We buy law books, so treat what follows with that in mind. But most libraries contain a mix, and pretending everything is sellable would waste your time and ours. Here is the full picture.
Start by sorting into three piles
Before deciding anything, separate what's there:
- Major sets — Halsbury's Laws, Halsbury's Statutes, the All England Law Reports, the Law Reports
- Practitioner texts — Chitty, Archbold, the White Book and similar standard works
- Everything else — superseded looseleafs, conference materials, odd volumes, old student texts
The first two piles have resale value. The third almost never does, and is usually the one taking up most of the space.
Option 1: Sell
Best for: complete or near-complete sets of recognised titles, and recent editions. If you're asking "can I sell outdated law books at all", the answer is often yes — outdated doesn't automatically mean worthless, and it's always worth an enquiry before assuming otherwise.
Specialist buyers (ourselves included) will value a set and collect it. The advantage over general second-hand book services is that a law-specific buyer understands why a complete run matters and won't price a chambers library as generic used books. The advantage over selling it yourself is that you don't have to box, weigh, photograph or post anything.
If you want to know what's likely to be worth having valued, we've written separately on whether old law books are worth anything and on valuing a Halsbury's set specifically.
Option 2: Donate
Best for: good-quality books with limited resale value, and anyone who'd rather the books did some good than raised money. If you're searching for how to donate law books in the UK, or wondering what actually happens to donated law books once they leave your shelf, this is the honest version.
To donate legal textbooks specifically, or full sets, two genuinely useful routes:
- We work directly with Donate Law Books, who collect law book donations free of charge and redistribute them to organisations that need them. If you'd rather your books were given than sold, tell us and we'll pass it straight to them — or approach them yourself.
- The International Law Book Facility is a UK charity formed in 2005 specifically to address the waste of law books discarded whenever a new edition appears. It passes good-quality donated legal texts to not-for-profit organisations overseas. It has a preferred list of core titles, so it's worth checking before sending anything.
- The Law Society library publishes its own guide to disposing of a legal collection, listing organisations that buy or accept donations. It's impartial and worth reading — the Law Society is explicit that it doesn't endorse the organisations it lists.
University law schools and local law societies occasionally accept donations too, though most are short of space and selective about what they'll take.
Option 3: Recycle
Best for: anything water-damaged, incomplete beyond use, or decades out of date. Worth knowing before you start: we collect and recycle this free as part of any collection, so you don't have to sort or shift it yourself.
One practical detail that catches people out: paperbacks generally go in kerbside paper recycling, but hardbacks often can't, because the boards and binding contain glue, cloth and board that aren't paper. Many councils ask that covers are removed first, and rules vary — your council's A–Z recycling guidance is the place to check.
For a chambers library, the volume alone usually makes kerbside impractical. We collect and recycle unsellable stock free of charge as part of a collection, which avoids the sorting problem entirely.
Mixed library? Most are. We'll value what's sellable, take away what isn't, and you don't have to separate anything yourself.
Get my free valuation →Option 4: The skip
Worth saying plainly: this should be the last resort, not the default. A surprising amount of what ends up in skips during office moves has either resale value or donation value — and the sorting cost is usually the reason it doesn't get checked.
If there's genuinely nothing else for it, at least check whether the material is confidential first. Client files and annotated working papers are a different disposal question from published texts, and need confidential waste handling.
Which applies to you
| If you have… | Best route |
|---|---|
| A complete recent set | Sell — this is where the value is |
| A partial run of a major series | Sell — still worth an enquiry |
| Superseded or outdated editions | Sell — we buy these too |
| Odd volumes, broken runs | We collect and recycle, free |
| Water damage or mould | We collect and recycle, free |
| A whole room, mixed | One collection covering all of the above |
| Student textbooks or rare antiquarian | Not our market — see where to sell |
If you're clearing a library because someone has retired or died, we've written specifically for retiring practitioners and for executors and families, both of which cover the practical side in more detail.
Describe what's on the shelves — a photograph is enough — and we'll tell you which of the above applies, with no obligation either way.
Get my free valuation →See the whole process, start to finish →
Why landfill and generic bookshops both fall short →
Common questions
FAQ
Can law books go in normal recycling?
Paperbacks generally can. Hardbacks often cannot go in kerbside paper recycling because the boards and binding contain non-paper materials, so many councils ask that covers are removed first. Check your own council's A-Z guidance, as rules vary.
Can I donate law books to a charity?
Yes. The International Law Book Facility is a UK charity set up specifically to send good-quality donated law books to not-for-profit organisations overseas. The Law Society library also publishes guidance on disposing of a legal collection.
Is it worth selling old law books or should I just donate them?
It depends on what you have. Complete recent sets of recognised titles usually have real resale value. Superseded editions and broken runs often don't, and donation or recycling is the better route for those.