West Group Unveils Newly Redesigned westlaw.com,
Will Supply European Case Law on Westlaw Service
West Group has announced that
westlaw.com now provides a more intuitive interface, superior features,
and improved speed, with lower technical requirements. According to the
company, significant work has gone into improving performance, and this
release of westlaw.com is now up to 30-percent faster than its predecessors,
with even more functionality. West Group has also announced that it has
teamed up with ELLIS Publications, a leading provider of European Union
information, to provide up-to-date, complete coverage of European case
law and legislative materials on Westlaw.
westlaw.com westlaw.com’s new tabbed interface enables researchers to quickly find
commonly used databases and perform powerful functions. Interface features
that at one time required custom software—like information tabs to display
content and context side-by-side and a link viewer—are now available through
a simple Web browser, on any platform.
The Westnews tab provides immediate access to news and background information
on companies, industries, and individuals. The new tab also highlights
financial data, public records, and in-depth business information, including
Dun & Bradstreet Business Information Reports, Company Profile, Investext,
and Corporate Filings.
“Our customer base has expanded dramatically over the past few years,
and that expansion means that a one-size-fits-all interface is no longer
adequate for all of our customers’ needs,” said Denis Hauptly, vice president
of West Group Technology Development. “With this release of westlaw.com,
our customers have an interface that works best for them, and which helps
them focus their research on the type of material they need.”
The new westlaw.com also offers split-screen and full-screen views,
choices of hourly or transactional billing, and new features, including
the following:
The Table of Contents Center—An organized, hierarchical representation
of tables of contents for a wide array of materials
Find a Database Wizard—Simplifies the process of selecting the best database
PeopleCite—An advanced tool that leverages West Legal Directory
to quickly create dossiers of cases and published works for legal professionals.
By connecting primary and secondary research materials to the professional
profiles in West Legal Directory, PeopleCite connects the “who”
with the “what.”
The westlaw.com enhancements planned for this fall include the addition
of jurisdictional and practice-area tabs. These tabs will point users to
the most commonly used sources for research in these areas, to focus and
simplify the research process. They will also enable researchers to customize
the Westlaw interface to match the needs of their individual practice,
eliminating mass-produced legal research.
European Case Law The European Union databases on West-law provide information contained
in CELEX, the official legal database of the European Communities, and
additional information not included in CELEX. This information includes
complete coverage of the C Series of the Official Journal, all Merger
decisions, hypertext links to Adobe PDFs of original Official Journal documents,
and COM finals explanatory memorandum. The databases are updated twice
a week, ensuring the most current coverage. And all cross-referenced material
is contained within the document, so a single search will bring together
all European Union materials. A table of contents is included at the top
of every document, providing researchers with quick and easy navigation
through long documents.
The following European databases are now on Westlaw:
European Union Case Law (EU-CS)—Contains the official case law reports
as found in the European Court Reports
European Union Legislation (EU-LEG)—Contains comprehensive and current
materials from the Official Journal L Series of the European Communities
(official printed source of European Union Legislation), including International
Agreements, Secondary Legislation, and Supplementary Legislation
European Union Preparatory Acts (EU-ACTS)—Contains documents generated
during the various stages of the legislative or budgetary process. Coverage
includes COM final documents—formal proposals for new legislation—and opinions
on the proposed legislation by the Economic and Social Committees (CES
documents) and by the European Parliament (EP working documents) published
since 1985. Also included are proposed legislation and opinions published
in the C Series of the Official Journal.
European Union Treaties (EU-TREATIES)—Includes all the treaties concluded
between the Member States of the European Communities. These include the
Founding Treaties, Accession Treaties, Supplementary Treaties, and the
Maastricht Treaty.
European Union Parliamentary Questions (EU-QUESTIONS)—Contains written
answers to questions addressed by the members of the European Parliament
to the Commission and Council
European Union Official Journal C Series (EU-OJCSERIES)—Contains Commission
information and notices and Council of Ministers’ information and notices
as published in the C Series of the Official Journal, as well as
a selection of preparatory works and the European Court information
Table
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