Explore a curated selection of resources to support your research on Australian construction law topics.
See also the Library Guides on Surveying & Built Environment and Engineering for associated resources and information on accessing standards.
Check legal dictionaries to help with your understanding of unfamiliar terminology and jargon used in construction law.
Use legal encyclopedias for brief overviews of construction law concepts, and references to key case law and/or legislative provisions. See the legal encyclopedias section for help with using these products.
Use Library Search to keyword search for books on construction law topics or start with the subjects Construction Industry - Law and Legislation - Australia or Construction Contracts - Australia.
Key titles are shown below.
Commentary services (also known as looseleaf or reporters) provide analysis of fields of law, including commentary on key legislative provisions and cases. Westlaw Australia and Lexis+ Australia contain various commentary products on construction law issues. See the commentary section for help with using commentary products.
Westlaw Australia
From the database entry page, view specialised products for building and construction law using the Practice Areas > Building & Construction > Secondary Sources option.
Lexis+ Australia
Also refer to the following sections in the Australian Encyclopedia of Forms & Precedents:
Other resources
Scholarly law journal articles are authored by legal experts and are grounded in research and theory. They provide in-depth analysis on specialised topics for an academic or professional audience. Use the resources mentioned earlier in this guide to search for journal articles on construction law topics. Key journals for this area are shown below.
If international/comparative information is relevant to your topic, search for overseas law journal articles using the World Journals collection in Thomson Reuters Westlaw Classic. This is a large collection of full-text law journals covering most law topics and contains journals such as:
The database entry page defaults to USA material. Select International Materials > World Journals. Also consult the Practice Areas tab - Construction Law to access a variety of American construction law resources.
Explore construction law information in Lexis+ Australia:
Lexis Practical Guidance modules provide guidance notes, commentary practice tips, legislation, legal precedents, cases, tools, forms and checklists etc.The below modules contain some information relevant to aspects of construction law.
The below guide demonstrates how to navigate and find information in Practical Guidance generally.
Identify key legislative provisions and leading cases using the secondary sources mentioned above.
For help with locating and researching cases see Australian case law earlier in this guide, particularly Cases on a legal issue/topic for strategies to find Australian case law on a specific subject area.
Use the below Westlaw Australia Key Number System headings to browse cases by construction law topics.
Unreported construction law cases are available via Westlaw Australia and Lexis+ Australia, as well as the following sources:
For general help with locating and researching legislation see Australian legislation earlier in this guide.
LawNow Legislation in Lexis+ Australia lists Acts by subject, including construction law, however it also includes some repealed legislation. Refer to the below headings:
The following websites are a starting point to find Australian construction law information on the Internet. Also refer to websites for professional bodies for the various professions involved in construction industry eg Master Builders Queensland, Australian Institute of Architects, Engineers Australia, Housing Industry Association, Australian Institute of Building, Australian Constructors Association etc.
The Society of Construction Law Australia has made its extensive library of papers and other resources available to University of Southern Queensland students studying the LAW3473 Construction Law course. Contact your Course Coordinator to obtain the login details.
Refer to the above JADE World > Building and Construction topic to view related posts.
