Guides to Legal Research
The following links are to online guides or pathfinders to researching specific types of legal information – cases, legislation or journal articles. These pathfinders also provide links to the major research databases.
How to research Case law
The tools used to research caselaw are introduced, these include citators, digests and legal encyclopaedias. It also provides information on how to locate specific law reports and unreported decisions.
How to research Legislation
Guidance and links to relevant websites, on how to locate the legislation relevant to your topic, where to then source authrotitative versions of the legislation; legislative history research and finding case law which applies and interprets legislation. The guides also provide an introduction to the various formats in which legislation is published – as enacted, reprints, consolidations and compilations.
How to research Journal Literature
Guides to effectively using the journal index databases and where to find and how to search for relevant topical articles in full-text journal databases.
Further general legal resources may be found through the Legal Information Institutes, and some freely available law search engines and portal sites listed below.
| Legal Information Institutes |
AsianLII (Asian legal Information Institute)
Collection of laws from 27 Asian countries and territories. |
HKLII (Hong Kong Legal Information Institute)
Providing free access to legal information for Hong Kong and China. |
AustLII (Australian Legal Information Institute)
The most comprehensive collection of Australian legal materials - an excellent starting point for your research. |
LII (Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School)
An excellent site for United States law. |
BAILII (British and Irish Legal Information Institute)
A pilot service providing free access to British and Irish Legal Information. This service has been developed by AustLII Staff in cooperation with steering committees in Britain and in Ireland. |
PacLII (Pacific Legal Information Institute)
A site maintained by the University of the South Pacific, School of Law. The School of Law has begun to collect and publish in this format a range of judgments, legislation, treaties, conventions and agreements from countries in the South Pacific region. |
CanLII (Canadian Legal Information Institute)
A Federation of Law Societies of Canada initiative providing access to documents by jurisdiction and collection. |
SAFLII (South African Legal Information Institute)
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CommonLII (Commonwealth Legal Information Institute)
Covering 50 Commonwealth and common law countries and territories. Notable collections include India, Singapore, Malasia, Caribbean countries and ten African countries. |
WorldLII (World Legal Information Institute)
Created by AustLII, this site provides links to major legal sites offering caselaw, legislation, treaties, journal articles, law reform databases amongst others. |
Other law sites that provide some guidance
on legal research
- Findlaw Australia
A free resource with comprehensive legal content including case law, practical articles, news and a wide ranging set of links. Australian focus.
- Jurist
The Legal Education Network. A varied site with an emphasis on Australian Legal Education information and news.
- Law Crawler.Findlaw
An excellent search engine dedicated to legal searches, a search can be international or limited to a particular country.
- Law Internet Resources
Divided into countries and topics. Maintained by the Parliamentary Library of Australia. A good starting point for a browse through available resources.
- The World Law Guide
An excellent source of Foreign Law – Law Firms, Legislation, Law Schools, Courts/Cases and Organisations (more than 4000 links to legal sites in more than 40 countries).
- Yahoo's Law Page
This resource site is divided into subjects and includes news headlines. It does, however, tend to have a US emphasis.
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