Legal biography at the British Library: a particular perspective on resources

Abstract

Rich collections of private archives, antiquarian manuscript collections and published resources make the British Library an obvious choice for biographical research. While these collections include material relating to high ranking legal officials, legislators, renowned legal scholars and their correspondents the article moves beyond this view of legal biographical source materials. Presenting examples of resources from across the Library's diverse collections through a particular perspective on information needs and sources in broadly socio-legal research, a framework for conceptualising the Library's resource is offered together with signposts to discovery aids as contributions to the theme of methods in legal biographical research. In doing so, various notions of the nature of legal biographical research, its subjects and its source information are considered.