AustLII

AustLII Guide to Legal Research on the Web


8. Other major Australian law sites

8.1. Other major Australian law sites

This section reviews other internet websites that contain significant collections of Australian primary and secondary legal materials or provide value-adding.

8.1.1. FindLaw Australia

Findlaw Australia <http://www.findlaw.com.au/> contains comprehensive information on Australian legal issues. It offers a range of free services including current awareness newsletters, primary law, an events calendar and extensive links to other primary and secondary legal material and research resources. There are also articles covering around 50 areas of law sourced from lawyers, firms, government and non-profit organisations. These are divided into resources for legal professionals, students, business and the public.
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FindLaw Australia home page

8.1.2. Law & Justice Foundation of New South Wales

The website of the Law & Justice Foundation of New South Wales <http://www.lawfoundation.net.au/> provides comprehensive coverage of primary legal resources. The Legislation & Parliament pages provide links to the full text of Commonwealth, State and Territory legislation and other parliamentary material. The Judgments and Courts pages provide links to Commonwealth, State and Territory court and tribunal judgments, home pages and related material. In addition, the site also includes court lists: some lists are automatically posted to the Law & Justice Foundation, others are links to court or tribunal web sites that publish their own lists. The Law & Justice Foundation also includes free discussion group facilities for law-related user groups.
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Law & Justice Foundation of NSW home page

8.1.3. LAWLINK NSW

The NSW Attorney General’s Department website, LAWLINK NSW at <http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au> provides many Australian legal resources and links including access to NSW case-law, lists of agencies, NSW courts and tribunals, reports and submissions from the A-G's Department as well as general community legal information and assistance with problem searching, going to court, crime information, disability and individual legal rights.
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LAWLINK NSW home page

8.1.4. Australian Law Online

Australian Law Online <http://www.law.gov.au/wotl.html> is the Australian Government entry point to Australian Government legal resources. This is the official gateway to the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Department and portfolio and provides access to Australian legislation and judgments of courts.

The site provides:

an overview of the Australian legal system
all Australian Commonwealth legislation
most current Commonwealth court and tribunal decisions
some Australian State and Territory legislation and case law
information about the Commonwealth Attorney-General's Office, portfolio and Department
links to the Family Law Online website, and
links to all Attorney-General's portfolio agencies currently publishing on the internet

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Australian Law Online home page

8.1.5. City-State Law

The ACT Government’s website, City-State Law at <http://www.dpa.act.gov.au/ag/> provides information and links to Acts, Regulations, case law, legal texts and press releases, the ACT electronic legal library, the Tenancy Tribunal, ACT law agencies and courts as well as information on recent legislative events: exposure drafts and explanatory papers, law reform papers, policy review papers, codes of practice etc.
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City-State Law home page

8.1.6. Parliamentary Counsel Offices, Parliament sites, Government Publishers etc

All Australian Federal, State and Territory legislation and case-law is also either published or available through the individual parliamentary counsel offices or the various government websites. See:

SCALEplus <http://scaleplus.law.gov.au/>
ACT Legislation Register <http://www.legislation.act.gov.au/>
Parliamentary Counsel's Office (NSW) <http://www.pco.nsw.gov.au/>
Northern Territory Government InterNotes Server <http://notes.nt.gov.au/>
Office of the Queensland Parliamentary Counsel <http://www.legislation.qld.gov.au/OQPChome.htm>
Parliament of South Australia <http://www.parliament.sa.gov.au/legislation/5_legislation.shtm>
Tasmanian Legislation <http://www.thelaw.tas.gov.au/>
Victorian Legislation and Parliamentary Documents <http://www.dms.dpc.vic.gov.au/>
State Law Publisher (WA) <http://www.slp.wa.gov.au/index.html>

These sites also include general legal information, bulletins, exposure drafts of legislation, bills, press releases, FAQs, Hansards and related links.

8.1.7. University of Technology, Sydney - Library

The UTS Library has major online subscription legal resources on its Library home > Finding Information > Journal Databases > Law page at <http://www.lib.uts.edu.au/cgi/dbgenerate2.cgi?db_name=&dbsubject=law>. All these databases are accessible through the Library's computer network.
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UTS Library - Law Databases

8.2. Major categories of Australian law on the net

This section indicates the main types of Australian law resources which are well represented on the web, often on sites other than the main servers mentioned in this Chapter and earlier Chapters. AustLII’s ‘Australia’ pages on the WorldLII Catalog are used to illustrate the diversity of material available.

8.2.1. Case law materials - full text, summaries, court home pages, court lists etc

On the WorldLII Catalog ‘Australia’ pages, materials are organised by jurisdiction of the court or tribunal, and by other categories:

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Australia ‘Courts & Case-Law’ front page

Materials are then indexed according to the courts and tribunals within each jurisdiction:

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Courts & Case-Law ‘Commonwealth’ page

Another valuable index by jurisdiction is the ‘Judgments & Courts’ page on the Law & Justice Foundation of NSW website <http://www.lawfoundation.net.au/judgments/> which also provides links to Commonwealth, State and Territory court and tribunal judgments, home pages and related material.

Example - High Court of Australia

The wide range of materials which can be found concerning some courts - including full text decisions from various publishers, decision summaries from the Court, court home pages, various forms of court lists, guides to court practice, speeches by judges, academic journals about decisions of the court, professional abstracting services - is exemplified by the High Court page in AustLII’s index. The index contains similar pages (usually shorter!) for dozens of courts, organised by jurisdiction.

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An example of the range of material available concerning the High Court

8.2.2. Legislative materials - Acts, Bills, Explanatory Memoranda etc

The range of available legislative materials is as broad as the range of case-law. For each Australian jurisdiction, the range of available legislative materials can be found in WorldLII Catalog ‘Australia’ pages under the ‘Legislation’ category for that government, as shown below for the ACT government. Alternatively, access can be obtained from the ‘Legislation’ page or by searching for ‘legislation’.
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An example of legislative materials available concerning the ACT

8.2.3. Parliamentary information - Hansard, procedure, votes etc

All Australian Parliaments now have their Parliamentary debates (Hansard) available on the web, and a very varying range of other information about Parliamentary procedure, votes etc.

Example - Commonwealth Parliament

For example, the following information is now available concerning the Commonwealth Parliament.

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The Commonwealth Parliament page

The Commonwealth Parliament’s pages contain a variety of publications by the House and the Senate concerning the workings of Parliament and democratic institutions.

However, it is the daily availability of the Parliamentary debates of both Houses (the daily Hansards), and other constantly changing information (Notice Papers, Orders of Business, and records of Votes and Proceedings) that make this resource unique and invaluable.

The full text of Odgers' Australian Senate Practice (Tenth Edition to 31 December 2000), edited by Harry Evans, Clerk of the Senate is available from the Senate’s publication page <http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/pubs/Html/index.htm>. This is an invaluable resource.

8.2.4. Law reform materials

Either the full text or details of law reform Commission or Committee reports from the Commonwealth, ACT, New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia are available on the web. Browsing the WorldLII >> Categories >> Countries >> Australia >> Law Reform page will provide a list of agencies. A search over this category will again list the agencies but also list the titles of most available reports which have been indexed by AustLII's web spider. The full text of the Australian Law Reform Commission reports, draft recommendation papers, background papers, discussion papers and issues papers, can be accessed and searched from AustLII at <http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/alrc/>.

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The Australia ‘Law Reform’ page

8.2.5. Law journals and other legal periodicals

There are many Australian law journals and other periodicals now available on the web. Some provide full text, but some only provide abstracts or subscription information.
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Australia ‘Law Journals’ page