Online Legal Resources

Are there any useful online legal resources Machinists would recommend? The text of the Bunreacht is freely available and I've seen our laws can be accessed here. But is there a more analytic resource available that would allow one to, for example, search case law for judgements or rulings that interpret the laws and constitution? For instance, how would I determine if Article 9.3 of Bunreacht na hÉireann had ever been at issue if any laws were challenged on the foot of it (apart from retaining the services of a wig, of course).

The best way to reference specific laws is to check digests or relevant text books.

You could also do a phrase or boolean search of recent Irish caselaw on www.bailii.org, www.courts.ie or on www.irlii.org.

Beyond that you are looking at shelling out some serious cash for justis or westlaw or lexis or something like that.

If you are a student you are laughing of course as the law sections of the main universities have everything you need.

Bailii is a great resource. UCC have quite alot of resources on their site. You can get all the Irish Statutebook on a combination of irishstatutebook.ie and oireachtas.ie (for the latest stuff). As Zhou says, to get onto lexus or justis is expensive... so those of us with access to college libraries are greatly blessed to have it. A personal subscription to Lexus is over a grand a year I think.

Ta for that lads - alas I am not a student, but that bailli site looks good for starters.

johnfás and Zhou said it all really, there's not much more you can find online for free. Up-to-date textbooks really are the best way to find out if and how a given law has been treated by the courts, unfortunately you're unlikely to find many of them for free of course.

If it's legal discussion and analysis you're after the blawgosphere is rich and diverse, and can also help in keeping one up-to-date on the law. There are many out there, but depending on your area of interest there may be one or two I could recommend (unfortunately I don't know of any Irish constitutional law blogs).