates on Which Discussed and Approved. The set of these
debates consists of twelve volumes plus a volume of index and another
volume giving a tabular statement of articles of the Constitution with
corresponding clauses of the Draft Constitution.
Aims and objects of central enactments are published in the Gazette of
India. Sometimes a bill is referred to a select committee or a joint select
committee for expert opinion. Reports of these select committees are
published in the gazette (Part II section 2) and also separately.
When the language of a certain provision of an enactment is ambiguous,
courts and researchers resort to the history of the legislation to ascertain
the exact meaning of the provision. Therefore, the statement of objects
and reasons and the report of the select committee, if any, are of great
help.
Day to day proceedings of both the houses of Parliament are published
separately. These are the only materials available on the discussion on the
bills. The two publications are Lok Sabha Debates and Rajya Sabha
Debates published since 1952 and available with the Controller of
Publications.

Case law
The judicial system in India is now well knit into a hierarchy of courts,
with the Supreme Court at its apex. Article 141 of the Constitution
provides that the law declared by the Supreme Court is binding on all
courts in India. Though there is no similar provision with regard to the
High Courts, it is well settled that the courts subordinate to the High
Courts are bound by their decisions. As a result, the doctrine of precedent
has been well established in India and it ensures uniformity and certainty.
This has necessitated a systematic reporting of the judgments of the
Supreme Court and High Courts, even though an unreported judgment
can be cited as an authority.
An impressive account of the history of law reporting in India and
various law reports of earlier days is found in the fourteenth report of the
Law Commission of India.6
Official reports
Federal Court Reports (11 volumes) (1939-50) (Manager of Publications,
Delhi)—This is the official publication of the cases decided by the Federal
Court which was abolished with the setting up of the Supreme Court in
1950.
Supreme Court Reports (since 1950) (Manager of Publications, Delhi)—
This is a monthly publication reporting cases decided by the Supreme Court.

6. Reform of Judicial Administration, Vol. 1 at 633 (1958) (Controller of Publi-

cations, Delhi).
582 JOURNAL OF THE INDIAN LAW INSTITUTE [Vol. 24 : 2 & 3

Cyclostyled judgments—The Supreme Gourt Registry, with the permis-

sion of the Chief Justice, also supplies copies of the judgments to a
few select libraries. It takes about a month or so to get a copy of the
judgment.
Indian Law Reports—These are the official publications for the state
High Courts, published monthly and cited, for example, as "I.L.R.
Allahabad", "I.L.R. Bombay", after the name of the concerned High
Court.
Private reports
All India Reporter—Among the private law reports, the most
commonly used and relied upon, even by the courts, is the A.I.R.
referred to earlier. Apart from the Supreme Court and High Court cases,
it contains several useful features such as the table of the cases cited and
table of cases reversed or affirmed. By the first week of every month the
monthly part reaches the hands of the subscribers. It is comprehensive
in its coverage of the Supreme Court decisions and quite prompt in
reporting them, but it is very selective in reporting High Court cases.
Other reports—There are a few law reports exclusively devoted to the
Supreme Court cases, such as, Supreme Court Journal (published since
1950 by Madras Law Journal Ltd., Madras), Supreme Court Cases (publi-
shed since 1969 by Eastern Book Co., Lucknow), and SCALES (published
by National Law Review, New Delhi). The last mentioned report is very
prompt in reporting.
High Court reports—Apart from the A.I.R., in almost each state we
have at least one law report containing cases decided by the High Court
of that state. It may also cover Acts, rules and notifications etc. These
reports have two basic advantages—comprehensiveness of coverage and
expeditious reporting. Some of the reports of long standing are Allahabad
Law Journal, Bombay Law Reporter, Calcutta Weekly Notes and Madras
Law Journal.
Specialised law reports—These law reports specialise in cases pertaining
to particular branches of law. They report cases decided by the Supreme
Court, High Courts and tribunals. Some of the popular ones are Labour
Law Journal, Labour and Industrial Cases, Industrial Court Reporter, Crimi-
nal Law Journal, Income Tax Reports, Company Cases and Sales Tax
Cases.
Legal research
Case history
There are a few publications from which we can have the history of a
given case. They help us know the development of law on a particular
point. By taking up a case it is illustrated as to in what other cases the
point of law involved in that particular case was discussed and developed.
Some of such publications are : R. N. Iyer, The Subject Noted Index of
1982] USING A LAW LIBRARY 583

Cases, (3 volumes) (3rd ed. 1954) (Madras Law Journal Ltd., Madras);
S. N. Bagga, All India Point Noted Index of Overruled and Reversed Cases,
1911-1961 (16th ed., 1962) (Law Book Co., Allahabad); B. Krishna and S.
K. Agrawal, Subject Noted Digest of Overruled and Reversed Cases, 1809-
1961, August (revised by D. D. Saini) (1962) (Law Publishers, Allahabad);
and P.J. Patel, Supreme Court Reference Citations, 1950-1975 (1976) (Legal
Research Bureau, Jamnagar).
The last mentioned publication is an Indian counterpart of Shephards
Citation of the U.S.A. All the Supreme Court cases reported in the A.I.R.
from 1950 to 1975 have been listed and their treatment by the courts
subsequently has been given, i.e., whether "criticised, distinguished,
explained, followed, harmonized, limited, modified, overruled and partly
disapproved etc." These are not regular publications. We have to refer
to A.I.R. in order to update the study.
There is another publication which is of great help in finding the parallel
citation of a case in other reports. As it is very likely that a case might
have been reported simultaneously in three or four reports, this sort of
information is very useful in locating the case when there is only one of
the reports available in the library. The A.I.R. and some other reports
give a comparative table in the beginning. Some of these publications
are: S. K. Agarwal, The All India Comparative Tables (India and Pakistan),
1939-50 (1952) (Eastern Book Co., Lucknow); R. Agarwal, 4 / / India Com-
parative Tables, 1950-55 (1957) (Wadhwa, Agra); and V. D. Kulshreshtha,
The All India Comparative Tables, 1950-60 (1962) (Eastern Book Co.,
Lucknow). Again, since these are not kept up to date, we have to seek
help from the A.I.R. and other reports.

How to decipher the citations

Citations may sometimes be confusing and it may become difficult to

know the exact location of the case. For example,„the same report may
be cited differently or two reports may be cited in the same way. Thus
A.I.R. which is usually cited as A.I.R. 1966 S.C. 1466 may also be cited at
times as A 1966 S.C. 1466, or I.L.R. may be cited as I.L.R. (1966) All.
141 or (1966) I.L.R: All. 141. Similarly, A.LJ. could be read as Allahabad
Law Journal and also as Australian Law Journal. In such situations the
names of the parties often help find the right report, but where the names
are not given the researcher would have to see both the reports to ascertain
as to which report the citation stands for.
The names of reports of cases are cited in abbreviated form only. In
the U.K. and U.S.A., the abbreviations are almost standardised. There-
fore, there is little likelihood of any confusion. There are various guides
which can help find the exact name of the report referred to. These guides
also mention the period coveped by these reports so that one may know
exactly whether a particular report is the same as the one referred to. A
good work published in the U.K. for this purpose is Where to Look for
584 JOURNAL OF THE INDIAN LAW INSTITUTE [Vol. 24 ; 2 & 3

Your Law and the other published in the U.S7A. is Uniform System of
Citations, generally known as the "blue book" brought out by the Harvard
Law Review Association. Such works are also available in Australia and
Canada. Unfortunately in India we do not have any such work so far,
but we do find information about Indian reports in some American guides
like "Hicks" and "Pollock". A good account of Indian reports is also
given in a two-volume set of Morley's Digest.

Collection of cases on a particular subject

Digests play an important role in collecting cases on a particular
subject. A textbook no doubt contains cases on the subject, nonetheless
the author may omit cases not considered relevant by him and the case law
may not be up to date. The main function of the digests is to refer to all
the reported cases on the subject so that one may go through them.
Digests^There are many good digests with abstracts of cases of the
Supreme Court and High Courts. The most widely used one is Yearly
Digest—a monthly published by the Madras Law Journal Ltd. There
is an annual cumulative volume also. Cases are grouped and listed
under the title of the Act concerned. A short summary of the facts, points
involved and the final decision is given. The names of the parties are not
mentioned but the citations of all the relevant reports are listed. Therefore,
in order to collect cases on a particular point, one has simply to consult
the digest. Since there is always some time gap between the publication
of the issues, it is advisable that the monthly parts of the case reports be
consulted. This will update the research. As digests dating back to
1811 are also available, one can go as back as that if need be. The All
India Reporter Ltd. have also published digests of the case law from 1901.
Thus, they have come out with Fifty Years Digests. 1901-1950 and Fifteen
Year Digests 1951-1965. Both these publications consist of 14 volumes each.
They have also been bringing out sets of quinquennial digests covering the
periods 1966-70, 1971-75 and 1976-80, each in five volumes.
There are digests of cases relating to particular subjects also such as
Income Tax Digest, Company Law Digest and Labour Law Digest.
Another good publication has been brought out by the same publishers,
listing together all the Supreme Court cases along with the names of
relevant reports. This helps to a great extent locate a case, the citation of
which is either not known or misplaced. The work is V. R. Manohar
and W. W. Chitaley, The Supreme Court Nominal Table (1950-80).
Legal periodicals
An indispensable tool of legal research is the law journal. Legal writings
in law journals are a rich source of information on a particular point and
can be used by a researcher in several ways. The basic advantage of an
article over a textbook is that it deals with a specific area in depth. There
are very few law journals exclusively devoted to legal writing in India.
1982] USING A LAW LIBRARY 585

Generally these periodicals contain cases, legislative material, articles, case

comments and book reviews. The leading law journal of India devoted
exclusively to legal writing is the Journal of the Indian Law Institute
(Quarterly). A few law schools and colleges also bring out journals.
Some of them are regular publications but a few are quite irregular.
A list of law journals indexed in Index to Indian Legal Periodicals,
published by the Indian Law Institute, is as follows :
(1) Academy Law Review (Kerala Law Academy, Trivandrum).
(2) Accidents Claims Journal (12, Malkaganj, Delhi).
(3) The Administrator (Lai Bahadur Shastri National Academy of
Administration, Mussoorie).
(4) Aligarh Law Journal (Faculty of Law, Aligarh Muslim University,
Aligarh).
(5) All India Reporter (All India Reporter Ltd., Nagpur).
(6) Allahabad Law Journal (All India Reporter Ltd., Nagpur).
(7) Andhra Law Times (Dilsukhnagar, Hyderabad).
(8) Annual Survey of Indian Law (Indian Law Institute, New Delhi).
(9) Arbitration Quarterly (Journal of the Indian Council of Arbitra-
tion, New Delhi).
(10) Asian Labour (ICFTU Asian Regional Organisation, New Delhi).
(11) A wards Digest (Journal of Labour Legislation, National Labour
Institute, New Delhi).
(12) Banaras Law Journal (Law School, Banaras Hindu University,
Varanasi).
(13) Bhagirath (Business Manager, Publications Division, Government
of India, New Delhi).
(14) Bihar Law Journal Reports (Law Publishing House, Allahabad).
(15) Bombay Law Reporter (Old City Civil Court Building, Fort,
Bombay).
(16) CB.I. Bulletin (R. K. Puram, New Delhi).
(17) Calcutta Weekly Notes (Calcutta Weekly Notes Printing Works
(P)Ltd., Calcutta).
(18) Chartered Secretary (ICSI House, New Delhi).
(19) Civil & Military Law Journal (Rajouri Garden, New Delhi).
(20) Cochin University Law Review (Department of Law, Cochin
University, Cochin).
(21) Company Cases (Company Law Institute of India (Pvt.) Ltd.,
Madras).
(22) Company News & Notes (Department of Company Affairs, Ministry
of Law, Justice and Company Affairs, Government of India, New
Delhi).
(23) Comparative Law Review (Comparative Law Association, Law
College, Pondicherry).
(24) Criminal Law Journal (All India Reporter Ltd., Nagpur).
(25) Cut tack Law Times (Law Times Press, Cuttack).
586 JOURNAL OF THE INDIAN LAW INSTITUTE [Vol. 24 : 2 & 3

(26) Delhi Law Times (Delhi Law Times Office, Delhi).

(27) Delhi Law Review (Faculty of Law, University of Delhi, Delhi).
(28) Foreign Trade Review (Quarterly Journal of Indian Institute of
Foreign Trade, New Delhi).
(29) Gandhi Marg (Journal of the Gandhi Peace Foundation, New
Delhi).
(30) Gujarat Law Reporter (Gandhi Road, Ahmedabad).
(31) Income Tax Journal (Madras Law Journal Ltd., Madras).
(32) Income Tax Reports (Company Law Institute of India (P) Ltd.,
Madras).
(33) India Quarterly (Indian Council of World Affairs, New Delhi).
(34) Indian Advocate (Bar Association of India, Supreme Court of
India, New Delhi).
(35) Indian Economic and Social History Review (Delhi School of Econo-
mics, University of Delhi, Delhi).
(36) Indian Factories Journal and Factories Journal Reports (Laws of
India Private Ltd., Madras).
(37) Indian Journal of Industrial Relations (Sri Ram Centre for Industrial
Relations and Human Resources, New Delhi).
(38) Indian Journal of International Law (Indian Society of Interna-
tional Law, New Delhi).
(39) Indian Journal of Legal Studies (Faculty of Law, University of
Jodhpur, Jodhpur).
(40) Indian Journal of Public Administration (Indian Institute of Public
Administration, New Delhi).
(41) Indian Journal of Social Works (Department of Publications, Tata
Institute of Social Sciences, Bombay).
(42) Indian Labour Journal (Labour Bureau, Simla).
(43) Indian Police Journal (Indian Police Journal, New Delhi).
(44) Indian Socio-Legal Journal (Indian Institute of Comparative Law,
Bikaner).
(45) Islamic and Comparative Law Quarterly (Department of Islamic
and Comparative Law, Indian Institute of Islamic Studies, New
Delhi).
(46) Jabalpur Law Journal (Law Journal Publications, Gwalior).
(47) Jaipur Law Journal (JLJ Studies in Law, University of Rxjasthan,
Jaipur).
(48) Journal of the Bar Council of India (Bar Council of India, New
Delhi).
(49) Journal of the Constitutional and Parliamentary Studies (Institute
of Constitutional and Parliamentary Studies, New Delhi).
(50) Journal of The Indian Law Institute (Indian Law Institute, New
Delhi).
(51) Journal of Parliamentary Information (Lok Sabha Secretariat,
Parliament House, New Delhi).
(52) Karnataka Law Journal (Shankarapuram, Bangalore).
 982] USING A LAW LIBRARY 587

(53) Kerala Law Journal (Mathrubhumi Press, Cochin).

(54) Kerala Law Times (Law Times Press, Ernakulam).
(55) Kurukshetra Law Journal (Faculty of Law, Kurukshetra University,
Kurukshetra).
(56) Labour and Industrial Cases (All India Reporter Ltd., Nagpur).
(57) Labour Law Journal (Royapettah High Road, Madras).
(58) Law Quarterly (Indian Law Institute, West Bengal State Unit,
Calcutta).
(59) Law Weekly (Mylapore, Madras).
(60) Lawyer (Journal of the Indian Law Institute, Madras State Unit,
Madras).
(61) Lok Udyog (Bureau of Public Enterprises, Ministry of Finance,
Government of India, New Delhi).
(62) Lucknow Law Times (Eastern Book Co., Lucknow).
(63) Madhya Pradesh Law Times (Allahabad Law Publications,
Allahabad).
(64) Madras Law Journal (Madras Law Journal Ltd., Madras).
(65) National Law Review (LIPS, New Delhi).
(66) Punjab Law Reporter (Punjab Law Reporter, Chandigarh).
(67) Punjab University Law Review (Department of Laws, Punjab
University, Chandigarh).
(68) Rajasthan Law Weekly (High Court Road, Jodhpur).
(69) Rent Control Journal (Vinod Publications, Delhi).
(70) Reserve Bank of India Bulletin (Reserve Bank of India, Bombay).
(71) Sales Tax Cases (Commercial Laws of India Pvt. Ltd., Madras).
(72) Seminar (New Delhi).
(73) Social Action (Indian Social Institute, New Delhi).
(74) Social Defence (National Institute of Social Defence, New Delhi).
(75) Supreme Court Cases (Eastern Book Co., Lucknow).
(76) Supreme Court Journal (M.LJ. Press Private Ltd., Madras).
(77) Supreme Court Weekly Reporter (Manager, Supreme Court Weekly
Reporter, Trivandrum).
(78) Taxation (Jor Bagh, New Delhi).
(79) Taxation Law Reports (All India Reporter Ltd., Nagpur).
There are innumerable foreign periodicals of high standard wholly
devoted to legal writing. Some of them deal with specific subjects, e.g.,
environmental law, public law, comparative law, law and society, and law
and economics. It is not possible to list all these in this paper. However,
a few may be mentioned here:
(1) Journal of Planning and Environmental Law (published since 1973)
(Sweet & Maxwell, London).
(2) Public Law (published since 1956) (Stevens, London).
(3) American Journal of Comparative Law (published since 1952)
(University of California, Berkeley).
(4) International and Comparative Law Quarterly (published since
1952) (British Institute of Insternational and Comparative Law,
588 JOURNAL OF THE INDIAN LAW INSTITUTE [Vol. 24 : 2 & 3

London).
(5) Law & Society Review (published since 1967) (Law & Society
Association, Illinois).
(6) Journal of Law & Economics (published since 1958) (University of
Chicago Law School, Illinois).
A problem may arise as to how to locate a particular article or case
comment relating to some research topic. One way to use the periodicals
is to consult the cumulative indexes. Many foreign and some Indian
periodicals also have these indexes. They are very helpful as one need
not go through each and every volume. In the cumulative index, all the
material is listed at one place, authorwise as well as subjectwise.
Besides, another source of collecting material on a particular topic
from the periodicals is the indexes covering all the periodicals. These
indexes are Index to Indian Legal Periodicals (published since 1963) (Indian
Law Institute, New Delhi); Index to Legal Periodicals (published since
1926) (H.W. Wilson Co., New York), Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals
(published since I960) (Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, London).
The first index covers Indian periodicals alone. The second and the
third are complementary as the countries which are not covered by the
former are covered by the latter. Thus the two indexes taken together
cover the whole world. The articles are arranged subjectwise and so it is
easy to locate the relevant material.

Monographs
Some good monographs on specific subjects appear from time to time.
They are a mine of information on materials and facts. Some of the
recent monographs published by the Indian Law Institute are: Child and
the Law (1979), The Supreme Court under Strain : The Challenge of Arrears
(1979), President's Rule in the States (1979), The Drafting of Laws (1980),
and Official Secrecy and the Press (1982).
Government publications
A number of publications are brought out from time to time by the
central as well as state governments. Most of them consist of reports of
various committees and commissions. There are some commissions which
are permanent like Law Commission of India, Commissioner for
Linguistic Minorities, and Commissioner for Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes. Similarly, there are some permanent parliamentary
committees like Committee on Public Undertakings, and Committee on
Petitions and Estimates Committee. There are ad hoc commissions,
appointed for specific purposes, like Pay Commission and Finance
Commission, and ad hoc committees like Direct Taxes Enquiry Committee
and Road Taxes Enquiry Committee. The reports of these bodies are of
great help and any research without referring to them will not be
complete.
1982] USING A LAW LIBRARY 589

Foreign material
No research can be complete without a comparative study of materials
available in other countries. The countries with a similar set up as ours
are Australia, Canada, U.K. and U.S.A. The relevant information
about the materials in these countries is given below.
The arrangement in these foreign materials is almost the same as that
of its Indian counterpart with minor changes. Therefore, it may not be
difficult to make use of these publications. For example, every publication
containing legislative material first lists the enactments in an alphabetical
and chronological order. This will enable the researcher to get to the
text of the material listed. If the researcher knows the name of the Act
or rules etc., he will find the same in the alphabetical index and if he
knows only the number of the Act of a particular year, e.g., Act No. XI
of 1976, he will find it listed in the chronological index. These publica-
tions may also provide a subject index giving all the Acts or rules etc.
relating to a particular subject at one place.
The law reports similarly list all the cases alphabetically and also
chronologically. Another common feature of law reports is a table of
cases referred to, overruled etc.

Australia
Legislative material
Acts of Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, 1901-1950 (6
volumes) (as amended till 1950)—The sixth volume contains a subject
index and alphabetical and chronological tables of statutes passed since
1901. Thereafter there is an annual volume published regularly.
Cumulative supplements to the consolidated edition are published
each year bringing the statutes contained in the consolidated edition
to date.
Commonwealth Statutory Rules, 1901-1956 (5 volumes) (Law Book Co.,
Sydney)—After 1956 every year there is a volume which consists of
statutory rules made under the Commonwealth Acts during the year and
also selected proclamations, orders etc. with table and index.
Case law
Australian Law Journal (published since 1927 (Law Book Co.,
Sydney)—The Journal has been reporting decisions of the High Court of
Australia, the highest court of the country, and the Privy Council since
1927. From 1958 the cases are being reported in a separate section
under the title "Australian Law Journal Reports." This section has
separate pagination.
Commonwealth Law Reports (published since 1903) (Law Book Co.,
Sydney)—These are the authorised reports of the High Court and they
also report the decisions of the Privy Council in appeal from the
High Court.
590 JOURNAL OF THE INDIAN LAW INSTITUTE [Vol. 24 : 2 & 3

Federal Law Reports (published since 1956) (Law Book Co., Sydney)—
This is an authoritative series of Australian reports—reports of cases
decided by federal courts (other than the High Court), state courts
exercising federal jurisdication, courts of territories and the Courts-
Martial Appeal Tribunal, Trade Practices Tribunal, Copyright Tribunal
and Commonwealth industrial courts. Cases relating to matters of federal
jurisdiction are reported in this series.

Digests

Australian Digest (2nd ed.) (Law Book Co., Sydney)—Each volume of

this digest includes cases up to the end of December each year.

Canada

Legislative material

Revised Statutes of Canada (8 volumes plus 2 volumes of indexes)

(revised ed. 1971) (Queens Printer, Ottawa)—It contains all the Acts in
force in Canada including the British North America Act.
Acts of Parliament of Canada—These sessional laws are published
annually and update the sets of the revised statutes.
New orders and regulations are printed in the Canada Gazette,
Part II.

Case law

Canada Law Reports—Supreme Court—This is the official publication

of the Canadian Supreme Court, reporting cases decided by this court.
Its first series covers the period of 1875-1922 and is known as Reports of
the Supreme Court of Canada, and the second covers the period from 1923
to date. From 1970 it is known as Canada Supreme Court Reports.
Canada Law Reports—Exchequer—This is also an official publication.
Previously it was known as Reports of the Exchequer Courts of Canada
(1821-1922). It is known from 1970 as Canada Federal Court Reports.
Dominion Law Reports (Canada Law Book Co., Toronto)—This covers
ail the cases of all the Canadian courts as also the cases decided on
appeal by the Privy Council. Its publication started in 1912. There are
three series of this report—the first and the second cover periods
1912-1922 and 1923-1955 respectively, and the third begins from 1956.
The volumes from 1956 to 1968 are marked as D.L.R. 2d. and
volumes from 1969 as D.L.R. 3d. Thus, while the numbering of volumes
in the first and third series is consecutive and the volumes are cited by
numbers, in the second series they are cited by year and volume. There
is a consolidated table of cases to volumes 1-70 (1912-1922) and one to
D.L.R. 2d. for volumes 1-70 (1956-1968).
1982] USING A LAW LIBRARY 591

Digests
Supreme Court Cases (1923-1950) (1951) (Willson et Laffeur, Mont-
real—It covers all the decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada published
in Canada Law Reports.
Index to Supreme Court of Canada Reports (3 volumes) (2nd ed. 1969)
Butterworth, Toronto).
Canadian Abridgment (35 volumes) (2nd ed.)—This covers cases
decided by the Canadian courts from 1923. There is an annual volume
also updating the digest.
There is also a monthly digest of Canadian cases called Canadian
Current Law.

U.K.

Official legislative material

Statutes Revised (1235-1948) (3rd ed.) (H.M.S.O , London).—It contains

all the statutes in force at the end of 1948. However, it does not contain
Acts of Parliament of Scotland from 1424 to 1707, which are covered
by a separate publication called Acts of the Parliament of Scotland, 1424-
1707. There is another annual publication entitled Annotations to Acts
which may be referred to for any amendments to these Acts. This keeps
the set up to date.
Statutes in Force—This is a new loose leaf edition of the above. Its
publication was started in 1972.
Public General Acts and Church Assembly Measures (H. M. S. O.,
London)—This annual volume contains Acts passed by British Parliament
after 1948 and provides, along with index, alphabetical and chronological
lists of the Acts and measures of the year and their effects on the previous
ones.
Index to Statutes in Force (H.M.S.O., London)—This is an annual
publication in which all the statutes in force at the end of the previous
year are collected and arranged alphabetically under subject headings.
A researcher can find from the index references to the provisions relating
to his subject.
After having found the Acts on his topic, the researcher has also to
ensure whether a particular Act is still in force or whether some amend-
ments have been made. For this he has to consult another publication
Chronological Tabh of Statutes. This is a cumulative annual publication
giving information about repeal of, or amendments to, all statutes enacted
since 1235.
S.R. Sc 0. and S.I. Revised (25 volumes) (H.M.S.O., London)—This
contains subordinate legislation—orders in council and certain orders,
rules, regulations err., made by ministers, previously known as statutory
rules and orders and now as statutory instruments in force at the end
of 1948.
592 JOURNAL OF THE INDIAN LAW INSTITUTE [Vol. 24 : 2 & 3

The above information can also be had from Annual Volumes of

Statutory Instruments—a publication started after 1948. Therefore, to
make the search up to date it is essential that these annual volumes should
also be consulted.
Index to Government Orders (published in alternate years) (H.M.S.O.,
London)—This contains references to all the rules, orders, regulations
etc. The matter is arranged alphabetically under subject headings. It
does not contain material of local nature.
Apart from this, there are annual, monthly and daily lists of statutory
instruments which keep the information up to date.

Private legislative material

Law Reports—Statutes (published since 1866) (Incorporated Council

of Law Reporting, London)—This is a regular publication. Sometimes
there are two volumes in a year and sometimes only one.
Halsbury's Statutes of England (3rd ed.) (Butterworth, London)—This
is perhaps the most valuable publication of statutes in England and gives
very useful annotations. The set is kept up to date by supplements.
Halsbury's Statutory Instruments (1955) (Butterworth, London)—This
is a non-official publication and kept up to date by loose leaf service.

Case law

All England Law Reports (published since 1936) (Butterworth,

London)—There are 30 reprinted volumes also covering the period 1558-
1935. This series contains cases which were previously reported in Law
Times Reports. All England Law Reports are published in three volumes
each year. They contain cases of superior courts and some cases not
found in the Law Reports series. They also contain some useful annotations.
A consolidated index has also been published. Its title is Tables and
Index, 1936-76 (3 volumes) (1977) (Butterworth, London).
Law Journal Reports, 1822-1949—-This consists of two series : Law
Journal Reports, old series (9 volumes) covering 1822-1831, and Law
Journal Reports, new series (118 volumes) covering 1831-1949. The
series contain decisions of various courts of England. Great effort has
to be made to find out a case as there is too much intermixing of reports.
It was merged with All England Law Reports in 1950.
Law Times Reports, 1859-1947 (177 volumes)—This publication was
also merged with All England Law Reports in 1948.
Times Law Reports, 1884-1952 (66 volumes) (The Times, London).

Digests

English and Empire Digest (1961) (Butterworth, London)—This is the

most comprehensive digest of English case law with analytical notes It
was first published in 1919 and completed in 1930, Replacement volumes
1982] USING A LAW LIBRARY 593

have now been published.

Issues of Current Law (Stevens & Sons, London) can be consulted to
have the cases up to date. It is published in four parts : (/) Current Law,
a monthly; (ii) Current Law Yearbook, (Hi) Current Law Consolidation,
and (iv) Current Law Citator.
Encyclopaedias

Matter in the legal encyclopaedias is also arranged in the same manner

as in general encyclopaedias. They are the treasure house of knowledge
on various subjects. The entire law is divided into different legal
topics. Thus the arrangement in these books is according to topics given
in alphabetical order. It is important, therefore, that one should be
familiar with the topical scheme of the set, e.g., a particular subject may
fall under one or the other topic. Generally a list of topics is given in the
first volume of the set. This list has to be gone through first to ascertain
as to under what topic the subject of one's search can be found. After
this, the researcher should take out that particular volume in which that
subject has been dealt with.
The articles in the encyclopaedias give a learned account of various
subjects. But this again has to be supplemented by other materials
like textbooks, enactments and decided cases published after the publication
date of the set.
One should, however, keep in mind Professor Morris L. Cohen's
warning while using legal encyclopaedias. He says :
Conditioned by the use of scholarly general encyclopedias, one
tends to expect American legal encyclopedias to be equally scholary
reference works. However, legal encyclopedias are generally less
highly reputed, particularly in academic circles, and really function
best as case-finders. Since the leading encyclopedias do not cover
statutes to any significant extent, they tend to give a somewhat
distorted view of the law in many areas. In addition they have a
tendency to over-simplify and over-generalize which often does not
accurately reflect the complexity of our changing law. Their pocket
part supplementation, although useful for references to later cases,
does not completely cure this shortcoming. 7

One of the important sets of encyclopaedias is Halsbury's Laws of

England. This is a widely used legal encyclopaedia giving detailed and up
to date account of the law on a particular subject. So far there have been
three editions of this work. The first was completed in 1917 under the
editorship of Lord Halsbury, the second in 1942 under the editorship of

7. Legal Research in a Nutshell 92 (3rd ed. 1978) (West Publishing Co,, St. Paul,
Minnesota).
 594 JOURNAL OF THE INDIAN LAW INSTITUTE [Vol. 24 : 2 & 3

Lord Hailsam and the third in 1963 under the editorship of Lord Simonds
That is why, sometimes these editions are referred to by the names of the
editors. The fourth edition is being printed under the editorship of Lord
Hailsam. To keep the set up to date cumulative supplements are issued
every year.
Encyclopedia of Forms and Precedents—It "aims to provide a form for
every transaction likely to be encountered by practitioners, except for
court forms. The entries are arranged by subject, eg. Animals,
Mortgages."8

U.S.A.
Statutory material
Statutes at Large—It contains federal statutes of the U.S.A. They
are published after each session of the Congress.
United States Code—This is the official publication containing all the
Acts in force in the U.S.A. It consists of fifty titles, i.e., the Acts have
been grouped together under fifty titles.
United States Code Annotated (West Publishing Company, St. Paul,
Minnesota)—This is also a valuable set divided into fifty titles, and is kept
up to date by annual pocket parts. The index volumes are very compre-
hensive. Its annotations, including the historical background notes, are
important for researchers.
Law reports

American Law Reports (Lawyers Cooperative Publishing Co., New

York)—This publication covers federal courts as well as state courts.
Though the inclusion is very selective, it is especially useful in view of the
very high cost of the state reports.
U.S. Supreme Court Reports (L. Ed.) (Lawyers Cooperative Pub-
lishing Co., New York)—This is a non-official publication covering
Supreme Court decisions. The official Supreme Court report is also
covered in this. In addition, it provides very useful annotations to some
cases. It is now running in the second series.
Federal Reporter ((published since 1880) (West Publishing Co., St. Paul,
Minnesota)—This covers decisions of the lower federal courts.
Federal Rules Decisions (published since 1940) (West Publishing Co.,
St. Paul, Minnesota)—This series reports cases dealing with federal rules
of civil and criminal procedure. These cases are not reported anywhere
else.
Federal Supplement (published since 1932) (West Publishing Co., St.
Paul, Minnesota)—It reports cases of district courts on a selected basis.

8. Jean Dane and Philip A. Thomas. How to Use a Lew Library 94 (1979) (Sweet &
Maxwell, London).
1982] USING A LAW LIBRARY 595

American Digest System (West Publishing Co., St. Paul, Minnesota).

U.S. Supreme Court Digest (20 volumes) (Lawyers Cooperative
Publishing Co., New York).
Encyclopaedias
American Jurisprudence (2nd ed.) (Lawyers Cooperative Publishing Co.,
New York)—The first edition of this work was brought out in 1936. It
is kept up to date by issuing supplements. The arrangement is subjectwise
and the subjects are given alphabetically.
Corpus Juris and Corpus Juris Secundum (American Law Book Co.,
Brooklyn)—This was published in 72 volumes between 1914-1937. The
Corpus Juris Secundum was started in 1936. The volumes are kept up to
date by issuing the annual pocket parts.
Words and Phrases It is "an encyclopedia of definitions and inter-
pretations of legally significant words and phrases, published in forty-six
volumes9 by West...It is supplemented by annual pocket parts inserted
in the back of each volume...."10

9. Now in 90 volumes.
10. Cohen, supra note 7 at 95.

Further readings
1. Enid Campbell and Donald MacDougall, Legal Research : Materials and Methods
(1967). The Law Book Co., Sydney.
2. Hem Chandra Jain, Indian Legal Materials: A Bibliographical Guide (1970)
(N.M. Tripathi Pvt. Ltd., Bombay).
3. Hem Chandra Jain, Law Library : Administration and Reference (1972) (Metro-
politan Book Co., New Delhi).
4. Erin H. Pollack, Fundamentals of Legal Research (2nd ed. 1962) (Foundation
Press Inc., Brooklyn).
5. M.O. Price, H. Bitner and S.R. Bysiewicz, Effective Legal Research (4th ed, 1979)
(Little Brown, Boston).
6. C.W. Ringrose, Where to Look For Your Law (14th ed. 1962) (Sweet & Maxwell,
London).
7. Uniform System of Citation (IWi ed. 1967) (Harvard Law Review Association,
Cambridge, Mass.).