Law Library

The Faculty of Law Library is a branch library of the University of Zimbabwe Library. It offers diverse knowledge products and services that address the research needs of University of Zimbabwe students, members of staff. It is located in the Faculty of Law building at the University of Zimbabwe Mt. Pleasant Campus. Patrons must adhere to Library Rules and Regulations and COVID-19 Protocols.

1. UZ Library e-Resources

The UZ Library provides a wide range of electronic resources which are accessible via the Library website: library.uz.ac.zw

e-Books and e-Journals:

Students and researchers have access to multidisciplinary e-Book and e-Journal databases such as Heinonline, EBSCO Ebooks, ARDI, GOALI Law, JSTOR, Taylor and Francis Journals. Patrons can access electronic resources both on campus and off campus. The Library offers training on how to access electronic resources. E-Resources are accessible through the following links:

Campus Access: http://library.uz.ac.zw/index.php/e-resources/campus-access/ejournals

Off Campus Access: https://uz.remotexs.co/user/login

A User Guide on How to Access eResources is accessible here: http://library.uz.ac.zw/images /pdfs/How_to_Access_UZ_Library_E_Resources_Revised.pdf

e-Thesis and Dissertations:

Every year the Library uploads e-thesis and dissertations on the UZ Institutional Repository as they are submitted annually by law students in partial fulfilment of their post and under graduate degree programs. Access is through the author, title, subject and date of publication.

Theses and Dissertations are accessible here: http://ir.uz.ac.zw

Judgements and Statutes:

The library provides access to both print and electronic judgement reports which cases decided in the Supreme Court and High Court of Zimbabwe.

The library also provides access to the Statutes which are Acts of Parliament again both print and electronic. Online judgements and statutes are accessible via the following links:

http://www.jsc.org.zw/acts

http://zimlii.org/zw/judgment/constitutional-court/

http://zimlii.org/zw/judgment/supreme-court/

http://zimlii.org/zw/judgment/harare-high-court/

http://zimlii.org/zw/judgment/bulawayo-high-court/

http://zimlii.org/zw/judgment/labour-court

Gazettes Site

Past Examination Papers:

The library upload electronic past examination papers after every examination and these can be accessed via the library home page (http://library.uz.ac.zw ) under the E-resources tab or directly on the following links:

Campus Access: https://uzexams.uz.ac.zw/

Off Campus Access: https://uz.remotexs.co/user/login

Open Access Resources:

The library hosts a list of reputable open access databases where users can freely access without any restrictions. These resources are accessed via the library home page under the e-resources or direct via this link: http://library.uz.ac.zw/index.php/e-resources/open-access-resources

Print Information Resources

The law Library houses a rich collection of print resources that are pertinent to legal research and practice. Users can search for teh available resources on the Library Online Public Access Catalogue: https://uzlibsys.uz.ac.zw/

The information resources can be categorised as follows:

Primary sources of legal information

These include statutes, law reports, unreported judgements, government gazettes and statutory instruments. These cannot be taken out of the library but they are for in-house use only.

           Core textbooks

This is a collection of books which are heavily used and separately shelved in the library. They are recommended books for the modules and are expected to circulate fast hence their short loan period of 3 days.

Reference Books

These books must be read in the library and are not available for borrowing e.g. dictionaries, directories, encyclopaedias etc. 

Reserve Books

These are heavily used books which would have been recommended by lecturers. These books are used in the library from 09:30 hrs to 14:00 hrs from Monday to Thursday. They are borrowed from 1400 hrs for overnight reading and returned the following morning before 0900hrs. On Friday the books are used in the library from 0900hrs to 1200hrs after which they are then borrowed for the weekend and returned Monday morning before 0900hrs. Failure to comply attracts a fine charged on hourly basis. One user can borrow one book at a time.

Open Shelf books

These books are found in open shelves. Users walk into the library, inspect the shelves and select books they like. The books have different loan periods as shown below:

Ordinary loan     -       3 days loan period

Short term loan   -       3 days loan period

Special Collections

• Human Rights Collections: A collection of books on matters of all rights.
• Kamba Collections: A multidisciplinary collection of late Kamba’s library donated to the Law Library by his family.
• Rare Collection: This includes collections on Roman Law and Legal history and is all available in the library.
• Red Cross (ICRC) A human rights book collection donated by ICRC
• Women's Law plus International & Specialist law reports in the women’s law library

Theses and Dissertations

Every year the library adds to the theses and dissertations as they are submitted annually by law students in partial fulfilment of their post and under graduate degree programs.

           Archives

A collection of books removed from the main active collection due to their relatively less usage statistics. The books cover different aspects of the law only that usage statistics report that they are less used hence their separation from the active collection. These books can be borrowed like any ordinary book from the open shelves.

The Law Library is open to University of Zimbabwe students, members of staff and approved readers.

• Monday to Thursday: 0800 hrs to 1630 hrs.
• Friday : 0800 hrs to 1600 hrs.
• Weekend And Public Holidays : Closed.

The library offers:        

-Research support services: to enable quality information retrieval and use

-User instruction services: teach library users how to locate the information they need quickly and effectively.

-References services: personal assistance provided to library users seeking information.

-Circulation services: lending of library materials

-Study spaces: the Law Library has a friendly environment that is ideal for studying

-Computing facilities: Researchers have access to desktop computers that are connected to the Internet.

Those with personal laptops and other mobile devices can connect to the Internet by making use of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) facilities

Training Services:

Library also provides training through the following strategies:

• Individualised support and personal consultations
• In-class and online instruction
• Presentations and workshops for small or large groups and classes
• Online guidance and resources
• Bespoke training sessions tailored to the needs of specific groups

The following sessions are on offer:

E-Resources and Literature Searching: To empower library users with skills to fully exploit the wide range of electronic resources available in the library.

Reference Management: It imparts skills to students, researchers and academics on how to collect, organise, and cite material in their scholarly work.

Research Data Management: To help research communities, individual researchers and scientists, to fully exploit these services and understand how to benefit from them.

Publishing: To develop the capacity of researchers on contemporary scholarly publishing options.

Scholarly Communication: To introduce a system through which research and other scholarly writings are created, evaluated for quality, disseminated to the scholarly community, and preserved for future use.

Legal research and writing: To impart skills for legal research and writing of documents that are filed or presented at court. Provide more details about the IDS Module in the Faculty of Law

Faculty of Law Library Staff

Mrs N. Kwangwa,     Manager: Scholarly Communication and Publishing. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.   

Mr  G. Chichewo,    Information and Knowledge Management Specialist. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  

Mr F. Dirwai,        Assistant Information Specialist: Circulation. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.   

Mr  O. Mutamba,     Assistant Information Specialist: Scholarly Communication and Publishing. This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.