Law Guide

Introduction

Acts of Parliament

Commonwealth Acts

Reprinted acts
TVL 348.94023 P2 (Consolidated or reprinted acts incorporate any amendments made to an act up to the date of reprint).

Acts of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia.
348.94022 P1 (Acts are arranged by year and act number).

Commonwealth legislation is also available on the Web at the AustLII site or at the ComLaw site.

Queensland Acts

Queensland legislation reprints.
348.943022 P8 (Contains all current Queensland legislation. Arrangement is alphabetical).

Queensland statutes.
348.943022 P1 (Acts are arranged by year and act number).

Queensland legislation is also available on the Web at the Office of the Queensland Parliamentary Counsel site or the AustLII site.

Cases

Reports of significant cases decided by the courts are published in volumes known as law reports. A reference (also called a citation) to a report of a case looks like this:

To locate this case in the Library:

1. Refer to Abbreviations for law students* to find the full name of the law report series represented by the abbreviation CLR
2. Note the call number given for the report series
3. Go to that number on the Library shelves
4. Select volume 182
5. Turn to page 104

To locate this case online, access the database/s indicated in Abbreviations for law students. Note the sometimes only part of a report series may be available online.

* Available at http://www.library.jcu.edu.au/Subject_Guides/Fac2/LibGuides/abbrev.shtml

Dictionaries & Encyclopaedias

General

Nygh, P. E. & Butt, P. J. (1997). Butterworths Australian legal dictionary. Sydney: Butterworths.
R 349.9403 BUT

Osborn, P. G. (2001). Osborn's concise law dictionary (9th ed.). London: Sweet and Maxwell.
R 340.03 OSB 2001

The laws of Australia. (1992- ). North Ryde, N.S.W.: Law Book.
TVL R349.94 P1

Abbreviations

Raistrick, D. (1993). Index to legal citations and abbreviations. (2nd ed.). Abingdon: Professional Books.
R 348.00148 RAI 1993

Fong, C. & Edwards, A. J. (1995). Australian and New Zealand legal abbreviations. (2nd ed.). Sydney: Australian Law Librarians Group, New South Wales Division.
R349.9400148 FON 1995

Journal Indexes on the Internet

Other Internet Resources

A large number of primary and secondary legal resources are available on the Internet. AustLII (Australasian Legal Information Institute) http://www.austlii.edu.au is one of the most important Internet sites for Australian law material, and also provides links to important overseas sites. Other comprehensive legal sites include:

Cornell Legal Information Institute http://www.law.cornell.edu

BAILII (British and Irish Legal Information Institute) http://www.bailii.org

The Law Librarian's Internet Resources for Law http://www.library.jcu.edu.au/subjectgds/Fac2/NetResources/law.shtml provides links to a smaller selection of resources, chosen for their potential usefulness to JCU law undergraduates.