Guide to Legal Research

Primary Materials

Primary sources consist of the authoritative texts of laws, as made by law-making bodies.  They include:

Legislation: acts or statutes made by parliament. Subordinate legislation: rules, regulations, by-laws and orders made by bodies to which parliament has delegated authority.

Case Law: decisions or judgments of courts on points of law

Note: * at the front of a resource name indicates that it is available online and off campus to Murdoch staff and students.

Legislation

Bills	Acts
Explanatory Memoranda	Finding and Updating Acts
Passage of a Bill
Finding Bills	Subordinate Legislation
Proclamation of Acts
Finding Proclamation Dates	Electronic Access to Acts and Subordinate Legislation

Bills

A bill is a draft of a law which Parliament proposes to enact.  Proposals for new legislation may come from a variety of sources, including Cabinet, a Government Department, a Law Reform Commission or a Royal Commission.  Once a decision has been made to proceed with legislation, the Parliamentary draftsperson is instructed to prepare a Bill.  

Format

The first page of a Bill generally gives some or all of the following information:

• the year of the Parliamentary session
• the Parliament and its House (ie House of Representatives or Senate)
• the date of the first reading
• the Minister or name of the Member introducing the Bill
• the title
• The date of the 1st reading (Commonwealth bills only)

The text of a Bill is set out in much the same way as an Act.  The provisions of a Bill are numbered and called clauses.  Clauses may be further divided into sub-clauses and paragraphs.
See example below:

1996-97 The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES     Presented and read a first time     Workplace Relations and Other Legislation Amendment Bill 1997 No.    , 1997   (Industrial Relations)   A Bill for an Act to amend the Workplace Relations Act 1996, and for related purposes

Explanatory Memoranda

Most Commonwealth Bills are accompanied by explanatory memoranda, which explain, clause by clause, the content and purpose of the Bill. Since 2001 Western Australian Bills have been issued with explanatory memoranda which are available online.

Passage of a Bill

Most Bills are introduced in the lower House of Parliament, which is the House in which the government is formed, and where most Ministers sit.

A Bill passes through several stages in Parliament before it becomes law (when it is called an Act or Statute).  These stages are:

• 1st reading
  This stage is a formal one where only the title of the Bill is read. There is little or no debate, and a date is set for the second reading.
• 2nd reading
  The Minister responsible for the Bill introduces it and explains its purpose.  This is known at the second reading speech.  The broad principles of the Bill are then debated, sometimes over several days.
• Committee Stage
  This stage involves a detailed examination of the Bill, clause by clause, either by the whole House, or by a standing or select committee of a few members.  The Bill may be amended during this stage, and is voted on clause by clause.
• 3rd reading
  This stage is largely a formality.  The Bill is then sent to the Upper House, where the procedure outlined above is repeated.

Western Australia: Flowchart for Bills introduced in the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council

Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)

The debates surrounding a bill, including the second reading speech, are published in Hansard, or Parliamentary Debates. These are located on Level 3 of the South Wing, at the following numbers:

• Commonwealth GR 328.9402 A938
• Western Australia GR 328.94102 W527 3
• Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates are also available on the Internet, from 1981 onwards.
• Western Australian Parliamentary Debates are available from 1999/2000 onwards. This link also includes an interesting history of Hansard.

Legislative Materials and Processes

Finding Bills

• Commonwealth R 348.9401 A938
• Western Australian R 348.94101 W527

They are arranged alphabetically by title within each session.  Accompanying explanatory memoranda are filed behind the Bill.

• Commonwealth Bills and Explanatory Memoranda are available on the Internet at ComLaw from 1996 onwards, and from the Australian Parliament for the current Parliamentary session.
• Bills Digests produced by the Australian Parliamentary Research Service provide useful background information on Commonwealth Bills.
• Western Australian Bills are available on the Internet from 1997 onwards.

The following sources list Bills currently before Parliament:

• BillsNet is an internet site which includes listings of bills currently before the Commonwealth Parliament, and the full text of current bills and explanatory memoranda, in addition to a selection of older bills
  
• Western Australian Parliament - Current Bills is a listing of Bills currently before the Western Australian Parliament. It gives the date at which the Bill passed each stage in Parliament, and assent date. It can be used to track debate in Hansard. Entries include links to the full text of bills, or to the Act if already passed, and to the explanatory memoranda.
  An Email Notification Service for Bills currently before Parliament is available on this site. Register from the Bill Details page of the required Bill.

Proclamation of Acts

Once a Bill has been passed by both Houses of Parliament, it must be presented to the representative of the Crown to receive royal assent: For the Commonwealth this is the Governor General and for Western Australia this is the Govenor. Once it has been signed the bill is deemed "assented to" and it is then an Act or Statute.  The date of assent is printed on the Act and a notice of the date is published in the appropriate Government Gazette: Commonwealth of Australia Gazettes and Western Australian Government Gazette

The Act, however, does not become part of the law of the land until it comes into effect or is proclaimed to commence. Section 2 of the Act is usually the place to check for commencement detials. Unless the contrary is stated in the Act

• Commonwealth Acts will take effect 28 days after the date of their royal assent (Acts Interpretation Act 1901 s 5 (1))
• Western Australian Acts also will take effect 28 days after their date of assent (Interpretation Act 1984 s 20)

If an Act is to commence on a date other than 28 days after royal assent, it will be stated in the section of the Act with the marginal note Commencement (usually s 2).  In some cases, this may be on a date to be proclaimed,  in which case the date will be published in the appropriate Government Gazette.

Finding Proclamation Dates

Commonwealth Acts

• Where an Act has been reprinted, the assent and commencement details for the principal Act and all subsequent amending Acts are given in the notes section at the end of the reprint.
• Proclamations with commencement information are made in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazettes: Government Notices
• Australian Current Law : Legislation includes a Cumulative Table of Proclaimed Legislation (* LexisNexis AU)

Western Australian Acts

• State Law Publisher Legislation Information Tables page replaces the annual printed index.
  Use the annual printed indexes for historical research.
• Table 9 Assent and Commencement Information for Acts passed since 1990
• Australian Current Law : Legislation includes a Cumulative Table of Proclaimed Legislation (*LexisNexis AU)
• Reprinted Western Australian Acts also include assent and operational details of the principal and amending acts at the end of the reprint, in the notes section.
• Proclamations with commencement information are made in the Western Australian Government Gazette.
  

Alerts

Researchers can sign up for legislative alerts for individual legislative intruments.
When you look at a WA Act on the State Law Publishers site you can set up an alert from the Act to be advised ever time that Act is amended.
See the Legal Alerts Page for more information about setting up these services.

Acts

Acts are individually published in pamphlet form once they have received Royal Assent, and are numbered sequentially for the year.  These numbers are referred to as the sessional details and are written in the form, No XX of 199X, for example, No 5 of 1997.

At the end of each year they are re-issued in annual bound volumes. Online Acts passed by year for Commonwealth 1973+ and Western Australia 1990+
Any amendments to the principal, or original, act are published as part of the pamphlet sequence and online.

From time to time, reprints of the principal act, incorporating all subsequent amendments, are issued.  These are filed alphabetically by title in separate folders to the principal acts.

Occasionally, all acts are reprinted at the same time and issued as a consolidation.

Format
Acts are set out in a similar manner to Bills.  The clauses of a Bill become sections of an Act.  Sections may be further divided into subsections and paragraphs.

An Act will generally have the following information:

• The sessional details (number and year) of the Act, for example Act No. 60 of 1996
• The long title of the Act, for example, An Act to amend the Industrial Relations Act 1988, and for other purposes.
• The date of assent
• The short title.  This is found at section 1 (s.1).  An Act is referred to by its short title.  For example, Workplace Relations and Other Legislation Amendment Act 1996.
• Details of commencement.  These usually appear in section 2 of the Act.
• The body of the Act, covering the details and substance of what is enacted.
• Schedules containing matters of detail which would make the Act difficult to read if they were included in the body of the Act.  A schedule may contain the text of an agreement or treaty, or forms.

See the following example:

Finding and Updating Acts

Acts are located at the following numbers:

• Commonwealth:   R 348. 94022 A938 or online at ComLaw
• Western Australian: R 348.941022 W527 or online at The State Law Publisher

When using legislation it is important to ensure you have the most up to date version of an Act.  Electronic versions which are up to date are "unofficial" compliations or consolidations. At the moment they may not be used for court purposes although they are considered adequate for research purposes.

The following indexes can be used to locate Acts:
 Commonwealth Acts

• Commonwealth Statutes Annotations, and Federal Statutes Annotations (* LexisNexis AU), both list Commonwealth Acts alphabetically by short title. Both are issued annually and updated every six months with a supplement.  Look under the name of the Act to find:
  • the date and number of the principal act.
  • the date of the latest reprint, indicated by "reprinted to..."
  • the date and number of any amending acts since the latest reprint.
• For more recent information on Acts passed, check the latest issue of the Acts Tables, which lists new and amending legislation.
  Australian Current Law : Legislation (Table of Acts Passed, and Table of Amended Acts) (* LexisNexis AU) also provides details of legislative changes.

Western Australian Acts

• The Index to the Acts of the Parliament of Western Australia is in the final volume of the annual bound volumes of Acts, usually Volume 3.  Acts in Force lists all current acts alphabetically by short title, and gives the dates of reprints, amending acts and unproclaimed acts.
  
  
• To update your research, check Australian Current Law : Legislation (Table of Acts Passed, and Table of Amended Acts) (* LexisNexis AU)

Electronic Access to Acts

• ComLaw includes the full text of Commonwealth Acts.
• Lawlex A convenient gateway to the full text of principle acts available from government sites.
• The State Law Publisher web site includes the full text of Western Australian Acts, and an additional Point in Time facility which allows dating of an Act on any day since 7 July 1998
• *Timebase although potentially 4-6 weeks out of date is useful for downloading complete Acts.

• AustLII gives access to the full text of Commonwealth Acts, Western Australian Acts, and acts from the ACT, New South Wales, Northern Territory, South Australia and Victoria but it should be used with caution as the site is often out of date especially for Western Australian Acts.

• * LexisNexis and *WestLaw both have extensive collections of legislation from around the world.
• WorldLII gives free access to legislation from many jurisdictions. Links are also given to a comprehensive range of parliaments and legislative sources.

Subordinate Legislation

Commonwealth

Western Australia

Parliament may delegate authority to other bodies (for example Government Departments) to draw up rules governing the administration of an Act.  These laws are collectively known as subordinate or delegated legislation.  Subordinate legislation includes select legislative instuments, statutory rules, regulations, ordinances, by-laws and rules.

The authority to make subordinate legislation is conferred by an Act of Parliament, known as the enabling Act.  The enabling Act frequently stipulates the way the subordinate legislation is to be made.

Commonwealth

Commonwealth subordinate legislation, known as until 2004 as Statutory Rules and since then as Select Legislative Instruments (SLI). Select Legislative Instruments are published in much the same way as Commonwealth Acts. SLI continue the Statutory Rules publication process of initial issue in pamphlet form numbered sequentially for the year, and then in annual bound volumes.

Reprints may also be issued, and are filed alphabetically by title.  The principle for finding a Statutory Rule is similar to finding an Act.  For court work you need to locate the most recent reprint or the principal Statutory Rule, and all subsequent amendments. For research purposes use ComLaw.

The following indexes can be used to locate Select Legislative Instruments:

• Statutory Rules Table 1903 -2003 This lists Statutory Rules by title and under the title of the enabling Act. The main volume covers 1901-1991, and is updated by yearly and monthly tables. The monthly and yearly tables are titled Tables of Commonwealth Regulations
• To ensure your research is up to date, you can check the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette..  Commonwealth regulations must be notified, but not published, in the Gazette.  Check the Government Notices and Special Gazettes sections Gazettes Online

Federal Register of Legislative Instruments (FRLI) includes a category of material made by government bodies including proclamations, orders, notices, determinations and other material. For the definition of legislative instruments see Legislative Instruments Act 2003 s 5 (1) which defines legislative instruments" (a) as that is of a legislative character; and, (b) that is or was made in the exercise of a power delegated by the Parliament." Further subsections elaborate this definition. The Legislative Instrument Regulations 2004 schedule 1 lists those "instruments declared not to be legislative instruments"

Western Australia

Western Australian regulations are published in the Western Australian Government Gazette. Until 1992 reprints of regulations were also published in this manner.  Since 1992, reprints have been issued in pamphlet form, and these are filed alphabetically by title.

• The Index to the Acts of the Parliament of Western Australia, Subsidiary Legislation in Force, lists all regulations in force in Western Australia, under the name of the enabling Act.  References in the index are to the date and page number of the Western Australian Government Gazette.  If the regulations have been reprinted in pamphlet form, the index will give the date of the reprint, without any reference to a page in the Government Gazette. Gazettes have been online since 1998.

Electronic Access to Subordinate Legislation

• ComLaw includes the full text of Commonwealth Statutory Rules and the FRLI (Federal Register of Legislative Instruments).
• Lawlex A convenient gateway to the full text acts available from government sites.
• The State Law Publisher web site includes the full text of Western Australian Regulations.
• * Timebase (subscription service) although potentially 4-6 weeks out of date is useful for downloading complete Regulation

Case Law and Law Reports

Law reports are the written judgments of courts on points of law.  Not all cases heard are reported. Only those cases which raise significant points of law or expand on the understanding of the law are published.  Since the late 1990's unreported judgments are available for most jurisdictions.  Almost all reported cases are heard in superior courts.

Law reports are published for the purpose of being used as precedents.  They provide consistency in the development of common law, ensuring that like cases are decided in the same manner.  Courts are bound by decisions of higher courts in the same hierarchy.  For example, the Supreme Court of Western Australia is bound by a decision of the High Court of Australia.  Decisions made in equivalent courts are not binding, but would have considerable persuasive force.

Law reports are generally published as a series of bound volumes.  A series of law reports may report cases decided in one particular court, a number of courts exercising the same kind of jurisdiction, or cases decided on a particular subject.  For example, the Commonwealth Law Reports only report cases decided in the High Court of Australia, while the Federal Law Reports cover cases decided in courts of federal jurisdiction, other than the High Court.

Authorised Reports

Authorised or official reports are those which has been selected and approved by the judiciary, their nominees, or relevant governments department. In each jurisdiction only one series is designated authorised. Cases which enunciate a general principle or point of law are usually included in the authorised series of reports.

While series of reports which are not authorised are still acceptable in courts, if a case has been reported in an authorised series as well as another series, it is preferable to cite the authorised report. An authorised report should always be cited in preference to an unauthorised report, (Rules of the Supreme Court 1971 (WA) 0.34.5.9A)

Unauthorised series of reports are produced more quickly and many are directed towards satisfying the needs of specialist practitioners. Unauthorised series of reports include many reports of cases which may be published later in an authorised series, however they also include reports which may only be of transient interest, or illustrate the application of authoritative cases. The Australian Trade Practices Reports and Family Law Reports are examples of series which only report cases relevant to the subject area indicated in the title.

Few series are mutually exclusive. Cases may appear in several series depending on editorial interest and assessment of the importance of the case. For example significant High Court decisions are reported in each of the following series: the Commonwealth Law Reports (CLR), Australian Law Reports (ALR) and Australian Law Journal Reports (ALJR). The ALR and ALJR are unauthorised series and the CLR authorised.

The following is a list of authorised reports of various jurisdictions, the citation is given in bold eg, CLR. Except for reports marked with a "#" all the reports listed are held at Murdoch or are available online through one of the case law databases.
The general arrangement of law reports held in the library is by jurisdiction first (eg. Australia, Western Australia, New South Wales, United Kingdom, USA, Canada), and then alphabetically by title within the jurisdiction.

Authorised series of reports are listed on the following tables.

Authorised Reports for Australian Jurisdictions

Commonwealth

Government departments which produce series of reports are:
 

State Supreme Courts
 

Unreported Judgments

When decisions are handed down by a judge or judges they are described as being 'unreported'. Decisions are then selected by the judge or judicial editorial board to be reported in the authorised series, or by publishers for reporting in one of the subject series of reports. However, in jurisdictions with a small population, such as Western Australia, many decisions remain unreported. Although there is debate about the precedent value of unreported decisions, in practice and in academia they are heavily used as they may contain the only statement on the law on a particular subject.

Unreported judgments have different citation rules to law reports noted below. Supreme Court of WA 'Practice Directions, No. 2 of 1999' outline media neutral citation format for unreported judgments. See Media Neutral Citation for more details.

Citation of law reports

Law reports are referred to, or cited, in a standard form throughout the common law world.  The citation consists of four components:

1. the name of the case:
    eg. Mabo v Queensland (No. 2) (The number 2 in this citation refers to the second case between these parties in this year.)

2. the volume of the series of reports. This may be a volume number or year or both

3. the name of the report series, in abbreviated form

4. the page number where the case begins:

For example:
Mabo v Queensland (No. 2) (1992) 175 CLR  1
                   (1)                                     (2)   (3)  (4)

In the above citation the year is added in round brackets to indicate it is not essential information, as this series of reports is numbered sequentially. Other series of reports do not have volume numbers, or start with volume 1 each year, and without the year, it would be impossible to find the case. As the year is the only means of identifying the correct volume, it must appear in square brackets.

For example:
Morley v Statewide Tobacco Services Ltd [1993] 1 VR 423

See the Legal Citation Guide for more detailed citation information.
See Medium Neutral Citation [pdf] for details for citing unreported judgments.

Abbreviations

The abbreviation for a series of law reports is usually the initial letters of the words in the title.  The most commonly used abbreviations for law reports held at Murdoch are listed in the Library's Abbreviations of Law Reports.  There are a number of other guides which can help you match the series title and abbreviation.

• Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations (Cardiff : Cardiff University Information Services, 2003)
  < http://www.legalabbrevs.cardiff.ac.uk/ >
• Raistrick, D, Index to Legal Citations and Abbreviations, 2nd ed (London : Bowker-Saur, 1992)
• Fong, C & Edwards, A, Australian and New Zealand Legal Abbreviations (Sydney : Australian Law Librarians' Group, 1995)

Other legal reference works also contain lists of abbreviations.  Some useful ones include:

• In Print
• Australian Case Citator
• Australian Digest Key and Research Guide
• Osborn's Concise Law Dictionary, 10th ed (London : Sweet & Maxwell, 2005)
• Online
  • * LexisNexis AU - Go to the CaseBase search screen and click on the related link to abbreviations/subject list.
  • * Lawbook Online- Go to the FirstPoint search screen and click on the Help button to down load the FirstPoint Table of Abbreviations.

Finding Cases

If you do not have the full citation for a case, online case citators are invaluable for completing case citations.

• Australian case citators include:
  • FirstPoint on * Lawbook Online
  • CaseBase on * LexisNexis AU
    
    
• International citator
  • KeyCite on * Westlaw
    

Access to Cases online

There are a number of databases available which give access to the full text of reported and unreported cases.  Those available via the Database link on the Library home page include:

• * Lawbook Online CLR, FCR, A Crim R and more.
• * LexisNexis AU contains ALR, VR, NSWR, IPR. LN AU has the most comprehensive coverage of unreported judgments from most Australian Superior Courts.
• AustLII has unreported decisions from a range of Commonwealth and State Courts
• Supreme Court of WA - unreported judgments of the Supreme Court of WA.
  
  
• * LexisNexis contains decisions from a range of jurisdictions, including Australia, United States, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and the European Communities.
• * WestLaw contains decisions from a range of jurisdictions, including Australia, United States, United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and the European Communities.
• * Lloyds Law Reports 1919+

• Other online sources are listed on the Murdoch Law Subject Guide - Case Law

Historical Case Law online

• The English Reports (on campus only CD) is a collection of significant cases dating from 1220 through to 1865. This series is available in print or electronically, on campus, via the library network. Searching the English Reports gives great insight to the law and society across several centuries.
• The State Trials (on campus only CD) includes significant House of Lords trials from 1163-1858 as well as witchcraft trials in Salem (USA).

NOTE: Most of the reports available electronically are held in the library in printed form.  It may be easier and cheaper to photocopy the print versions after using the electronic tools to locate relevant reports on a particular topic.

Noting-up

• Firstpoint (* Lawbook Online) & CaseBase (*LexisNexis AU) are Australian case citators listing cases which were used to help judges make a decision in a case but also the noting up process of listing cases which have subsequently considered a case.
  • CaseBase has a more extensive coverage of unreported judgments, which is particularly relevant for WA legal researchers.
  • Firstpoint focuses on reported decisions and links only significant precedent links. It also includes the litigation history of a case.
    • A list of terms and definitions of status symbols and noting up terms is available on the Firstpoint search page Help.
      
      
• Australian and New Zealand Citator to UK Reports can be used to find English cases which have been judicially considered by Australian and New Zealand courts. Electronic access is also available from *LexisNexis AU
  
  
• KeyCite is an electronic case citator covering Australian and overseas law reports, available from *Westlaw

Alerts

See the Legal Alerts Page for more information about setting up services to alert researchers to changes to the interpretation of the law and new cases decided on a practice area.

Finding Cases which look at Statutes (Statutes judicially considered)

Cases which discuss specific statutes or sections of statutes can be located using the following materials.

Commonwealth

• Federal Statutes Annotations available on *LexisNexis AU and Commonwealth Statutes Annotations (in print) both list cases under the name of the relevant statute.
• CaseBase (*LexisNexis AU) search screen facilitates the search for statutes judicially considered
• Firstpoint (* Lawbook Online) search screen facilitates the search for statutes judicially considered
  
  
• AustLII legislation has a [Noteup] function which links statutes, and sections, to cases which refer to them. Unlike the previously listed resources this is not an edited service which means unrelated cases may appear. Researchers must make careful selection of cases relevant to the statutory provision they are researching. Also be very careful to ensure the legislation is current.

Western Australia

• Western Australian Reports. The consolidated indexes to the Western Australian Reports include tables of statutes judicially considered.
• *Timebase has a caselink section with a link from specific statutes to some of the cases which considered that statute, or a section of the statute.
• CaseBase (*LexisNexis AU) & FirstPoint (* Lawbook Online) both facilitate searching for statutes judicially considered with jurisdictional limiting options.
• AustLII [Noteup] function links statutes, and sections, to cases which refer to them. Unlike the previously listed resources this is not an edited service which means unrelated cases may appear. Researchers must make careful selection of cases relevant to the statutory provision they are researching. WA legislation on AustLII is often over 2 years out of date and researchers should use this as one step in their research process.

The Australian Digest now replaced by *FirstPoint ( * Lawbook Online)

A digest is a subject index to reported judicial decisions.  Cases are arranged according to their subject matter, and a short summary of the facts and legal points of each case is given.

The Australian Digest and now * FirstPoint indexes cases from Australian law reports since 1825. Cases are arranged in broad subject categories, called titles, which are arranged alphabetically and further subdivided.  The structure of the Australian Digest and FirstPoint offers a unique subject breakdown of legal concepts as applied in Australian courts.