Introduction to Legal Research
SLSS 1001
Animals Act 1977 No 25
COPYRIGHT
Current version for 3 December 1999 to date (accessed 16 March 2009 at 18:15)
(6) Subsection (2) is taken never to have applied if
Part 3Section 8
8 Danger from presence or behaviour of animal on premises
the owner of the book, newspaper or periodical
publication disposes of it (in the form from which
the main copy was made) to another person.
Where damage results from a danger to a person entering premises, being a danger due to the state of the
premises or due to things done or left undone on the premises, the liability (if any) of a person as an occupier of
the premises in respect of the damage depends only on the law relating to the liability of occupiers,
notwithstanding that the danger is, or is associated with, the presence or behaviour of an animal in or on the
premises.
"credit reporting business" means a business or undertaking (other than a
business or undertaking of a kind in respect of which regulations made for the
purposes of subsection (5C) are in force) that involves the preparation or
Road Rules 2008
Current version for 1 September 2008 maintenance of records containing personal information relating to individuals (other
than records in which the only personal information relating to individuals is publicly
to date (accessed 16 March 2009 at
available information), for the purpose of, or for purposes that include as the
18:21)
dominant purpose the purpose of, providing to other persons (whether for profit or
Part 2Division 2Rule 18
reward or otherwise) information on an individual's:……
18 Who is a pedestrian
A pedestrian includes:
(a) a person driving a motorised
wheelchair that cannot travel at over 10
kilometres per hour (on level ground),
and
(b) a person in a non-motorised
wheelchair, and
(c) a person pushing a motorised or
non-motorised wheelchair, and
(d) a person in or on a wheeled
recreational device or wheeled toy.
Note. Wheelchair, wheeled
recreational device and wheeled toy
are defined in the Dictionary.
Fair Trading Act 1987 No 68
Current version for 7 December 2007 to date (accessed 16 March
2009 at 18:19)
Part 2Division 3ASection 23B
23B Implied representation that goods or services will be able to be
supplied at advertised price
(1) When a person, in trade or commerce, publishes or causes to be
published a statement advertising goods or services for supply at a
specified price, the statement is taken to include a representation that the
person will be able to offer the goods or services for supply at the
advertised price for a period that is, and in quantities that are, reasonable
having regard to the nature of the market in which the person carries on
business and the nature of the advertisement.
Why Legal Research…
› Law is a continuously changing field
› Effective research skills facilitate an understanding of the legal process
› Legal studies requires understanding and use of
- Primary source material
- Secondary source material
› Effective legal research skills allow you to:
- find the law for a specific research area
- update legal information for a specific law cases/legislation
- find sources which provide analysis, commentary and background context
for the law
Today…
› Primary v secondary sources
› Legal citation & abbreviations
› Key tools to start legal research
› Finding:
- Legislation
- Case law
- Parliamentary documents
- Other secondary sources
Primary v secondary sources
Legal Sources and Publications
•primary sources are the law itself
•secondary sources of law are works about the law
Primary Sources
› Authoritative sources of law made by law making bodies
including
› Legislation – made in federal & state parliament
- Acts or statutes
- Rules and regulations, by-laws and ordinances
- also know as sub-ordinate legislation
- may also be made by individuals or bodies to which
Parliament has delegated authority
› Cases - case law is developed in courts
- recorded in judgements or judicial decisions
- published in Law reports
- also available as unreported judgements
- customary law – Mabo v Queensland (1992) 175 CLR 1
Primary sources…
› Other primary source material:
- Bills
- draft of proposed new or altered law
- public, private, cognate
- Hansard
- daily record of parliamentary debates,
speeches and questions
- hearings of parliamentary committees
- Treaties
- agreements made between states
(countries)
Federal Parliament Bills Digest
http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/index.htm
Primary Sources Example:
› Legislation
- Principal Act
- Crimes Act 1900 (NSW).
- Amending Act
- Income Tax Amendment Act 2007 (Cth).
› Cases
- Members of the Yorta Yorta Aboriginal Community v The State of
Victoria (2002) 194 ALR 538
› Bills
- Australian Crime Commission Amendment Bill 2007(Cth)
- Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Bill 2006
› Treaty
- Security Treaty between Australia, New Zealand and the United
States of America [ANZUS], opened for signature 1 September 1951,
[1952] ATS 2 (entered into force 29 April 1952)(Cth)
Secondary Sources
› Secondary sources allow you to:
- Identify primary sources relevant to your topic
- Interpret/understand or analyse relevant primary sources
- Obtain background information and discussion on a legal topic
› Secondary sources include:
- books – comprehensive background, history, analysis and discussion of a legal area
- journal articles – analysis, discussion of legal topic
- annotator – notations and references to treatment of a case
- citator – allow locate information for cases – eg, correct or alternate citations
- digests & current awareness services - provides summaries and updates of cases
- looseleaf and online commentary services – provide commentaries on primary sources
- legal encyclopedias – comprehensive overview of legislation and cases for a legal topic
- legal dictionaries – defines legal concepts and words and phrases
Secondary Sources
› Legal current awareness & digest services
› Examples:
- Current awareness eg. Australian Current Law
- Summarises (digests) judgments from the High Court, the Federal
Court and the State Supreme courts
- Important decisions from the Family court
- Digests eg. Australian Legal monthly digest
- Summarise or index reported cases by subject
Secondary sources cont…
› Legal commentary
- Law Reform Commissions- reforms and review legal issues of
concern
- Loose-leaf and online legal commentary services - provide such
access to cases and legislation
- Commentary services are often hybrid including both secondary and primary
sources
- Online sources available via the Law Library website
- http://www.library.usyd.edu.au/databases/law_databases.html#books
Legal Commentary -Online and loose-leaf services
› may focus on a specific area of law and are written by expert academics or
practitioners within in that area, include
- statement of current law in an area
- explanations, interpretations and commentary
- relevant case law and legislation to legal area covered
› Example: Criminal Law of New South Wales ( Legal online)
› Criminal Law New South Wales
13
Secondary Sources Examples
› Textbooks
- Weir T, (2006) An introduction to tort law, 2nd ed, Oxford’ Oxford
University Press, Oxford; New York.
› Journal article
- Brown, K. (2000) Indigenous forums: laughed out of court? Aborigines
haveSources
a right towhich
justice
on theirdiscuss
own cultural
terms. primary
Alternative Law
analyse,
and interpret
Journal
25 (5)including:
Oct p216
sources
• Textbooks
› Dictionary•&Encyclopaedias
Encyclopedias & Dictionaries
• Journal
articles of the Social and Behavioural Sciences
- International
Encyclopedia
• Case notes
- Laws of Australia
› Case notes
- Finnin S, (2006) Case note : Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Petitioner v
Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense : has the Bush
Administration's experiment with military commissions come to an
end? Melbourne Journal of International Law 7 (2) Oct pp372-406
Legal Citation
Legal Citation
› Understanding Legal citation (referencing primary sources) is important
- a statement of law requires reference/attribution to the source of its authority –
legislation or case
- conventions and legal rules determine how the law is cited
- will help you quickly find and locate legal sources – cases, legislation, bills…
- form canA.
be(2012)
important
(round
and square brackets)
Stuhmcke
Legal
Referencing
4th ed. Sydney: Butterworths.
- allows someone reading your work to identify and locate sources you have used
Location
Law
Shortlegal
Loansources
- Library
recognise
or distinguish
different
340.148 4 C
› You will be able identify that
- Native Title Act 1993(Cth) is Commonwealth legislation
- R v Folbigg (2005) 152 A Crim R 35 is a criminal case
- Al Masri v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (2002) 192 ALR is a case
published in a law report series
- Swain v Waverley Municipal Council [2005] HCA 4 is available online via a public legal information
website such as AustLII or Lawlink
Case Citation format
› A case citation will include the following parts:
Names of the parties
(in italics)
Year in round or
square brackets
Volume number
Abbreviation for law report
series (or court if not
published)
Page number on which
case commences
› Examples:
- Mabo v Queensland (1992) 175 CLR 1 (law report citation)
- Wotton v Queensland [2012] HCA 2 (non law report citation – medium neutral citation)
› Case citation may vary if (examples)”
- the case is only available online
- parties, year of decision, court/tribunal, judgement number
- the case is not published in a law report
- no volume or report series name
- is a criminal case
- R v Milat (NSW Sup Ct, No 70114/1994, Hunt CJ at CL, 22 April 1996, unreported)
› Pinpoint citation (reference to a specific page or section):
- Mabo v Queensland (1992) 175 CLR 1 at 3
Round and Square brackets rule
› Many cases are published in Law report series
- not all series cite cases in the same way
- volume number OR date is essential for locating the case
› Case Citation with year in round brackets
- Law report series, number volumes sequentially.
- The volume number is essential for locating the case.
(The date appears in round brackets and refers to the year in which the decision was handed
down. It is not required in order to locate the case in the Law Report series.)
Al Masri v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs
(2002) 192 ALR 609
› Case Citation with year in square bracket
- the date is essential for locating a case in a Law report series.
(Volumes do not have a unique volume number and the correct volume can only be identified
by the year of publication.)
Barrett v Enfield London Borough [1999] All ER 193
Finding law reports
Search using citation (Key cite Westlaw)
Search for the following citations :
(2005) 223 ALR 679 round brackets citation date not required
in search. Correct citation locates case
or [2005] FCAFC 128 square brackets date essential
Incorrect citation date excluded in search – case not found
Citing Legislation
› Citation for a Statute (Act) should include the following
information:
- Short title (italics)
- Year (italics)
- Jurisdiction in brackets (no italics)
- If you are referring to a specific section of the act it should be noted
at the end of the citation
Example from Austlii
Native title Act 1993 (Cth) s 47
Legal abbreviations
› The University Law Library provides a comprehensive
listing of legal abbreviations
http://www.library.usyd.edu.au/libraries/law/abbreviations.html
(1983) 158 CLR 1
[2005] HCA 4
(1983) 46 ALR 625
[1995] HCA 20
57 ALJR 450
[1999] All ER 193
Starting points
Websites, Encyclopedias, Dictionaries and Digests
Legal research is more than volumes
on a shelf. Many of the resources you
need will be available online.
FlickrStorm All rights reserved by radiospike photography
Websites & databases
› Legal resource Directories
- Weblaw Subject Directory to Australian Legal Resources
- http://www.weblaw.edu.au/
› Socio-legal Studies Database Guide
- Cases, legislation, encyclopedias, databases, Parliamentary
documents
- http://www.library.usyd.edu.au/databases/sociolegal.html
› Law subject guide
- Legislation, cases, abbreviations, encyclopedias, dictionaries, databases..
- http://libguides.library.usyd.edu.au/law
› Comprehensive legal research services
- Westlaw, LexisNexis, AustLii, Firstpoint
- Bring together collections of primary and secondary sources
Dictionaries & Encyclopedias
› Specialised legal dictionaries and encyclopedias
- define or provide an overview of subject or assist in finding related search
terms
- define legal words and phrases
- identify legislation or cases relating to a specific topic
- summarize or discusses the socio-legal context of a legal issue
› Legal encyclopedias - locate legal principles by topic
- The Laws Of Australia (TLA)
- Access via Firstpoint listed in Socio-legal databases
- Halsbury’s Laws of Australia
- Access via LexisNexis.au listed in Socio-legal databases
› International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral
Sciences
- Overview of theoretical and sociological context of a legal research area
- Acces via Library catalogue search by title enter IESB
Online Dictionaries & Encyclopedias
› Laws of Australia(Lawbook) & Halsbury’s Laws of
Australia (Butterworths) both publications
-
summarises legal principles relating to all areas of Australian Law
references both legislation and cases on a topic
have some fulltext published by either Lawbook or Butterworths
browse or search by keyword, case name
› International Encyclopedia of the Social and
Behavioral sciences (IESB)
- academic articles on the theoretical and sociological context of
law
› FirstPoint
- Information about Australian cases (reported 1825; unreported
since 1991), summaries, litigation history, journal articles about
cases
Legal Encyclopedias - Firstpoint
› Allows you to:
- search an area of law by subject
- identify relevant cases and related legislation
- access the litigation and subsequent history for Australian cases
- locate journal articles on your topic
- access summaries of cases from the a legal digest
- obtain case histories
› Includes:
- Laws of Australia (legal encyclopedia)
- Australian case citator
- Australian Digest
- Australian Legal monthly digest
› Acces via the Socio-legal Studies Database Guide
Laws of Australia (Online)
› Provides access to legal statement which
summarise areas of law with Australian jurisdictions
› Useful for
- identifying the law for a specific topic
- locating legislation and cases that relate to a specific area of
the law
- search by topic or browse within area of the law that you are
researching
- Acces via the Socio-legal Studies Database Guide
Browse subject categories or search by keyword
The Laws of Australia – browse subject categories
Search by Keyword
Laws of Australia (TLA)
• Browse within
categories
• Keyword search
• Select and view
topic
Halsbury’s Laws of Australia
Legal Digests
› Index and summarise reported cases by subject or
topic.
› May categorize cases in defined topic areas
› Include “keys” to help you locate the correct subject
category for your topic
› Include cases indexes which allow you to find a
summary of a case
› Digests for Australian Law include:
- FirstPoint on Legal Online
- Australian Legal Monthly Digest
- Australian Current Law : Reporter
› Useful when cases and judgements are very long
Search the Library catalogue for legal dictionaries
Finding Legislation
Legislation
› Commonwealth and State Parliaments are empowered to pass
laws.
› Laws can also be made by bodies or persons delegated by
parliament.
› Some Acts only define broad principles; the administrative detail
is defined at a later stage.
- referred to as subordinate or delegated legislation
- usually defined in Rules, By-laws, Regulations and Ordinances.
› For an overview of How Law is made consult
- Parliament of Australia. House of Representatives, Infosheet no. 7
Making Laws April 2002.
- http://www.aph.gov.au/house/info/infosheets/is07.pdf
- Parliament of New South Wales. How Law is made
- http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/web/common.nsf/key/billsabo
ut
Jurisdiction
Heading of statute
Year and Number
Long title
Date of assent
Jurisdiction
Indication of short title
Section and subsection
Commencement
information
Legislative History
› History of a piece of legislation
included in the notes table at the end
of an act and includes
- assent and commencement date
- reprint history
› Table of Acts
- includes amendment history to
specific provisions in the Act (or
Table of Acts) is also found in the
Notes Section of the consolidated
version of an act.
› Point-in-time legislation
- Allows you to establish the content of an
act at a specific point in time
- ComLaw and NSW PCO
43
Finding Legislation
› Austlii
- Public legal information freely available via the internet
- Compiled by UTS and UNSW
- Cases and legislation all Australian jurisdictions and many courts and tribunals
› ComLaw
- Official source for current commonwealth legislation
- Includes Federal Register of Legislative Instruments
- authoritative source for legislative instruments
- Most current source for in-force legslation
› NSW Parliamentary Counsel’s Office
- maintains the NSW legislation website
- official NSW Government site for the online publication of legislation
- information guides and a weekly bulletin service for NSW legislation
› Parliamentary Websites
- Useful for locating bills, debates and other parliamentary information
- Federal
- State
Finding Legislation on Austlii
Native Title Act 1993 (Cth)
http://www.austlii.edu.au
Search within the Act for key term
View legislative history, table,
date of assent
Locate cases or articles which refer to
this act
View full section or subsection
Finding Case Law
Cases,Case citators and Digests
Finding Case Law
› Case law is developed in courts.
-
unenacted law as it is not made in parliament
recorded in judgements or judicial decisions.
usually published in Law Reports
many unpublished cases (unreported judgements) now avilable online
› Law report series
-
reported judgements are published in law report series
usually record the decisions of higher courts
important to report decisions, as judgements can be used as precedent for other cases.
cases are selected for reporting – new law, extends application of existing principles,
clarifies conflicting decisions or point of practice or procedure ...
› Authorised reports approved by judges (Commonwealth) or in New South
Wales by the Council of Law Reporting for New South Wales before publication
- Commonwealth Law Reports (CLR), New South Wales Law Reports (NSWLR)
› Unreported judgements
- decision is not regarded as being sufficiently important to report
- referred to as unreported judgements
Law reports examples
Some examples of legal abbreviations include
CLR - Commonwealth Law Reports
ALR – Australian Law Reports
NSWLR – New South Wales Law Reports
Legal abbreviations are available from the University of Sydney Law
School Library Website
http://www.library.usyd.edu.au/libraries/law/abbreviations.html
54
Case name/parties
Court
Judges
catchwords
Headnote summary of
the case does not form
part of the case
Finding Cases
› Encyclopedias, digests, citators, legal databases and indexes be
used to locate
-
case law on a specific subject
subsequent history of a case
case notes and references
meanings of words and phrases in a case
› Austlii
- Case law from courts in both Federal and State jurisdictions
- Full-text available for cases
› LexisNexis.au CaseBase
- Case citator
- Provides citations (references to cases) and the full-text for only the
Australian Law Reports (ALR)
› Firstpoint (Thomson’s Lawbook)
- Includes a case citator and digest
- Full-text for several authorised Law report series
- Commonwealth Law reports (CLR), Federal Court Reports (FCA)
Case Notes
› provide commentary about a case
› analysing and evaluating a case
› Information may include subsequent treatments in later judgments. They are found
in secondary sources.
› Journal articles and text books also include case notes, for example, the Sydney
Law Review contains case notes in most issues
Find this case and cases which
relate to this judgement. Google??
Case Citators
› Provide listings of cases with reference
- to where they have been reported
- listing of any cases that have considered the main case
- symbols which tell you how a case has been treated by subsequent
judgements
› Case citators:
- verify citations for cases
- record if cases have been reported in more than one Law report series
- effective tool for location partial citations
- trace cases where the main case has been considered
› Some citators include references
- to secondary material such as journal articles which discuss a specific
case.
- case notes
› The Library subscribes to
- LexisNexis.au CaseBase and
- Firstpoint: Australian Case Citator Plus
Case Annotations
› annotations are used by a court to indicate how primary case has been
judicially considered
› court annotations are included in casebase they show:
how other cases have
subsequently referred
to a case
how the court treated or
followed that decision.
In subsequent
judgements
Case Citators- Signals
› CaseBase provides signals so that court annotations can
be quickly interpreted
Finding Parliamentary documents
Bills, debates,reports and proceedings of committees
Parliamentary Documents
› Bills
- are drafts of proposed legislation
- second reading
- member of parliament introduces bill and explains purpose
- bill debated in parliament
› Hansard
- official record of the proceedings of the Parliament
› Explanatory memoranda
- explain background and content of bill
Sources for Parliamentary Documents
› Australian Parliamentary Website
- Billsnet
- Bills Digest
› ParlinfoWeb
- Search the full-text of parliamentary debates
- Proceedings of committees
› Capital Monitor
- Monitors parliamentary proceedings and business
- Commonwealth, New South Wales
- Access via Library Socio-legal databases page
› New South Wales Parliamentary Website
Secondary Sources
Library catalogue and reserve, legal commentary, journal
articles and case notes
Locating secondary resources
› 2 Hour collection
- readings required for a unit of study
- access via the Library catalogue
- search for readings by course code or lecturers name eg.
- SLSS 1001
- print material Level 3 Fisher Library
- access electronic material off-campus using unikey
› Library catalogue
- search for topics by subject
- locate references by title or author
Legal research - Secondary sources
› Legal Commentary
› Law Reform Commissions
› Databases for Locating Journal Articles
Law Reform Commissions
› Law Reform Commissions
- examine the law and propose reforms and review issues of
concern.
- produce many documents relevant to socio-legal research,
including issues papers, working papers, discussion papers
and reports.
› New South Wales Law Reform Commission
› Australian Law Reform Commission
Legal Commentary
› Online commentary services
- Legal commentary on many legal fields
- corporations, taxation, torts, family law
- Updated regularly to ensure access to current information
- background to information for a specific legal area, historical as
well as current information.
- may include the text of relevant legislation, and reports on cases
- CCH Australia e.g.. Family Law
- Law Book Company e.g. Criminology
› Commentaries available in loose-leaf form in Law Library
Finding Articles in Journals
› The term journal refers to any ongoing publication
› may also be referred to as a
- serial, magazine, periodical
› Library does not index or catalogue the content of
these publications
Journal articles…..
Brown, K. (2000) Indigenous forums: laughed out of court?
Aborigines have a right to justice on their own cultural
terms. Alternative Law Journal v25 i5 Oct p216
Feather, N T.(1996) Domestic violence, gender, and
perceptions of justice. Sex Roles : A journal of research 35
(7-8) Oct p507
Finnin S, (2006) Case note : Salim Ahmed Hamdan, Petitioner
v Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense : has the Bush
Administration's experiment with military commissions come to
an end? Melbourne Journal of International Law 7 (2) Oct
pp372-406
Databases and Electronic Resources
› index and in many cases abstract (summarise) the content of
journals within specific or broad subject areas.
› may also index theses, book reviews, conference proceedings
& collections of essays.
› some provide the full text for an article
› may link to full text via ‘Check Library’
› references not
necessarily held in the Library
Electronic Resources - databases
› Access
- alphabetical list
- Subject list
- Law
- Socio-legal Studies
- Sociology
results
search terms
If the article
is not
available
within the
database
this link will
check the
Library
catalogue.
List of all your
recent
searches
The complete record provides
• additional information about an article.
• information on any cases or Legislation
discussed.
• list the subjects covered by the article.
• click on the subject heading to find
additional articles on your topic
TVNews
ARTS1000
› Access via usyd eLearning
› Use your unikey login
› Modules provide you with key
skills for Library research
Fisher Library – Floor plan