Library Guides: Indian Law Research Guide: Introduction to the Indian Legal System & Indian Legal Research

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Image: Emblem of India

Latest Indian Judgments & Legislation Newsfeed

Latest judgments from the Supreme Court and Bombay High Court, as well as recent UK judgments and recent Acts and Notifications - from the High Court of Bombay Judges' Library Blog.

Rule of Law and Human Rights in India

See:

The World Justice Project's latest Rule of Law Index - Country Profile for India (open access)

In 2017-18, India was ranked 62nd out of 113 countries.
Latest World Justice Project - Rule of Law Index (Full Report)

A good place to start your Indian legal research

Halsbury's Laws of India on LexisNexis Advance (UniMelb staff & student access) is a comprehensive online encyclopaedia of the Law in India, arranged alphabetically by topic. It contains commentary, and cites relevant legislation and significant cases.

Kluwer Law Online (UniMelb staff & student access) includes full text e-books on Indian law in the following subject areas:

Foreign Law Guide - India (UniMelb staff & student access) - arranged alphabetically by broad topic. Includes commentary, and lists relevant legislation (with links to the legislation on the SCC database) and useful secondary sources such as books and articles on these topics.

Indian Legal System

India's legal system is a mix of common, Muslim and customary law. See Juriglobe for further information(open access).

Image courtesy of Juriglobe

The main sources of law in India include the constitution, statutory laws, customary laws and case law. See more at:

GlobaLex: A Guide to India's Legal System and Legal Research by Rakesh Kumar Shrivastava (open access)
Customary Law in India - information and resources relating to customary law in India from the Law Library of Congress (open access).

Government Information

India.gov.in
(open access) The National Portal of India
GOI Web Directory
(Open access) Government of India Web Directory. A one-point source to access all Indian Government Websites at all levels and from all sectors.
India Image
This gateway to the government of Indian information on the web includes a Government of India directory, government policies, India fact file, and information about any district in India with facts and statistics.

Other Research Guides on Indian Law

For other research guide on Indian legal research see:

GlobaLex: A Guide to India's Legal System and Legal Research by Rakesh Kumar Shrivastava (open access)
Guide to Law Online - India (from the Law Library of Congress) (open access)
Law Library of Congress Research Guide: India (open access)
Customary Law in India: (from the Law Library of Congress) (open access)
IALS Library Research Guide: India (created by Dr. Priya Rai, Deputy Librarian, National Law University Delhi. Prepared for the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies) (open access)
Access to online Indian Legal Information by Priya Rai (open access)

For a comprehensive overview of Indian legal literature, see Uma Narayan, 'Basic Indian Legal Literature for Foreign Legal Professionals' (2009) 37(3) International Journal of Legal Information 333 (UniMelb staff & student access).

General Country Information

The Republic of India is a constitutional democracy. It is a federation made up of 29 states and seven union and national territories. India's Central and state governments function in the Westminister style.

Use the resources listed below for general information about India.

Doing Business in India

Doing Business in India
(Open Access) From the World Bank. Provides up to date statistics and other measures of business regulations and their enforcement in India. The 'Law Library' link on the right-hand side provides a large collection of business laws and regulations, linking to government sites where possible.
International Comparative Legal Guides - India
(Open Access). Describes the law in 41 practice areas relevant to doing business in India - including employment law, tax, cartels, arbitration, finance and dispute resolution.
Lexology PRO (formerly Getting the Deal Through)
(UniMelb staff & students). GTDT covers over 80 practice areas spanning competition & regulatory, dispute resolution & litigation, tax, white collar crime, IP, corporate, commercial, banking & finance, infrastructure & transport, energy & natural resources, insurance and compliance.

India: the Business Opportunity As India begins its second generation reforms and further opens up its economy and integrates it with the rest of the world, it has changed and overhauled many of its laws and regulations. For any foreign investor planning to invest in India, either in partnership with an existing Indian corporation or business or on their own, it is important to be aware of and have the information of the legal and regulatory framework that will govern entry into India. This book broadly covers almost all the legal and regulatory aspects that a foreign investor expects to face in the journey into India. The book has been divided into eighteen chapters. It covers the legal and regulatory aspects of the following: an overview of India; entry strategies and foreign investment regulations; a note on responsible business; reputation risk management; mergers and acquisitions; capital markets; debt financing; corporate governance; labour and employment; intellectual property; competition and unfair trade practices; infrastructure; direct taxation; indirect taxation, including a note on the proposed unified goods and services tax which will subsume all current indirect taxes and levies; arbitration; environment; cyber framework; and a final chapter on India as the choice to do business in. All these chapters have been authored by experts in their respective fields and they are managing partners, partners or heads of divisions in their respective firms, and organizations based out of India and abroad. [Subject: South Asian Law, Company & Insolvency Law, Contract Law, Tort Law, Commercial Law] by Linda S. Spedding
Call Number: KT 1627 INDI
Publication Date: 2016

Indian History

India, Raj & Empire (UniMelb staff & student access)

Drawing upon the rich and diverse manuscript collections of the National Library of Scotland, this datbase will be of great value to all those teaching or researching into the History of South Asia between the foundation of the East India Company in 1615 and the granting of independence to India and Pakistan in 1947.