Lexis+ UK database (formally known as Lexis®Library) has recently undergone some major interface changes to provide a neater, more user-friendly platform.
To access the database, please follow the link to Lexis+ UK. On the Primo result page, click on the title of the database in the ‘View Online’ section, and when prompted, log in with your university IT username and password. The first time you access Lexis+ UK, you will see a welcome message, and then, you will be asked to enter your name in a form and click on ‘Accept and continue’ to accept the ‘Terms and conditions’. Once you provide your details, you will be set up to start your research in Lexis+ UK.
By default, Lexis+ UK opens with the Legal Research tab. Use the main search box in the middle of the screen or select Content to explore the legal resources and topics that the database can offer you.
We have created training materials to help you navigate through the database and to highlight its main features. Please read our library guides to learn more about Lexis+ UK:
Taylor Library is pleased to announce that our subscription to IAReporter (Investment Arbitration Reporter) has been extended until Wednesday 15 June 2022.
The database is tracking international arbitration proceedings between governments and provides the latest developments and policy trends in investment treaty arbitration.
Accessing IAReporter
If you are working from off-campus, it is necessary to access the database using the VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure). Then, search for the database in Primo. If you cannot find it, please follow the steps below to get access to IAReporter:
If you experience any problems with the VDI, please contact the IT Service Desk.
Key features of the database
IAReporter opens with the Home page which provides quick access to News Headlines, Document Downloads, and the most recent Arbitrator Profiles. You can Browse News By Theme by selecting Countries/Regions, Forums/Processes, Hot Topics, Industries, and Major Treaties from the right-hand side of the screen.
On the top of the Home page, click on the tabs to get access to News/Analysis, Case Profiles, Arbitrator Profiles, and other useful sources. The Video Tutorials tab can provide visual aid if you want to learn more about the available resources.
Case Profiles
Case Profiles display key statistical information about arbitration cases. The page opens with a list view and offers access to more than 1400 key decisions. It lists the party names, the type of the arbitration (e.g., Treaty, Contract, Domestic Law), the year, and the status of the case (Pending, Concluded or Unknown).
On the left-hand side of the screen, you can either Search Cases or use Filters (e.g., Case Status, Respondents, Claimants, Year, Arbitrators, etc.) to narrow down your results.
Arbitrator Profiles
On the Arbitrator Profiles page, you can find each of the most active arbitrators in the field of investor-state arbitration. The page lists them in alphabetical order. Click on the name to see the profile of the person, the cases they were involved in (as a Claimant, Respondent or Co-Arbitrator, etc.) and the status of the individual cases (Pending or Concluded).
Arbitrator Analytics visualise key data related to the selected arbitrator, e.g. Known Appointments by Date, Source of Known Appointments As Wing Arbitrator and Source of Known Appointments As Presiding Arbitrator, etc. You can also read Recent IAReporter Coverage About the person at the end of the Arbitrator Profiles page.
Please remember that IAReporter is for non-commercial use and private research only. No materials can be shared with anyone outside the University of Aberdeen. Also, to get a realistic picture about the usage of the database, we recommend not to share materials within the University either. Thank you very much for your cooperation in this matter.
If you have any questions or need further assistance, please let us know.
In the last few days, we got many requests regarding the book: Private Dispute Resolution in International Business: Negotiation, Mediation, Arbitration (by Klaus Peter Berger, Vol. 1 and Vol.2). The volumes are available in print in Taylor Library or online through Kluwer Arbitration. If you are accessing the book from off-campus, you need to use VDI. Please follow the link below to get access to our full VDI guide: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/toolkit/documents/uploads/remote-access-vdi.pdf). I would also advise to check the IT web pages. On TOOLKIT, you can find videos about Remote Access (VPN and VDI): https://www.abdn.ac.uk/toolkit/systems/remote-access/
On the Primo page, you can see all sorts of information about the item. Scroll down to see the ‘View Online‘ section, and then follow the link to Kluwer Arbitration. Now, you will be directed to the opening page of the book which looks like this:
You can see that, in the middle of the page, both volumes are displayed. If you click on the + sign, next to the volumes, you can get their contents. Select the pages, you need to read.
If you experience problems with VMware Horizon Client, try using VDI form your internet browser. Read more about troubleshooting in the VDI guide.
It is good news for everyone studying or researching international law that Taylor Library has online access to The Max Planck Encyclopedias of International Law. This online resource includes two encyclopaedias: Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law and Max Planck Encyclopedia of International Procedural Law. The latter was only recently launched. The encyclopaedias provide comprehensive, analytical entries containing peer-reviewed articles on every aspect of international law.
Follow the hyperlink above to get access to The Max Planck Encyclopedias of International Law. On the top right of the Home page, under the title, you can find three tabs: Browse all, Subject and Author. Click on the ‘Browse all’ tab to see the alphabetical list of the encyclopaedia entries. You can narrow down your results by selecting Module, Subject or Author on the left-hand side of the page. In the Module section, you can specify which encyclopaedia you want to browse: Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law or Max Planck Encyclopedia of International Procedural Law. Clicking on Subject will open the alphabetical list of different topics, e.g., ‘Air law & law of outer space’, ‘Diplomacy or consular relations’, ‘History of international law’, etc. If you are interested in the entries of particular authors, please click on the Author tab, and select their names. The Subject and Author tabs are also available on the top of every page, next to the Browse all tab.
Once you have opened an encyclopaedia entry, you can read the full text online or save it for a later time by selecting a delivery option, such as print, download and email from the top right of the page. The Contents tab, on the left-hand side of the screen, will give you visual aid. You can quickly navigate to different sections of the encyclopaedia entry by selecting an appropriate title from the Contents tab.
If you need further assistance, please let us know. Also, remember that the volumes of the Max Planck Encyclopedia of Public International Law are available in hard copy in the library.
We would like to advise our readers that, from Monday 6th of September 2021, Taylor Library will be operating with revised opening hours for University of Aberdeen staff and students:
Taylor Library, just like other library sites of the University of Aberdeen, will be closed for the public holiday on Monday 12th July 2021. All library sites will reopen again on Tuesday 13th July.
You can find more information about our opening hours on the library website.
As exams are fast approaching, we would like to help your preparation by sharing a few links to law databases and e-book collections. So, if you still need some revision, please check out the resources below.
Westlaw provides full text access to UK case law, legislation, and legal journals. The database also provides full text access to 374 e-books. Current Awareness on Westlaw UK enables you to stay up to date with the very latest developments. Unfortunately, we do not have a subscription to Practical Law.
Lexis Library is an important source of full text legal information. It provides access to UK, EU, US and international case law, legislation, and law journals. The News section of the database gives access to a wide range of national and regional newspapers including Scottish newspapers.
HeinOnline is a particularly useful source of older journal articles, old English cases, U.S. and other international resources and materials on Scottish Legal History.
UPSO is a cross-searchable library which offers quick and easy access to the full text of titles published by internationally significant university presses including OUP, Yale, Stanford, Fordham, Chicago, and many others.
Click on the title to go to the collection. Under the logo, University Press Scholarship Online (in the top left corner), you will find Browse by Subject. Click on the arrow and select Law. On the left-hand side of the screen, you will find filters to narrow down your choices. Select Unlocked and Free titles from the Availability section. Your search will return with 2138 titles. You can further narrow down the results by choosing Subject on the left hand-side of the screen.
Springer’s collections include access to the full text of thousands of sciences, medical and social sciences e-books. Please note, we do not subscribe to every title in this database. The green square next to the item indicates if we have full text access to it.
After opening SpringerLink, on the left-hand side of the home screen, you can browse by discipline. Click on Law to navigate to the law subject page. Please do not forget to deselect the ‘Include Preview-Only content‘ box to limit your search to subscribed titles. Still on the left-hand side of the screen, you can find more filters, like Content Type, Language, Subdiscipline, etc. We advise you to select Book from Content Type box to get access to 2178 full text e-books.
Ebook Central is one of the biggest e-book collections we have access to. It contains more than 180,000 authoritative, copyrighted books supplied by over 180 leading scholarly publishers. The titles cover many different subject areas, from Social Sciences, Law, Medicine, Science, and Computing to Education, Fine Arts and History.
Click on the title Ebook Central to link out to the collection. On the home page, under the Search box (in the middle of the screen), click on Browse by Subject, then select Law. You will be directed to the Law subject page from where you can get access to 8314 full text e-books.
We hope, you will find the right resources which can help your preparation. For more information on library services and resources, please follow the link here.
Members of the university (staff and students) can access the databases and e-book collections to which the University of Aberdeen is subscribed. To access them, simply login with your university IT username and password.
The following law resources are only accessible through VDI from off-campus:
Kluwer Arbitration is an online resource for international arbitration research. It contains a wealth of commentary from expert authors and an extensive compilation of primary source materials.
OGEL – Oil, Gas and Energy Law Intelligence has transcended national borders. With privatisation, restructuring, the emergence of competitive markets, cross-border energy trade and regional integration, legal instruments from one jurisdiction have a bearing on others – they provide a model, a legal precedent, a directive, standard or guideline for further regulatory implementation.
There is another useful resource which can help your research in the oil, gas and energy law field, even if it is not a law resource:
OnePetro (SPE)is an online library that provides a simple way to search for and access a broad range of technical literature related to the oil and gas exploration and production industry.
If you wish to access one of the above-mentioned databases while off-campus, please follow the guidance on the Remote Access section of Toolkit. Select the Remote VDI link in the ‘Guides’ section. Once you have logged in to the VDI, navigate to ‘Library Resources’ and from there to Primo. Remember to sign in to Primo to get full text resources!
At the beginning of the academic year 2020-21, the Library Services undertook a huge project to support our academics as they were preparing for blended learning. We created almost 500 reading lists for courses in the first half session, and 368 reading lists for the second half session. Through these reading lists, students can have easy and direct access to the most important course materials.
If you want to access the reading lists of a particular course, please follow the steps below:
Go to MyAberdeen, then select the required course.
Once within the course’s opening page, check the links on the left-hand side of the screen
Click on Books & Tools.
On the right-hand side of the page, a pop-up window opens which displays the Reading List of the selected course.
Click on Reading List to see the uploaded materials.
Remember, this is not the full list of the course materials you need to read for the given course. These are just the few most important items that your course coordinator highlighted. In this respect, the Reading List in MyAberdeen can never substitute the Course Handout which contains the full list of course readings.
Also, if during the semester, your course coordinator or other academic staff who are involved in teaching post announcements about course readings on MyAberdeen, and you cannot find them, please contact the person who made the announcement and NOT the library because we cannot help with these kind of inquiries.
We hope that providing Reading Lists services will enhance your learning experiences, and it will be hugely beneficial while you are completing assignments or preparing for your exams.
Please be aware that we are operating under unprecedented circumstances in the middle of a pandemic, and that there are strict rules we all have to follow:
Wear face covering or lanyard all the time
Keep the 2 m distance from others
Bring only bottled water into the library (NO other food or drink permitted)
Use hand sanitiser on entry and exit
Observe the one way system while using our staircases
Place any handled books that are not borrowed on the trolleys provided
Clean desks, MFDs and PCs after use
Let’s all work together to keep Taylor Library open.
You can always check the current library occupancy here.
If you have any questions or would like to contact us, please email at lawlib@abdn.ac.uk.
Legal Information Update 