SMU Lawnet Downloader: Quick Guide to Downloading Case LawSMU Lawnet is a powerful legal research platform widely used by law students, academics, and practitioners for access to Singapore case law, legislation, journal articles, and secondary materials. The SMU Lawnet Downloader is a tool (browser extension, script, or standalone program depending on implementation) designed to help users save and organize case law and related documents from SMU Lawnet for offline reading, citation, and study. This guide explains how such a downloader typically works, how to use it responsibly, best practices for organizing downloads, and troubleshooting common issues.
Important note on legality and ethics
Before using any downloader, be aware that SMU Lawnet content is subject to terms of use and copyright. Always confirm that your intended use complies with SMU Lawnet’s terms, subscription license, and copyright law. Institutional subscriptions often permit personal academic use but prohibit mass automated scraping or redistribution. If in doubt, contact your institution’s library or SMU Lawnet support for guidance.
What the SMU Lawnet Downloader does
- Downloads full-text case judgments, headnotes, citations, and metadata (case name, court, date, judge).
- Saves documents in common formats such as PDF or HTML for offline access.
- Optionally renames and organizes files automatically using consistent filename templates (e.g., “CaseName_Court_YYYY-MM-DD.pdf”).
- Extracts and stores citation information for reference management software (e.g., BibTeX, RIS).
- May batch-download multiple cases from a search results list or export a curated list for later retrieval.
Typical installation and setup
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Choose the right tool
- Browser extension: simplest for one-off downloads while browsing.
- Script (e.g., Python): better for batch operations and customization.
- Standalone application: offers a GUI and integrated organization features.
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Prerequisites
- Active SMU Lawnet access via your institution or personal subscription.
- For scripts: Python 3.8+ and libraries like requests, BeautifulSoup, selenium (if automation needed).
- For browser automation: a compatible browser (Chrome/Firefox) and matching WebDriver if using Selenium.
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Authentication
- Most downloaders require logging into SMU Lawnet. For browser-based tools, sign in via the browser. For scripts, use session-based cookies exported from a logged-in browser or automate login using Selenium. Avoid storing plaintext credentials—use environment variables or secure credential stores.
Step-by-step: Using a browser extension
- Install the extension from its official source.
- Log into SMU Lawnet in the same browser.
- Navigate to a case or a list of search results.
- Click the downloader icon — choose download format (PDF/HTML) and filename template.
- Confirm and save. The extension will fetch the document and store it in your downloads folder or specified directory.
Tips:
- Check extension permissions before installing.
- Use filename templates to avoid duplicates and maintain consistent organization.
Step-by-step: Using a Python script (example workflow)
Note: This is a conceptual workflow. Do not run scripts that violate terms of service.
- Export cookies from a logged-in browser (e.g., using an extension).
- Use requests with the exported cookies to maintain an authenticated session.
- Fetch case pages and parse for PDF links or full text using BeautifulSoup.
- Download files and save them with a standardized filename.
- Optionally generate a CSV with metadata for reference management.
Example (high-level pseudocode):
# pseudocode session = requests.Session() session.cookies.update(load_cookies('cookies.json')) for case_url in case_list: html = session.get(case_url).text pdf_link = parse_pdf_link(html) download_file(session, pdf_link, filename_template(case_url)) save_metadata(case_url, metadata_csv) Organizing downloads and metadata
- Use filename templates: CaseName_Court_YYYY-MM-DD.pdf
- Keep a master CSV or JSON with fields: case_name, citation, court, date, judges, URL, file_path.
- Tag or folder by topic, course, or jurisdiction.
- Integrate with reference managers (Zotero, EndNote) by exporting RIS/BibTeX.
Best practices
- Respect rate limits: add delays between requests to avoid overloading servers.
- Limit batch sizes: download in small batches and check terms for limits.
- Keep authentication secure: prefer cookies/session tokens over credentials in scripts.
- Back up files and metadata regularly.
- Use OCR for scanned PDFs to make text searchable.
Troubleshooting common issues
- Authentication fails: refresh cookies or re-login in the browser; if using Selenium, ensure login flow is automated correctly.
- Missing PDF links: some pages use dynamic loading—use Selenium or check network requests to find the actual file URL.
- Corrupted downloads: verify HTTP response status codes; retry failed downloads with exponential backoff.
- Duplicate filenames: include unique identifiers (citation or case ID) in templates.
Responsible use and alternatives
- If mass downloading is needed for research, request permission from SMU Lawnet or your institution’s library.
- For citation management and legal research, consider official APIs or export features provided by SMU Lawnet where available.
- Use institutional document delivery or interlibrary loan for materials not downloadable.
Example filename and metadata CSV format
Filename example:
- Tan_Keng_Seng_SC_2014-06-12.pdf
CSV columns:
- case_name, citation, court, date, judges, url, filename
If you want, I can:
- Draft a concrete Python script example (using requests + BeautifulSoup) that handles authenticated downloads from SMU Lawnet cookies you provide, or
- Create a browser extension manifest + sample code for a downloader, or
- Produce a checklist for institutional permission requests.
Which of those would you like?
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