Guide to Legal Research  

Guide to the research tools for all major common law jurisdictions:

• Australian Legislation
  
  • Bills
    
  • Acts
    
  • Subordinate legislation
    
• Australian Case Law
  
• Australian Secondary Sources
• New Zealand Law
• English Law
• Canadian Law
• United States Law
• European Union Law
• International Law
• Legal citation

Primary sources of law consist of authoritative statements of law made by law-making bodies.
They include:

• Legislation
  Acts or Statutes of Parliament
• Subordinate legislation
  Rules, Regulations, By-Laws. These are made by individuals or bodies to which Parliament has delegated authority
• Law reports
  published reports of decisions or judgments of courts or tribunals

Secondary sources of legal information perform one of the two functions:

• assist in locating relevant primary sources of law.
  They include current awareness and digest services such as Australian Current Law
• assist in the interpretation of relevant primary sources.
  They include sources such as journal articles, textbooks and encyclopedias

When commencing legal research it is often helpful to begin with secondary sources.
They can provide:

• an overview of the subject
• useful references or citations to relevant primary materials

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