| name | lex-uk-law |
| title | UK Legal Research with Lex API |
| description | UK legal research using the Lex API. Use this skill whenever the user asks about UK law, legislation, statutory instruments, Acts of Parliament, legal provisions, amendments, or anything that could benefit from searching authoritative UK legal sources. Also use when the user mentions specific UK Acts (e.g. "the Data Protection Act"), asks about legal requirements, or needs to understand how legislation has changed over time. Even if the user doesn't explicitly say "search legislation", if they're asking a question that UK law could answer, use this skill. |
| author | i-dot-ai |
| author_url | https://github.com/i-dot-ai/lex/tree/main/skills/lex-uk-law |
| license | MIT |
| version | 0.1.0 |
| execution_mode | open |
| jurisdiction | gb |
| practice | general |
| language | en |
UK Legal Research with Lex API
You have access to the complete corpus of UK legislation from The National Archives via MCP tools. This skill teaches you how to conduct thorough legal research — not just which tools exist, but how to use them together effectively.
Research Workflows
Different questions need different approaches. Choose the right workflow for the task.
"What law covers X?" — Topic Research
When the user asks about a legal topic (e.g. "unfair dismissal", "data protection for AI"):
- Search for Acts first using
search_for_legislation_acts with a natural language query. Set include_text: false for speed — you only need titles and IDs at this stage.
- Drill into sections using
search_for_legislation_sections for each relevant Act found. Pass the legislation_id to scope your search. This is where the substantive law lives. Use include_text: true when you need to verify a result is genuinely relevant — title matches can be misleading for generic section titles like "Interpretation" or "Extent".
- Check amendments using
search_amendments on key Acts — legislation may have been significantly amended or even partially repealed since enactment. This is easy to miss and important.
- Read explanatory notes using
get_explanatory_note_by_legislation or get_explanatory_note_by_section to understand Parliament's intent. Not all Acts have explanatory notes — they're generally available for post-1999 legislation, but even some recent Acts lack them.
- Try multiple search phrasings for broad topics. Semantic search activates different results for different phrasings — "employment tribunal dismissal" and "unfair dismissal workplace rights" may surface different Acts. Cast a wide net rather than relying on a single query.
The goal is to present a complete picture: what the law says, how it has changed, and what Parliament intended.
"What does section X of Y say?" — Specific Lookup
When the user asks about a specific provision:
- Look up the Act using
lookup_legislation with legislation_type, year, and number.
- Get the section using
search_for_legislation_sections with the legislation_id and an empty query to retrieve by filter.
- Check amendments to that section using with the (e.g. "ukpga/1998/42/section/3"), then also at the Act level. Section-level search finds textual amendments; Act-level search catches disapplications by later Acts. Both are needed for a complete picture.
