Collections

• Primary Materials
• Secondary Materials
• Law Journals
• Chinese Law Collection
• Basic Law Collection
• Microforms
• Reference Collection
• Electronic Resources
• Reserve Collection
• Faculty Publications Collection
• AV Materials
• United Nations Depository Collection
• Past Exam Papers

 

The University of Hong Kong Lui Che Woo Law Library is one of the subject branch libraries of the University Libraries. It is situated near the Law Faculty, on the first and second floors of the K.K. Leung Building. It provides study and research facilities for the academics, students and postgraduates of the Faculty, and other staff and students of the University. Members of the legal profession practising in Hong Kong may also use the library on application.

Reflecting the historical development of Hong Kong, and the Faculty's common law tradition, the Lui Che Woo Law Library has strong collections of material from Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, and the major Commonwealth jurisdictions. In response to the geographical location of Hong Kong, and its commercial relationships, resources from the Asia-Pacific jurisdictions are now being developed.

This growing collection of about 62,000 volumes contains texts, official publications, periodicals, law reports and legislation from Hong Kong and other countries, on a wide range of legal topics. The Main Library also has some holdings of legal texts.

 

Primary Materials

The Library has a substantial collection of primary materials including statutes, regulations, law reports, digests, and cases of Hong Kong, UK and other common law jurisdictions including Africa, Australia, Canada, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, etc.

Hong Kong primary materials include the Government Gazette, all editions of the Laws of Hong Kong dating back to the 1901 edition, law reports, digests, indexes, and unreported judgments distributed by the superior courts. [More about sources of HK law]

The print primary source is supplemented by an extensive collection of digital resources in the form of CD-ROMs and Web databases.

Secondary Materials

These comprise mainly of law textbooks, ranging from academic treatises, practitioners' books, practice manuals, casebooks, annotations, to commentaries, on various jurisdictions that are within the scope of the Library's interest. Textbooks are arranged in a classified sequence, according to the Moys Classification scheme.

Law Journals

These include both Western-language and Chinese law journals. Western-language law journals are arranged alphabetically by titles. Chinese law journals are arranged in a classified sequence. Holdings information of all journals can be found on the OPAC.

Chinese Law Collection

The Library's Chinese collection of legal materials covers those of the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau, as well as works on other jurisdictions written in Chinese.

Focus of the collection is on PRC law resources, which include official gazettes, collections of laws and regulations, administrative regulations, administrative rules, local regulations, judicial interpretations, cases, yearbooks, handbooks, manuals, legal newspapers, journals, as well as treatises and books.

This is supplemented by electronic resources in both English and Chinese and which cater for Chinese legal research.

Basic Law Collection

The collection contains library materials held in the Law Library relating to the Basic Law.These include materials in Chinese and English language covering:

• Selected court judgments relating to the Basic Law
• Selected consultation documents & reports issued by the Basic Law Drafting Committee and the Basic Law Consultative Committee
• Conference papers relating to the Basic Law
• Basic law related books and other publications emanating from professional bodies, academic institutions, community organizations, commercial publishers, etc

[More about HK Basic Law]

Microforms

A major part of the Library's microform collection consists of the Law Library Collection of the United Nations Documents and Publications (1981- ) and its supplementary segments Human Rights collection (1946- ) and Trade & Development collection (1961- ).
[About the UN microfiche collection] [UN Documentation Research Guide]

Also included are selected journal back volumes, the United Nations Treaty series [UN Treaty collection via UN home page] and early British case law.

A microform reader is available next to the collection for reading and printing from the film reels or fiches.

Reference Collection

There are two reference areas in the Law Library. The 1/F reference area contains general reference materials, bibliographies, dictionaries, indexes, etc. The 2/F reference area contains more substantial works of reference such as collections of precedents. Major legal encyclopaedias and digests, such as Halsbury's Laws of England or the Canadian Abridgment, are shelved with the primary materials of the jurisdiction.

Electronic Resources

The Library has a good selection of legal databases, covering many jurisdictions and various subject areas. These range from bibliographical and reference to full-text databases, including indexes to US and UK law journals, collections of legislation, law reports and digests. These are available either through the campus network, or on standalone PCs in the Law Library.

Reserve Collection

This collection contains items in particularly high demand such as textbooks, legislation, law reports, cases, examination papers, assignments, course notes, and some loose-leaf publications. They are kept behind the loan counter. Teaching staff may request online for materials in the Library to be placed in the Law Reserve collection.[Online Law Library RBR Request form]

Faculty Publications Collection

This growing collection aims at representing the research output of the Law Faculty. It includes the publications of the Law Faculty in all formats, from books and articles to research papers and unpublished materials.

AV Materials

Videos on many aspects of law and practice are available for loan or for viewing in the Library. AV materials also include a small collection of slides and other non-print materials.

United Nations Depository Collection

The University of Hong Kong Libraries have been designated as a United Nations depository in April 2000 and receive masthead documents, official records, selected sales publications and electronic resources of the United Nations from the various duty stations (New York, Geneva, Vienna, and Bangkok). With the adoption of electronic deposit by the United Nations Publications Board since January 2001, the Libraries receive masthead documents and official records in electronic format.