Finding the Text of Legislation
In Print or Online

Once you have identified the legislation that is required for your research there are a number of points to consider when sourcing the legislation, including:

• at what point in time do you require the legislation to be?
• do you require the most up-to-date version of the Act? or,
• do you require the Act as it was originally passed (sessional Act)? or,
• somewhere in between? (As an example, the legislation that applies is usually the version of the Act that was in force at the time the cause of action arose).

Depending on how you answer the above questions, this then helps determine where you then source the legislation, bearing in mind too that it is always best to use an authorised version of the legislation.  Official (authorised) versions of legislation published by government printers or their agents are always the preferred source of legislation. 

Forms of Legislation

Online Legislation

As a general rule, the principal legislation for all Australian jurisdictions are available online in the most current form of the legislation, that is, as the most up-to-date compilation.  Compilation is the name most commonly associated with updated online legislation. The Law Library web page on Legislation provides links to the official and Parliamentary websites, and unofficial site such as AustLII that offer online legislation. For the most current forms of the legislation, the State Parliamentary (or Attorney-General) websites for State legislation, and ComLaw for Commonwealth legislation, are the preferred official websites.

South Australia Legislation Online
SA legislation is available from the SA Attorney-General's website which provides current versions of South Australian Acts and Regulations in force. Earlier versions (referred to as historical compilations), may also be found.

The screenshot adjacent is from the homepage of the Civil Liability Act 1936 (SA) on the SA AG's website. Note the "version" options: Current and historical. Links to subordinate legislation, eg. regulations, are also available from the homepage of an Act.

The website is easy to navigate and search. It is simplest to browse for a known Act using the Browse option, for example, to locate the Civl Liability Act 1936 from the homepage of the website, select C under 'Browse current and historical versions...' then select the Act from the list.

Commonwealth legislation
ComLaw is the official government website for Commonwealth Acts and Regulations (referred to as Select Legislative Instruments), and also for the legislation of Australia's non-self-governing territories.

ComLaw is the best site for accessing:

• Commonwealth legislation (both Acts and Regulations) in their most current form (known as current compilations)
• Commonwealth Sessional acts and regulations (As made) (since 1973)
• earlier compilations of Commonwealth Acts (known as historical compilations) From 1/1/2005; Before 1/1/2005

Online Legislation via AustLII

The AustLII website provides case law and legislation from all the major Australian jurisdictions.  It is important to know that the legislation databases may not be absolutely up-to-date, that is why the Parliamentary websites are to be preferred. AustLII does however provide a very useful search engine for the databases (see Noting up on AustLII on the Noting-Up page).

The screen shot below shows the South Australian Consolidated Acts database on AustLII. Note the search options – database (full-text) search; Search by Name (title of Act); and search recent Acts. There is also an alphabetical browse bar – this is the preferred method to locate your Act, if you know the title of the Act you seek.

If we select C from the alphabetical bar, then select the Criminal Law Consolidation Act 1935 we have displayed the Table of provisions of the Act. Selecting a particular provision, for example, 5AA Agravated offences, will take you to the text of that provision. Note that terms which are defined within the Act itself are linked to the definition of the term.

Acts as passed / Sessional Acts / Acts as enacted

These terms are used interchangeably to mean the original form of legislation as it was passed. The sessional Acts for each jurisdiction are bound by year, and the Law Library holds the sessional volumes of Acts for all the major common law jurisdictions on the Lower Ground Floor. So, for example to find the original form of the Civil Liability Act 1936 (SA), you would simply look in the 1936 annual bound volume of SA Acts.

Consolidations

This is when the entire statute book of Acts in force for a jurisdiction (therefore repealed Acts are not included), are republished as at a certain date. None of these consolidations are as yet available online, but are held in print form in the Law Library.