Law library and resources

About the law library

Books and information are a lawyer's tools. The ground floor of the Mountbatten Library hosts a dedicated law collection and a large number of open access PCs to access digital resources. The traditional collection includes thousands of textbooks in most areas of the law, including several copies of courses' recommended texts, practitioner texts, academic journals, and all the main general law reports series.

Resources which are not part of the law library collection can be ordered by final-year and postgraduate students through the inter-library loan system, and at key times of year the library opens 24 hours a day 7 days a week for students with urgent essay deadlines or rapidly approaching examinations.

Law databases

Solent also has an excellent collection of subscriber law databases, including the major collections offered by Westlaw, Lexis Library and i-Law – giving access to a vast array of legal resources both on- and off-campus. These databases offer access to many different series of law reports, legislative material, highly specialist practitioner textbooks and manuals and a large number of academic journals.

As part of the first year LLB module Legal Research and Literacy Skills, students are given training in using these invaluable resources, and the opportunity exists to take further examinations and gain Westlaw and Lexis certification.

Mountbatten Journal of Legal Issues

The Mountbatten Journal of Legal Issues (MJLS) was launched by the former Master of the Rolls Lord Donaldson in 1997, having developed out of the Southampton Institute Law Review which started in 1992.

Offering articles, opinion pieces and book reviews on diverse topics such as environmental law, mental health law, competition law, criminal law, Brexit and ethics, the MJLS is a fully refereed journal and welcomes contributions from the legal community.