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Research Manual
Research Manual
MULS
The Macquarie University Law Society 2011
Contact MULS: Building W3A, Macquarie Law School, (Bottom level) Postal Macquarie University Law Society c/- Macquarie University Law School Macquarie University NSW 2109 Web: www.muls.org Email: educationofficer@muls.org Telephone: (02) 9850 7939
Contents
Whyfrom the Editor An Introduction to Australian Legal Research HOW TO..start researching Database Searching Useful Legal Sites Tips for successful database searching Troubleshooting HOW TO...find Legislation HOW TO..find an historical version of a legislative instrument HOW TO..locate the relevant Hansard HOW TO..locate the relevant Explanatory Memorandum HOW TO..find cases HOW TO..search accurately HOW TO..plan your essay HOW TO.structure your essay ComLaw Basics 3 4 6 7 10 11 12 13
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It is generally recognised that legal information is divided into two types; primary (the law as stated) and secondary sources (discussions about the law). Primary Sources These materials consist of the authoritative texts of the law and include: 1. 2. 3. Legislation Acts or statutes made by a legislative body such as Parliament Subordinate Legislation Rules, regulations and by-laws made by delegated authorities Law Reports Reports of decisions or judgments of courts on points of law
Legislation generally of two types; Acts (Statutes) OR Delegated (Subordinate) legislation including rules, Regulations, By-Laws etc Law Reports Written judgments of courts on points of law, published for use as precedents. A report is authorised if, before publication, it has been checked by the judge. The disadvantage of authorised reports is that they take up to a year to be published. To compensate for this time lag other series of reports are published to provide quick access to decisions that arent available in authorised format yet. Its essential to cite the authorised version of a case when available. Australian Authorised Report Series i ii iii iv v vi vii viii ix x xi Commonwealth Law Reports (CLR) High Court LawBook Federal Court Reports (FCR) Federal Court LawBook NSW Law Reports (NSWLR) Supreme Court of NSW - LawBook Victorian Reports (VR) Supreme Court of Victoria - LexisNexisAU South Australian State Reports (SASR) Supreme Court of SA LawBook Queensland Reports (Qd R) Queensland Supreme Court - AustLII Western Australian Reports (WAR) Supreme Court of WA State Reports (Western Australia) SR(WA)) Family and District Courts - AustLII Tasmanian Reports (Tas R) Supreme Court of Tasmania - AustLII Northern Territory Law Reports (NTLR) Supreme Court of NT LawBook ACT Reports (ACTR) Supreme Court of ACT - LexisNexisAU
However, be aware that some law report series, particularly those published by CCH, do not adhere to the traditional mode of citation. Identifying and interpreting primary sources is simplified with the use of Secondary Sources These materials generally perform one of two functions: 1. 2. Aid in the IDENTIFICATION of relevant primary sources. Aid in the INTERPRETATION of relevant primary sources (commonly referred to as commentaries)
When commencing research on an unfamiliar topic it is almost always imperative to first consult a secondary source. A commentary in a textbook, journal article or loose leaf service may be the best starting point as they will give you an overview of the topic and provide references to the relevant primary material. Having identified the relevant primary authorities it is then crucial to update these authorities. The major secondary sources include: journal articles, indexes, digests of law reports, legal encyclopaedia, loose leaf services, monographs/textbooks, bibliographies and dictionaries.
Database Searching
To access the following databases you will need a login, available at www.library.mq.edu.au - databases law, use your student number and mq portal password to login.
AGIS Plus Text
An Informit database covering many aspects of law including administrative law, constitutional law, criminal law, environmental law, family law, human rights, international law, medical law and trade practices.
CaseBase
Covers more than 60 Australian and overseas report series as well as a range of Australian unreported decisions. Links to some full-text journals & law reports produced by the publisher LexisNexis.
CCH Online
Provides access to all Australian CCH looseleaf services and their associated cases and legislation. Titles include: Australian Contract Law Reporter, Australian Torts Reporter, Australian Employment Law Guide, Australian Master Tax Guide, Australian Family Law & Practice, Australian Federal Tax Reporter, Australian Health & Medical Law Reporter...
FirstPoint
An Australian case citator and digesting service sourced from The Australian Case Citator, Australian Digest and ALMD; includes full-text authorised versions of cases from CLR, FCR and NSWLR.
Hein Online
International law journal archive providing full-text PDF access to articles from Volume 1 onwards. The collection contains over 1200 journals, 800 within the Law Journal Library. Other resources include The English Reports, Legal Classics, Treaties & Agreements, US Attorney General Opinions, US Presidential Library, US Statutes at Large 1789-2006, US Supreme Court and US Reports 1754-2004.
International Court of Justice
Contains the full text of official judgments, advisory opinions and orders of the Court in both English and French as well as supporting materials on the Court, the judges and international law.
International Criminal Court
A searchable website which gives access to the records and cases of the International Criminal Court.
LawBook/Legal Online
Offers a variety of looseleaf services, the legal encyclopaedia Laws of Australia and the case citator FirstPoint (an online amalgamation of the Australian Digest and Australian Case Citator). Also contains some full-text law journals and unreported judgments. Full-text law reports on this database include: CLR, FCR, NSWLR, A Crim R, FLR, SASR, LGERA, and ATR.
EBSCOhost is a platform which provides access to various databases, both multisubject and subject specific. Full text of many of the articles is available, varying according to the database. Includes: Legal Periodicals Fulltext - A bibliographic database citing articles from legal periodicals, indexes and law books. Provides international coverage including periodicals from the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. Also includes Index to Legal Periodicals Retrospective 1908-1981.
Lexis.com
An international database produced by the publisher LexisNexis. It contains material primarily from the U.S. and Canada, with many other countries represented in a more limited capacity. The databases provide full-text legislation, case law and journal articles (predominantly American).
LexisNexis AU
Provides access to legal materials including: CaseBase (case citator), LawNow legislation and the legal encyclopedias Halsbury's Laws of Australia, Halsbury's Laws of England and Australian Encyclopaedias of Forms and Precedents. Also contains some full-text law journals and unreported judgments. Full-text law reports on LNAU includes: VR, ACTR, NTLR, ALR, Fam LR, ALD, IPR, ACSR and All ER. For a comprehensive guide to using LexisNexis please see: http://www.lexisnexis.com.au/aus/products/lexisnexisau/training/documents/lnauuser guide2008final.pdf
Proquest 5000
An international multidisciplinary database providing access to academic journals, newspaper and magazine articles.
Social science research network
Social Science Research Network (SSRN) is composed of a number of specialized research networks in the social sciences. Topics covered by networks include accounting, economics, financial economics, legal scholarship, and management (including negotiation and marketing). The SSRN eLibrary consists of an abstract database containing abstracts of scholarly working papers and forthcoming papers, and an electronic paper collection of downloadable full text documents in pdf format. Access to the database and collection is free; some services may require registration or fees.
TimeBase LawOne
Consolidated full text legislation for all Australian jurisdictions, updated daily. Includes access to some repealed legislation, Bills, Explanatory Memoranda and Second Reading Speeches. Timebase has also developed an extensive range of Point-in-Time Products providing complete legislation pictures at any date, with instant version comparison and comprehensive, date sensitive, related materials. These include: Social Security, Employment, Intellectual Property, ASX Listing and Market Rules, Competitions and Consumer Service, Corporations Law, Income Tax, GST, Commonwealth Criminal Law and legislation only services for Cutoms, Excise, Migration and Student Assistance.
Westlaw International
An international online legal research tool providing indexing and full-text access to case law, newspaper articles, law reviews and legislation.
Workplace OHS
Designed for Australian OHS managers and professionals. Contains the latest updates in Occupational Health and Safety cases and legislation and current OHS policies & safety procedures to give the necessary insights to make work place operations legally compliant, efficient and safe.
WorkplaceInfo
An Australian web-based resource for workplace relations professionals. It contains workplace relations news, industrial relations reference materials and human resource tools.
WorldLII
The World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII) is the global version of AustLII. It provides a single search facility for databases located on the following Legal Information Institutes: AustLII; BAILII; CanLII; HKLII; LII (Cornell); and PacLII. WorldLII also includes as part of this searchable collection its own databases not found on other LIIs. These include databases of decisions of international Courts and Tribunals, databases from a number of Asian countries, and databases from South Africa (provided by Wits Law School). Databases of case-law, legislation, treaties, law reform reports, law journals, and other materials are included.
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Example Cathy, an Australian, married Nigel, an American. They have a daughter, Sally, who has dual citizenship. The marriage broke down and Cathy wanted to return to Australia. Nigel refused to consent to Sally living in Australia. Cathy secretly brought Sally to Australia and they are living with Cathys parents. Nigel says Sally was abducted and demands her return. 1. Decide the general subject area. Family law seems appropriate. You would probably need an international aspect to the research. The principal search terms might be: 1ST concept: (variations of) abduction, kidnapping 2ND concept (variations of) child, parent, (possibly) grandparent
The search expression could be: (abduct* or kidnap*) w/10 (child* or parent* or grand*) With this search expression you are looking for the first concept found within 10 words of the second concept. It is a good idea to start your research with secondary materials to obtain an overview of your subject. CCH Family Law Library is a good place to start. Open the Family Law and Practice Commentary and read the section Child Abduction. Case Law While you are in the CCH Family Law Library also have a look at Family Law Cases. This series reports family law cases from the High Court, the Family Court and the State Supreme Courts. Open Family Law Cases You would have noticed that there is an international convention governing these matters and it is implemented by Australian regulations the Child Abduction Convention or Hague Convention 1986 and the Family Law (Child Abduction Convention) Regulations 1986. These titles and the names of some of the cases that you have found can be used to provide additional search terms and strategies as you proceed with your research. This provides 401 results, use the filters in the left pane to narrow the results.
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Troubleshooting
Problem Search retrieves too much material Solution > Refine the search > Search within specified fields > Use Boolean operators (e.g. and) and proximity operators to limit retrieved list > Use parentheses to limit hits > Add date operators > Use synonyms in the search > Check for spelling variations and errors > Do not rely on one search. Try the same search using three or four different methods > Use a variety of databases > Check the database help screens. Most legal databases have specific methods for doing this search. You will need to follow the instructions exactly > Refine the search by using alternative search terms > Check the currency of the database. It is usually (but not always) found at the beginning of the database > Most databases have a function which lets you see (and sometime edit) a previous search. Check if the software has a button called trail, history, previous or similar. Look for breadcrumbs > Look for a contents function > Certain packages do allow you to search in alternative modes, e.g. browsing and query searching. Browsing lets you scan contents and use hypertext links to jump to relevant parts of the database
Cannot find references to a particular section of the relevant legislation Most of what I have retrieved is irrelevant I do not know how up-to-date the material is I want to go back to the previous search. Do I need to type it again?
I do not know what is in this database I prefer to browse the material rather than do a search, as I am not sure how to structure the search
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Commonwealth 1. 2. The process is exactly the same above except, the website is: http://www.comlaw.gov.au/ Searching for an Act, compilations current.
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Comlaw 1. 2. http://www.comlaw.gov.au/ Historical versions and click through the pages until you locate the one you are looking for, click on the PDF option and the historical version as it was will download.
New South Wales 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. http://www.legislation.nsw.gov.au/ Browse. Acts. Legal Profession Act 2004 No 112. Scroll down left hand-side, select section 6. Historical Versions (the third option up along the top of the page), choose the relevant version.
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Terms
Terms are the basic units of a search. A term is a single character or group of characters, alphabetic or numeric, with a space on either side. A hyphen and a bracket and full stop is treated as a space, so a hyphenated word or a word in brackets or numeric is seen as two words. Examples: 22 22.2 22(2) one searchable term one searchable term two searchable terms
A hyphen is treated as a space, so a hyphenated term is seen as two terms. Examples: pretrial pre-trial pre trial one term two terms two terms
Phrases Consecutive terms are assumed as a phrase. You must use a connector to separate words that you wish to find in the same part of a document. Examples: contributory negligence finds the phrase contributory negligence contributory AND negligence finds separate occurrences of the words contributory and negligence
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Proper Names
Because of the many ways in which a proper name can be expressed, use the following search pattern to obtain a comprehensive result: Example To find documents referring to Mary Jones, use this search: Mary OR M W/3 Jones (first name OR first initial W/3 last name) Note: This method ensures comprehensive results and includes variations such as Mary J. Jones, M. J. Jones, Mary Jane Jones, Jones, Mary J., and Jones, M. J. Example To find articles by Raymond Smith, Raymond J. Smith and Raymond J. A. Smith use a proximity connector like W/n: raymond W/3 smith
Plurals
Using the singular word form will retrieve the singular, plural, and possessive forms of most words. Example: city would find city, cities, citys, and cities The system will not automatically fInd the plural form of words that end in us or is, or other irregular plural forms. Examples: bonus would not find bonuses Example: child would not find children Note: Use the OR connector in these instances, for example child OR children, or use truncation child!
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Wildcard Characters
Using truncation (!) and wildcard (*) characters lets you easily combine or eliminate search terms, making your search simpler. The exclamation mark (!) is used to truncate a word to find all the words made by adding letters to the end of it. Example acqui! would find variations on the term acquire such as acquires, acquired, acquiring, and acquisition. Note Use ! only on unique roots; fir! will find fired, firing, and fires, but will also find first, which you may not want. The wildcard (*) replaces a single character at any point in a word. Example: maximi*e finds both the maximise and maximize The wildcard (*) is particularly useful if you are unsure of the spelling of a particular word or name. You can also use multiple wildcards in a single word. Note: You cannot use a wildcard character (*) at the beginning of a search word.
Date Restrictions
Sometimes you need to limit your searches to a particular time frame. The easiest way to specify a date restriction is by using the Specify Date options on a search form. However, you may also manually enter dates in the Search Terms field if documents in the source you're using contain a date section. For example, you may want to restrict your search to find cases decided on, before, or after a particular date. Because date sections involve numbers, they are "arithmetically searchable." The most effective date format is: dd/mm/yyyy and date sections use the arithmetic operators shown below: = is equal to or is > aft greater than or after < bef less than or before The following are examples of date restrictions. date = 2004 date > 31 December 2004 date < 1/1/1997 or date is 2004 or date aft 31 december 2004 or date bef 01/01/2004
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