AustLII Guide to Legal Research on the Web

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Detailed Table of Contents

Title Page

• 1. Introduction
• 1.1. Approach and structure of this text
• 1.1.1. An AustLII perspective
• 1.1.2. WorldLII and Related LIIs
• 1.2. General principles of internet legal research
• 1.2.1. Browsing and searching - the two basic techniques
• Browsing - hypertext
• Searching - text retrieval
• 2. A Brief Guide to Using the Internet
• 2.1. Internet Basics
• 2.1.1. What is the Internet?
• 2.1.2. Understanding URLs
• 2.1.3. The parts of a Web address1
• 2.1.4. Sites using Frames
• 2.2. Moving around the Internet
• 2.2.1. If you already know the Address -
• 2.2.2. ‘Browsing’
• 2.2.4. Basic navigation - ‘Back’, ‘Forward’, ‘Stop’ and ‘Home’ icons
• 2.2.5. The ‘Reload’or ‘Refresh’ Button
• 2.2.6. The History List (under ‘Go’)2
• 2.2.7. Finding words within the current page (‘FIND’)
• 2.2.8. Saving and printing web documents
• 2.2.9. Bookmarks or Favourites
• 3. Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII)
• 3.1. Background to AustLII
• 3.2. Primary legal materials on AustLII
• 3.2.1. Legislation
• 3.2.2. Commonwealth courts and tribunals - decisions
• 3.2.3. State and Territory Courts and Tribunals
• 3.2.4. Other primary materials databases
• 3.3. Accessing AustLII’s databases - menus
• 3.3.1. Primary materials database title pages
• 3.4. Searching AustLII
• 3.4.1. The SINO search engine - introduction
• SINO emulations of other common search languages
• The SINO search interface
• (i) Standard search form
• (ii) Full search form
• SINO search basics
• Summary of search operators
• 3.4.2. Words and phrases - what is searchable
• Non-searchable words and characters
• Plurals
• Truncation and other pattern matching
• 3.4.3. Search operators and syntax
• Order of evaluation of operators
• Controlling the order of evaluation of operators
• The AND operator
• The OR operator - specifying synonyms
• The NOT operator - excluding documents
• Proximity operators - the NEAR operator
• Proximity operators - Specified proximity
• 3.4.4. Limiting the breadth of searches - ‘Select Database’
• Caution - Change Database Selection back after use
• 3.4.5. Limiting searches to fields using ‘Search scope’
• Restricting search scope from the Search Terms window
• Caution - Change Search Scope back to default after use
• 3.4.6. The ‘Display Hits’ window
• 3.4.7. Limiting searches to date ranges (#date )
• 3.5. Display of search results
• 3.5.1. How AustLII’s relevance ranking works
• 3.5.2. Standard display of search results
• 3.5.3. Using the search results list
• Multiple pages of search results
• Going from one document in the list to the next
• Going back to the search results list at a later time
• 3.5.4. Viewing search terms - the ‘Context’ buttons
• Going to the first occurrence of a search term
• Going back and forward between search terms
• Tips and problems in using ‘Context’
• Use of Netscape’s FIND feature
• 3.6. Appendix: SINO search language emulations
• 3.6.1. Operators similar to LawPac/Info-One
• 3.6.2. Operators similar to Lexis and DiskROM
• 3.6.3. Operators similar to SCALE (STATUS operators)
• 3.6.4. Operators similar to C and agrep
• 4. Special features of AustLII databases - legislation, case law, and others
• 4.1. Legislation on AustLII - special features
• 4.1.1. Accessing legislation on AustLII - options
• 4.1.2. Hypertext links from AustLII legislation
• The basis of AustLII's legislation mark-up
• 4.1.3. Standard ‘buttons’ in each section of legislation
• 4.1.4. Browsing legislation
• 4.1.5. Searching legislation
• Finding specific Acts or regulations - ‘this legislation name’ Search Scope
• Searching for specific sections of an Act
• Limiting searches to legislation only
• Useful search connectors for legislation searches
• 4.1.6. Checking the currency of legislation
• Commonwealth Consolidated Acts
• Commonwealth Numbered Acts
• Commonwealth Consolidated Regulations
• New South Wales Consolidated Acts
• New South Wales Consolidated Regulations
• 4.1.7. Assent and commencement dates
• Commonwealth legislation
• 4.1.8. Downloading and printing legislation
• Downloading/printing one section of an Act
• Downloading/printing a whole Act
• 4.1.9. Subject indexes to AustLII’s legislation
• 4.2. Case law on AustLII - special features
• 4.2.1. Accessing case law on AustLII - options
• 4.2.2. Currency of case law databases - the ‘List of Recent Cases’
• 4.2.3. Standard ‘buttons’ within each AustLII case
• 4.2.4. Browsing case law
• Hypertext links from cases
• Caution! - Check that the section linked to has not been amended
• 4.2.5. Searching case law
• Useful search connectors for case law searches - use ‘NEAR’ not ‘AND’
• ‘this case name’ Search Scope
• Finding all references to a case - [Noteup] and otherwise
• 4.3. Secondary legal materials on AustLII
• 4.3.1. Searching secondary materials on AustLII
• Limiting searches to secondary materials
• Structure of secondary materials databases
• 5. World Legal Information Institute (WorldLII)
• 5.1. Collaborating parties
• 5.2. Browsing the Databases
• 5.2.1. Legislation databases
• Front page of each database
• Standard ‘buttons’ in each section of legislation
• 5.2.2. Case Law databases
• Front page of database
• Standard ‘buttons’ within each case
• 5.3. Searching the Databases
• 5.3.1. Limiting the scope of searches
• 5.4. Extending searches beyond your LII
• 5.5. Browsing the Catalog
• 5.6. Searching the Catalog
• Technical development and hosting
• 5.6.1. Search options
• 5.6.2. Cross-national hypertext links
• 5.7. A model for systematic global legal research
• 5.7.1. Repeating searches for comprehensive research
• 5.7.2. An interface for comprehensive research
• 5.8. Research strategies - How to use WorldLII
• 5.8.1. There is no perfect legal research tool
• 5.8.2. Always check ‘Other Indexes’
• 5.8.3. Always use an Internet-wide search engine as well
• Finding treaties
• Find international law reform reports and implementations
• Finding a country's human rights record
• 6. SCALEplus
• 6.1. Background
• Further information about SCALEplus
• 6.1.1. Accessing SCALEplus
• Access to SCALE plus databases from AustLII’s index
• 6.1.2. Databases from SCALE on other web sites
• 6.1.3. Databases
• Commonwealth Legislation
• Territory Legislation
• Other Databases
• 6.2. Browsing SCALEplus
• 6.2.1. Browsing legislation
• Navigation within a section
• 6.2.2. Browsing case law
• 6.3. Search terms and connectors
• 6.3.1. Search terms
• Acceptable search terms
• Use of parentheses
• Automated stemming
• Topics - the automated thesaurus
• 6.3.2. Search connectors and operators
• 6.4. Search interfaces
• 6.4.1. Unstructured search interface (‘Quick Search’)
• 6.4.2. Structured search interface (‘Advanced Search’)
• 6.5. Limiting the scope of searches
• 6.5.1. Limiting searches to only some databases
• Quick Search Interface
• ‘Select Databases’ Menu
• Don’t forget to use ‘Set’
• Warning - Any limited selection of databases stays current until you change it
• 6.5.2. Using zones to limit searches ( <in> operator)
• Zones in legislation databases
• Zones in caselaw databases
• Display of results
• 6.5.3. Limiting searches by date
• 6.6. Display of search results
• 6.6.1. Relevance ranking
• 6.6.2. Number of hits displayed
• 6.6.3. Context displays
• 7. Butterworths Online
• 7.1. Background
• 7.1.1. Accessing Butterworths Online
• Access from AustLII’s index
• 7.1.2. Other resources
• 7.2. Databases
• 7.2.1. Libraries of general publications
• General research publications
• Unreported judgments
• Reports
• Legislation
• Precedents
• 7.2.2. Subject-specific Libraries
• Administrative law
• Civil procedure
• Corporations
• Criminal law
• Evidence
• Family law
• Intellectual property
• Local government
• 7.3. Browsing
• 7.3.1. Organisation of the screen (frames)
• 7.3.2. Expanding and collapsing tables of contents
• 7.3.3. Navigation buttons for browsing
• 7.3.4. Hypertext links within and between documents
• 7.4. Search terms and connectors
• 7.4.1. Search connectors and operators
• 7.5. Search interfaces
• 7.5.1. Searches over multiple databases
• Choosing databases
• Entering searches
• 7.5.2. Customised search forms for particular Libraries
• 7.5.3. Customised search forms for single databases
• Limiting searches to ‘chapters’ of a database
• Limiting searches to fields (‘elements’) in a database
• 7.6. Display of search results
• 7.6.1. Display options
• 7.6.2. Display of results
• 7.6.3. Navigation buttons for searches
• 7.6.4. Displaying the whole document
• 8. Other major Australian law sites
• 8.1. Other major Australian law sites
• 8.1.1. FindLaw Australia
• 8.1.2. Law & Justice Foundation of New South Wales
• 8.1.3. LAWLINK NSW
• 8.1.4. Australian Law Online
• 8.1.5. City-State Law
• 8.1.6. Parliamentary Counsel Offices, Parliament sites, Government Publishers etc
• 8.1.7. University of Technology, Sydney - Library
• 8.2. Major categories of Australian law on the net
• 8.2.1. Case law materials - full text, summaries, court home pages, court lists etc
• Example - High Court of Australia
• 8.2.2. Legislative materials - Acts, Bills, Explanatory Memoranda etc
• 8.2.3. Parliamentary information - Hansard, procedure, votes etc
• Example - Commonwealth Parliament
• 8.2.4. Law reform materials
• 8.2.5. Law journals and other legal periodicals
• 9. Using internet search engines to find law
• 9.1. Finding law using general (‘non-law’) resources
• 9.2. Australian Search Engines
• 9.3. Searching the ‘Australian internet’
• 9.3.1. The Web Wombat
• Search tips
• 9.4. Indexes of the whole internet, worldwide
• 9.5. AltaVista
• 9.6. Google