The Law Library
Welcome to the Law Library. Here you will find a large collection of both printed and electronic legal material, including books, journals, reference works and databases.
The Law Library is located on the 5th floor in the Law Faculty building at Dragefjellet. Here we can help you to find your way around the library or assist you in searching for relevant literature.
For more information about the library and its resources, check out the boxes below.
Literature and alignment
Searching for material | The blue search box at the top of this page, is our seach engine Oria. In Oria you can seach for both printed and electronic material in the University of Bergen Library or other norwegian libraries. Need help using Oria? On this page you can find instructions on searching and requesting documents in Oria. |
The books’ alignment | Our collection is arranged in a systematic order by subject, using the L-catalog (norwegian only).We do not arrange books by language. The alignment form was developed by the university libraries in Bergen and Oslo, and is devided into the three classical groups of Private law, Public law and International law. The book's alignment can be found in Oria and is given by letters and numbers (for example L 123 abc). The shelves in the library give an overview of the topics on that shelf and the spine shows the book's alignment. You can search for a topic in Oria by typing in the L-number in the advanced search box. Here you must choose “Local classification” and write the L-number in the search box (for example L 123). All the literature on this subject will appear. |
The regular collection | The regular collection is marked with a white tape. The books can be borrowed for four weeks, and can be renewed if no one is on the reservation list. Unavailable books can be reserved in Oria. Click here for more information on borrowing and renewing. |
The reading list collection | Material from the reading list is available in the library on a separate shelf, and contains the books that are listed on the course reading list. The collection is devided into two sections:
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The source and reference collection
| The sources of law and reference collection is marked with a blue tape. The blue tape means that you can only use the material in the library. The material can be copied according to Kopinor licence. The collection consists of:
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"Magasin" - storage unit | The books in the library's storage unit are marked "Magasin". These are mostly older books or older editions of the books in the regular collection. The books from the storage unit can be borrowed for four weeks. Contact the staff at the counter, and we will get it for you while you wait. |
Electronic books | Electronic books are searchable just like normal books in Oria, or you can choose electronic books in Oria advances search. Some books are not yet available, but you can find them if you search directly through Springer link or Ebrary. For more information, check out how to find and use eBooks. |
Journals | The library subscribes to many journals, both in print and electronically. Printed journals can be found in the library on the shelves labeled "Tidsskrift", alphabetically aligned by title. The latest annual volume is located by the seating area in the middle of the library. Electronic journals can be found in Oria. |
Articles | Articles can be found in: journals, newspapers and books. Articles in journals: Some major Norwegian legal journal databases are Idunn and Rettsdata. There are also some individual legal articles in LovdataPro’s literature database. Articles in newspapers: Articles in books: Also check out the book collection: “Norsk juridisk festskriftbibliografi” by Hanne E. Strømø and Halvor Kongshavn. |
Electronic resources
A bibliographic database over Norwegian law written in foreign languages, most of them in English. References to books, articles and Norwegian sources of law. To find the references, click "Group library". You can now also retrieve references and download to your own Zotero-library and incorporate to your Citation Style e.g. Harvard or Chicago. The database was created and is still owned and operated by the Law Library at the University of Bergen Library. From 2004 to 2016 Kirsti Lothe Jacobsen was project leader, now Elen Elvebakk is the editor in charge. | |
A collection of Norwegian acts that have been translated into English. The translations are not official, they are provided for information purposes only. | |
A collection of online legal resources. You need an account to search the database, but some Norwegian laws, acts and the Foreign Ministry's treaty registry is available to everyone. For more, see Information in English. | |
A collection of databases that the University of Bergen | |
Online guide and toolbox for academic writing. Contains information about searching, reading, writing, sources and referencing. | |
A web resource to help beginning researchers in their process of researching, writing and publishing. The resource has three main modules: Search and Review; Share and Publish; and Open Science. |
Open access to scientific articles in journals
Norwegian research institutions are negotiating several journal deals with academic publishers in 2019. In consequence, some journals have not been renewed.
This is what you can do if you need articles in journals that we can no longer access:
- Download plug-ins to the web browser to find open-access articles:
Tools like Unpaywall and Open Access Button makes it easy to find open access versions of articles in the web browser. Read more about these services here.
- UiB can access archives
UiB still has access to the archives of numerous journals up until 2018. Here is a searchable table with an overview of the journals UiB has archive access to. In these journals you can search like before, for example in Google and Oria, and download articles from ScienceDirect.
- Order the article
If you find an article UiB has lost access to in Oria, you you will be given an opportunity to order the article. You will receive the article as a pdf in your email, no more than 8 hours, but normally 2 hours, after the purchase. UiB will cover your expenses.
- Contact the author or ask international colleagues
It is not unusual to contact an author and request him or her to send their article. It is also common for researchers to share copies of an article in social networks.
- Contact your library
The University of Bergen Library is ready to help. Feel free to contact them with any inquiries.
For more information on the consequences, which journals are affected and how you can now get a hold of literature, see latest updates on the negotiations.
Book a librarian
Do you need assistance in your search for information? Then you can book a librarian.
Students and staff at The Faculty of Law can book a librarian for a one-to-one session, where the librarian will help you find relevant information from the many subject databases The University of Bergen Library has access to.
The session takes place in the library all weekdays between 8.30 AM and 3.00 PM. The session usually lasts one hour.
Please give us information on the subject you need assistance with and in which context you will be using it (i.e. master's thesis, paper etc.)
Request a purchase
The library is constantly adding books to our collection. If you have any suggestions for books the library should buy, you can send us a request via e-mail: ubbjur@uib.no. Please let us know if you are interested in a printed or electronic version (if available). New books are displayd by the library entrance.
