LPAB – Understanding Legal Language and Legislation – Legal Research Class – 22 November 2013 and 24 January 2014

Session Coverage

• General legal research revision

• Finding cases and journal articles

• Legal citation

• Researching legislation

What do law firms think of the legal research skills of

graduates???

• “Research skills of grads are very poor. I find I have to take them right back to basics including how case law works and how legislation comes into existence.”

• “ They tend to rely on Google and AustLII - no sense of the availability of journal articles, loose-leaf commentary, seminal textbooks etc.”

• “...a lack of hands on experience with legislation.... they don't understand how to read notes tables”

• “They can find cases but still get confused by medium neutral citations.”

• “While Google is popular so is Wikipedia. I even saw a Federal Court case, where the lawyers had done their research on Wikipedia.”

• “They can be very gung-ho and announce they know everything about legal research - everything's on LexisNexis right?”

Interpreting a case citation

Swain v Waverley Municipal Council

(2005) 220 CLR 517; [2005] HCA 4

Interpreting a case citation

• Two main types of case citation- Law report citation- Medium neutral citation (court)

Swain v Waverley Municipal Council

(2005) 220 CLR 517 – law report

[2005] HCA 4 – medium neutral

Steps for Finding cases:

• What is the abbreviation?? (see Law Library – Free Web Law – Legal Abbreviations)

• Australian or UK or other??

• Law report or medium neutral citation

Steps for Finding cases (cont):

• Law Report: Law Databases – Law Reports A to Z

• Medium Neutral Citation

Law Databases – Cases - AustLII

• UK case - Law Databases – Cases – ICLR Online

CaseBase and FirstPoint

• To obtain extra information about a case

• To find cases by subject

Finding Journal Articles

• When you already have a citation

- ‘Journal’ search on library catalogue. Search title of journal NOT title of article

• Searching for journal articles by subject

-Law Databases – Journal databases and news Services – eg. AGIS Plus Text (Australia) and LegalTrac (international)

Legal Citation

• There is no single standard in Australia for legal referencing.

• However, it is important that all citations made within one document are consistent in style

• Australian Guide to Legal Citation (3rd edition) (AGLC3) is the most commonly used citation style for Australian law schools and legal publications.

Case law

AGLC3 Citation Style:

Reported Judgments:

• Swain v Waverley Municipal Council (2005) 220 CLR 517

Unreported Judgments:

• Swain v Waverley Municipal Council [2005] HCA 4

Books

AGLC3 Citation Style:

• Dennis Pearce and Robert Geddes, Statutory Interpretation in Australia (Lexis Nexis Butterworths, 7th ed, 2011).

Journal articles

AGLC3 Citation Style:

• Miranda Kaye, Julie Stubbs and Julia Tolmie, ‘Domestic Violence and Child Contact Arrangements’ (2003) 17(2) Australian Journal of Family Law 93, 95.

Legislation

• Bills

•Statutes

•Delegated Legislation

•Related Parliamentary materials

Bills

Bills are a draft of a proposed

statute.

• Civil Liability Bill 2002 (NSW)

Acts / Statutes

Terms are interchangeable – refer

to enactments of Parliament

• Civil Liability Act 2002 (NSW)

Types of ActsTwo main types:

Principal Act:

An Act that deals comprehensively

with a given area of law.

Civil Liability Act 2002 (NSW)

Amending Act

An Act that alters the operation of

an earlier Act by:

- substituting or inserting words

- omitting or repealing provisions

Civil Liability Amendment Act

2006 (NSW)

Delegated LegislationExamples include:

regulations, rules, ordinances, by-laws

Laws made by a person or body to

whom Parliament has delegated

law-making authority.

Civil Liability Regulation 2009 (NSW)

Finding Acts and Delegated Legislation

Commonwealth Legislation

• ComLaw

• AustLII

NSW Legislation

• NSW Parliamentary Counsel’s Office

• AustLII

Basic Boolean connectors:

AND – combining concepts Eg. murder and defences

OR – for similar concepts and synonymsEg. murder OR manslaughter

NOT (sometimes AND NOT) – leaving out conceptsEg. Murder NOT provocation