Home · Commonwealth · Australia (24 sites)
AUSTLII

The web site of the Australasian Legal Information Institute provides full-text databases of most Australian decisions and legislation, whether Federal or State. Also included are treaties to which Australia is a party, and access to the full text of over fifty Australian legal journals.

Australian Government

This site is the entry point for the Commonwealth government,  and the "Topics" section takes the form of a subject directory. Under each subject heading are official publications, statements of government policy and links to other relevant sites.

Australian Institute of Criminology

The Institute is a government body carrying out research into crime and criminal justice. It publishes frequent reports to aid government in policy-making, which may be found on the web site.

Australian Law Reform Commission

The ALRC was established in 1975, and conducts inquiries into areas of law reform at the request of the Attorney General. Most of its Final Reports, 1975 onwards are available free on the web site, as are Discussion Papers, 1999 onwards (also selected papers from earlier years), Issues Papers, 1996 onwards, and the journal Reform.

Australian Law: Selected Websites

The National Library of Australia provides this gateway site for Australian law. It is divided as follows: main sites; law by jurisdiction; legal profession. The home page has a link to an introduction to the Australian legal system, provided by the Attorney-General's Department.

Australian Privacy Foundation

The Australian Privacy Foundation is a non-government organisation dedicated to protecting the privacy rights of Australians. The Resources section of the web site contains Commonwealth and State/Territory privacy laws, laws of other countries and international instruments. There is also a directory of associations, media releases and papers published by the Foundation and a history of privacy law and policy. Guidance is given on how - and to whom, depending on the sector or industry concerned - to make a complaint relating to intrusion of privacy.

Australian, State, Territory, & Local Governments

Clearly laid out gateway site providing access to online information resources of each of the state/territory governments as well as the Commonwealth government and the Australian Local Government Association with its links to local council and local government association sites.

Centre for Corporate Law and Securities Regulation

The Centre was established by The University of Melbourne in January 1996, its purpose being to undertake and promote research on corporate law and securities regulation. The website includes a monthly Corporate law bulletin, September 1997 onwards (subscription required to view the most recent bulletins) and annual reports, 1996 onwards.

ComLaw

ComLaw (Commonwealth of Australia Law) is a legal information retrieval system owned by the Attorney General's Department, permitting full-text searching of legislation of the Commonwealth of Australia. For each item of legislation it is possible to view multiple versions, as in force at various dates. This resource incorporates FRLI (Federal Register of Legal Instruments) and will ultimately replace SCALEplus, which now contains mostly historical material.

Decisions of the Nineteenth century Tasmanian Superior Courts

Published by the Division of Law, Macquarie University and the School of History and Classics, University of Tasmania. The reports featured are mostly from contemporary newspapers, and the period so far covered is 1824 to 1843. Also included are the records of pre-1850 appeals to the Privy Council from the Australian colonies.

Decisions of the Superior Courts of New South Wales, 1788-1899

This site is published by the Division of Law, Macquarie University, and is currently under construction. At present it concentrates on Supreme Court decisions between 1788 and 1855. Also included are a number of cases concerning Aborigines from later years, and the surviving records of pre-1850 appeals to the Privy Council.

Family Court of Australia

The Family Court's site provides court lists, step by step guide to proceeding, practice directions and downloadable forms, and there is access to the legislation under which the court operates, which is located on the Austlii web site, as are judgments 1988 onwards (selected coverage for the first few years). The site also has a section (in "About the Court") aimed at children. Papers and reports on many aspects of family law are reproduced in full text.

Federal Court of Australia

The Federal Court is a superior court of record exercising a broad jurisdiction, both original and appellate, in Australian federal law matters. The resources available for practitioners on its web site include practice notes, administrative notices, forms, hearings lists, legislation and detailed information about the Court's registries in each Australian state. Judgments, February 1977 onwards, are provided via links to the Austlii web site.

Federal Law Review Archive

Federal Law Review is a journal covering constitutional and administrative law, published by the Faculty of Law, Australian National University, since 1964. There are three issues a year. This archive covers 1995 to 2008, but note that issues are restricted for five years from the date of archiving. The most recent issues of the journal are on a separate site, and a subscription is required. Click on "Publisher's site" for details.

FindLaw Australia

Findlaw Australia is a service provided by Thomson Reuters Australia, and includes legal news and articles arranged by subject area, and directories of law firms and individual lawyers.

GovPubs: the Australian Government Publications Guide

GovPubs is an initiative of NSLA (National and State Libraries Australasia). It provides descriptions of selected Australian official publications and enables the user to locate titles or series either in libraries (subdivided by State) or on the internet. Web publications may be browsed separately from printed ones.

Law & Justice Foundation of New South Wales

This is a gateway for legislation, case law and court information, covering the whole of Australia, not only New South Wales.  The “Legislation and Parliament” and “Judgments and Courts” sections complement Austlii in that there are links to alternative sources of data.  There are also links to decisions of some quasi-judicial bodies not included in Austlii.

Parliament of Australia

The Australian Parliament site contains Bills 1976 onwards (the earliest years being in digest form), Hansard for both the Senate and the House of Representatives) 1981 onwards; also Committee Hansards (Senate, House and Joint) mid-1990s onwards. Dates vary according to the Committee.

Parliamentary Library

The "Publications" section includes an index of Parliamentary papers, 1992 onwards: see under "Key internet links". There are also Bills digests, 1990 onwards and Background Notes (formerly E-Briefs:  background documents on current issues, including links) 1999 onwards.

Researching Australian Law by Nicholas Pengelley & Sue Milne

Published March 2009, this is a narrative account of the Australian legal system and legal research, with hypertext links to the sources mentioned.

SAI Global: Lawlex

Lawlex is a commercial service with free and subscription based elements. All users may search or browse Australian Commonwealth and State/Territory legislation and view the full text as currently in operation, as provided by the relevant official government publisher. Links to Hansard debates are provided for Acts in some cases. Subscribers have access to additional information such as details of progress of bills, commencement, amendments since last consolidation and summary of all amendments since enactment. Other SAI subscription services include regulatory newsfeeds and Safety, Health & Environment (SH&E) Monitor.

Supreme Court of Queensland Library

Queensland Judgments are added to the Supreme Court Library within 24 hours. The archive of these goes back to 1992 for Supreme Court (Court of Appeal) and to 2000 for Supreme Court (Trial Division). Other services provided for legal practitioners include the UCPR Bulletin, indexing cases that have considered the Uniform Civil Procedure Rules, the weekly Queensland Legal Updater current awareness service, and biographical information about the Queensland Judiciary: Supreme Court, District Court and magistrates.

Sydney Law Review

Journal of the Law Faculty, University of Sydney. The current issue is available in full text (pdf); the archive of previous issues contains volumes 25 (2003) onwards. These include the "Before the High Court" case comments.

WebLaw

WebLaw is a collaborative subject gateway to internet resources in law. Each subject division is contributed by a different institution - most participants are university law faculties - but the same standards are applied throughout, and the same categories of information feature, where applicable, within each subject. These are legislation, courts & tribunals, organisations, publications, other indexes/links, conferences, journals and treaties.


Accesstolaw small logo

Current Awareness Blog

Legal News selected by Inner
Temple Library

Click here for more news