LibGuides: Library Guide for Law: Irish Legislation &amp; Case Law

Legislation

Acts of the Oireachtas
All primary legislation start life as Bills which are proposals for legislation. Legislation is a law or a set of laws that have been passed by Parliament (Oireachtas). The word is also used to describe the act of making a new law.

Guide to the legislative process in Ireland

BAILII (British and Irish Legal Information Institute)
Free database with links to Irish legislation.
Classified List of Legislation (Acts-In-Force) (Ireland)
Free resource . Work done by the Irish Law Reform Commission. Available as a free pdf. Includes all Acts of the Oireachtas (Acts enacted since 1922) that remain in force (over 2,000 Acts). Also includes 100 of the most used Acts that were enacted before the State was established in 1922 and which remain in force.
Government Legislation Programme
Includes a listing of bills before the Dáil and their status.
Irish Law Site
Provides access to British and Irish Public legal information.
Irish Legal Information Institute (IRLII)
Includes a listing of bills before the Dail and their status. IRLII is intended to complement, rather than compete with, BAILII.
Irish Statute Book
This resource is created by the Office of the Attorney General and provides full text of the Acts of the Oireachtas, Statutory Instruments and Chronological Tables of the Statutes back to 1922. Also includes the Legislation Directory.
The Legislation Directory
Tracks changes to primary legislation from the pre and post 1922 periods and secondary legislation from 1999 onwards.
Revised Acts
The Irish Law Reform Commission website has published both an alphabetical list of all Revised Acts and a chronological list. Covers over 170 pre-2005 Acts, as well as all acts enacted from 2005 onwards and that have been textually amended (with the exception of Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005 and the Finance Acts).
Westlaw IE
Irish legal materials database; contains Irish reported and unreported case law, consolidated/annotated legislation, and legal journals. Also offers a current awareness service providing updates on recent developments in Irish law.

Irish case law

Case Law is the body of Law set out in judicial decisions. As Ireland is a common law jurisdiction, where the doctrine of precedent applies, case law is extremely important. Judgments of each case can bind all subsequent cases (depending on the seniority of the court). Case law thus either sets legal precedents - where there is no legislation - or places a working interpretation on existing legislation. Case Law is a primary source of legal research.

Find Irish case law reports via...

BAILLI (British and Irish Legal Information Institute)
Contains decisions of the High Court and Supreme Court dating back to 1997 along with selected older cases.
Courts.ie
The official website of the Irish Courts.
Irish Law Reports Monthly
Via Westlaw IE
IRLII (Irish Legal Information Initiative)
Provides searchable index of decisions of the Irish High Court and Supreme Court, from 1997 to date.
JustisOne
Full text access to national and international legal sources: Case law: Irish, EU, ECHR and British.
Lexis Library (Legal)
A comprehensive legal database containing case law, expert commentary, and primary and secondary legislation as amended.

Contact

Alexander Kouker | O'Reilly Library | Glasnevin Campus | alexander.kouker@dcu.ie

Click here to view our guide to finding Irish and European cases

Click here to view our guide to finding Irish and European legislation

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