Law subject guide: Australia & the Pacific

The key site for legislation and case law for the Pacific Region is  PacLII www.paclii.org.

For regional resources, including journals, law reform, and research guides try the Pacific Legal Gateway http://www.paclii.org/gateway

For Legislation past and present for the Cook Islands, see: The Laws of the Cook Islands.

These articles about finding Pacific Law are useful.

Ruth Bird has written Law of the Pacific Islands: A Guide to Web Based Resources (April 2005).

Peter Murgatroyd has written an Introduction to researching South Pacific Law 2022.

Also search online for Pacific Law guides produced by other University Libraries in Australasia.

• Australian Federation Fulltext Database - Primary source texts of Australian Federation, including  the debates of the 1890s, major participants' accounts and memoirs, and related texts.
• Australian Law on the Internet - A substantial listing of sites, under a wide range of categories, including government and parliamentary material.
• Australian Treaties Library - Access to treaty texts and status information, as well as links to related material.
• [Australian] Indigenous Law Resources - AustLII's collections of full-text resources.
• Government Publications Register - For access to state and federal agencies which have publications on their web sites.
• GovPubs: Australian Government Publications Guide - A guide to Commonwealth and State publications such as bills, acts, Hansard etc and their locations on the Web or in key Australian libraries.
• Law and Justice Foundation (NSW) - A directory for Australian legal sites, via its 'Legislation & Parliament ' and 'Judgments & Courts' buttons.
• Law reform agencies - Up-to-date links to all law reform agencies, from the Australian Law Reform Commission site.
• National Native Title Tribunal - Official government site relating to aboriginal land.
• Native Title Infobase - Australian Federal Courts site which indexes and abstracts extensive Australian resources from 1839 plus some material from other countries.
• Researching Australian Law - Nicholas Pengelley's overview of the legal system and research resources.

There are general guides to legal research in the Law Library at and around K79. Some of these are specifically for Australia, for example Sue Milne's Practical guide to legal research (Law K79 MM856).

Online guides will link you to other research material as well as to primary sources. Start with these ones: