Law Students and the Use and Abuse of Electronic Forms of Information

Increasingly, during the study of law at all levels, students are being introduced to electronic forms of information such as the World Wide Web and Law Reports on CD-ROM. This paper looks at the advantages and disadvantages of such exposure. It looks at how students are using electronic forms of data within their studies. How electronic data available by the Internet is changing patterns of use of ‘bricks and mortar’ libraries. The paper looks at what students are expecting from electronic forms of information. Questions in the form, ‘Are Criminal Law Review cases on the ALL England CDROM’ and, ‘Are there cases on the WWW?’ are frequently asked. The paper looks at the abuse of electronic forms of data - such practices as finding one case and down loading all hyper-linked cases or using the Internet for plagiarism. The paper concludes with a look at how good practice in research techniques in the use of electronic data can be incorporated into skills teaching for law students.