On Tuesday 17th August 2021, Taylor Library is moving to Freshservice – the enquiry management system used by the IT Service Desk, Finance, and eLearning at the University of Aberdeen.
From this date, when you send an enquiry to our email address (lawlib@abdn.ac.uk), you will receive an automated response with a unique ID by return. Enquiries that are still ongoing when we switchover to the system may also receive an automated response and will be handled using the new system from then on.
In preparation for the move, there will be a short interruption to service on the email account on Monday 16th August between 15:00-17:00. This means if you send an email during this time, you may receive a bounce back saying the account does not exist. If this happens, please try again after 17:00.
We hope that our new enquiry management system, Freshservice, will improve your library experience.
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.
Taylor Library is pleased to announce that we have now set up a 6-month trial to IAReporter (Investment Arbitration Reporter). Our complimentary subscription ends on Friday 31 December 2021. 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.
During the summer, Taylor Library will be operating under our summer opening hours. On the last week of the term, between Monday 17 May – Friday 21 May, Taylor Library is open from 09:00 to 20:00. The Library is closed on Saturday 22 May & Sunday 23 May.
As of Monday 24 May, the opening hours will be as follows:
Term hours will resume on Monday 20 September. Please remember, Taylor Library is open for registered students and staff, with a reduced occupancy. Further details on library services and resources can be found here.
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.
As a result of Scotland moving from Level 4 to Level 3 restrictions, we are pleased to announce that Taylor Library is reopening on Monday 26 April 2021. Our opening hours will be the same as established in the previous semester:
Taylor Library will only open for current staff and registered students, and you always need your ID card to enter the library. Our Click & Collect service keeps operating as usual.
Please, remember to wear face coverings, maintain the 2m physical distancing, and use the hand sanitisers which are provided across the whole Taylor building. Further information about our services and resources can be found here.
As LLM students are busy with their dissertations, we think that a selection of OSCOLA (Oxford University Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities ) examples would be beneficial to check that everything is in order with your in-text citations or bibliographies.
The School of Law at the University of Aberdeen expects students to use OSCOLA citation style for their essays and dissertations. Please follow the links to get access to the 4th edition of the OSCOLA guide (2012) and the OSCOLA Citing International Law guide (2006).
The list below also provides valuable information through practical OSCOLA examples:
You can find more information in our OSCOLA library guide. Finally, please remember that staff are always available to help you. Email lawlib@abdn.ac.uk if you have a question.
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.
Although Taylor Library has been closed since Scotland entered Level 4 lockdown, this doesn’t mean that you cannot get books or journal parts from there. The Library provides a Click & Collect service for university staff and students.
You can request items from Taylor Library through Primo. Please, login to Primo with your university IT username and password, search for the item you want to borrow, and simply click on Request in the ‘Get It’ section of the Primo item page. Staff will then fetch the item, issue it, and you will be informed by e-mail when it is available for collection. Remember, as Taylor Library is closed, all collections will be available from the Sir Duncan Rice Library between 10:00 and 17:00 from Monday to Friday.
Please also note that the Click & Collect service is currently for items that are not on loan. We would like to emphasise that Reference items are excluded, and that items held at other branches may take a little longer to provide. Items which have just been returned will be placed in quarantine for 72 hours, in line with international guidance, before they can be issued to another reader – this will be indicated on Primo.
Heavy Demand items
If the item that you wish to borrow is Heavy Demand, it is not possible to request it via Primo, but you can email library@abdn.ac.uk and staff will be able to process your request. The regulation regarding Heavy Demand items has not been changed, and you must remember, that no more than two HD books can be borrowed at any time. You will receive an email notification when your item is ready for collection.
During the current level 4 restrictions, the usual loan period has been extended, and any Heavy Demand items borrowed just now, will be due back at the beginning of April. For readers who borrowed Heavy Demand items on extended loan over the period when the libraries were closed – now that the Sir Duncan Rice Library is open, we would like to ask you to return them. Please, give other users a chance to get those books. If you have any questions on returning books, please contact us on libnotice@abdn.ac.uk.
Collecting items
When collecting your item, please bring your ID card with you, as this will be required for proof of identity. Also, remember to bring suitable bags to carry your items away, as we are unable to provide these. Use your ID card to access The Sir Duncan Rice Library and come to the Welcome Desk for assistance. If your ID card does not allow you access to the building, ring 01224 274505 and wait for staff assistance. Please ensure you wear a face covering and observe the 2m distancing regulations while you are collecting your items.
Any items not collected within 5 working days will be returned and re-shelved following quarantining. If you have any difficulties or questions regarding requesting items, please contact us on libnotice@abdn.ac.uk.
We know that this is a very difficult time for every student, but final year law students might face more upheaval than others to finish their law dissertations in time by April 2021. If you are one of them, and you need paper resources from Taylor Library, please do not hesitate to use our Click & Collect service. We will do everything we can to satisfy your request or to help you any other ways if we cannot. You can count on us.
Legal Information Update 