Library guides: Law: Legislation

Key resources

Australian legislation
International legislation

LawNow Legislation via Lexis Advance This link opens in a new window
Current, repealed and historical Acts, Bills and subordinate legislation for all jurisdictions in Australia, and a citator function to locate relevant case law and commentary. Bills may include links to Explanatory Memoranda and second reading speeches.

Federal Register of Legislation
Official government website for Commonwealth Acts (in force, as made and point in time), Bills, legislative instruments (subordinate legislation) and gazettes.
Parliament of Australia
House of Representatives and Senate documents, including Bills and Hansard, committee documents and press releases.
See the ‘Bill Digest’, prepared by the Parliamentary Library, for the background of the Bill and links to extrinsic materials, where available.
Index to Commonwealth Explanatory Memoranda
An index of Commonwealth items identified as Explanatory Memoranda or Comparative Memoranda from 1901 to the end of 1982, and select Explanatory Memoranda for 1983 onwards. Arranged alphabetically by session of Parliament.
NSW legislation
Official government website for NSW Acts (in force, as made and point in time), Bills, subordinate legislation and gazettes. Note: Bills are online from 1997 onwards only
Parliament of NSW
Search or browse for past and current NSW Bills. Also includes Explanatory Notes, second reading speeches, Hansard, parliamentary committee reports, and other parliamentary documents.
New South Wales Explanatory Notes (AustLII)
Search of browse for the full text of the NSW Explanatory Notes from 1978 to current, where available.

For other states and territories see their parliamentary or government legislation websites.

Most countries produce legislation. Look at government websites for the specific country to find online legislation (e.g. New Zealand Legislation). The list below is selective and there are many more sources of legislation online.

vLex Justis This link opens in a new window
As-made Acts of Parliament in England, Wales and Scotland from 1235, including repealed legislation and Statutory Instruments from 1949. This database also includes Irish legislation from 1998 and EU legal information from 1951.

Congress.gov
A historical record of select US Bills from 1799 with the full-text of Bills from 1989 (101st Congress) and amendments from 1995 (104th Congress). Also contains the Congressional Record from 1925 (69th Congress).
WorldLII
Content from 48 jurisdictions from around the world, including a single search option for multiple legal information institutes (AustLII, BAILII, CanLII, HKLII, LII (Cornell) and PacLII).

There are three Westlaw databases containing international legislation: Westlaw International has legislation from the US, UK, EU, Hong Kong and selected legislation from Canada. Westlaw China has legislation in Chinese language and the English translations. Westlaw US has statutes and constitutions at federal and state level, and for other US jurisdictions.
To search in a particular jurisdiction, choose the relevant database from the links below.

Westlaw International This link opens in a new window
Westlaw US This link opens in a new window

Legislative process explained

Legislative process explained steps you through how a law is made in NSW and the legislative process involved in making new laws.

Annotated legislation

Some databases also include commentary and annotated legislation.
Annotated content often includes commentary, cases and journal articles which consider and interpret the legislation or section.
The following databases contain some annotated legislation on various topics in Australian jurisdictions:

CCH iKnowConnect This link opens in a new window
Lexis Advance This link opens in a new window
Westlaw Australia This link opens in a new window

Law

Key resources

Legislative process explained

Annotated legislation

Further support