Surveying: Legislation & Governmental

Listed below are freely available sources to law.

• Legislation New Zealand

  This website provides Acts, Bills, Legislative Instruments, and Supplementary Order Papers, and links to Other Instruments.

• NZLII legislation

  Free. Includes legislation as enacted from 1841.

• NZLII case law This link opens in a new window

  Free. Includes most NZ courts and tribunals: selected content from District, Youth and Family Courts.

For advanced legal research try

• Lexis Advance This link opens in a new window

  Access to legislation, case law and commentary on a wide range of legal topics.

• Library Search | Ketu This link opens in a new window

  Use broad terms to find texts, e.g. land law zealand.
  Use narrower terms to find articles, e.g. culpable homicide defences.

• LegalTrac (Gale OneFile) This link opens in a new window

  Provides indexing and selective full-text for all major law reviews, law journals, specialty law and bar association journals and legal newspapers. The database offers coverage of federal and state cases, laws and regulations, legal practice and taxation, as well as British Commonwealth, European Union, and international law.

• Google Scholar This link opens in a new window

For advanced legal research try

• LinxPlus - journal articles

  An index of journal articles collected by the Law Society.

• Lexis Advance This link opens in a new window

  Commentary: use the Big Red Search box to keyword search, then select Secondary Sources Tab. Then filter to commentary from the left-hand menu. Commentary is regularly updated expert interpretation of statutes as analysed in leading cases

• Cardiff index to legal abbreviations This link opens in a new window

  Decode abbreviations here.

• Glossary of legal terms

  Jargon-busting from the Ministry of Justice.

• Laws of New Zealand: topic list

  This is a legal encyclopedia published by Lexis, and is a good introduction to any area of New Zealand law.

• Legal referencing using APA

  The Law Librarian at Canterbury has created this guide for non-law students. For law students taking law papers, use the NZLSG.

• Research Strategies for Law

  This help page includes a LOT of help. contact the Law Librarian if you need direction.

• Courts of New Zealand

  Everything you need to know about how the court system works and how to use it. Site includes links to selected judgments from the higher courts.

     Court Hierarchy