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Law Subject Guide

Find online and print resources for law

While it's tempting to search for legislation via Google, you must be able to identify which version of legislation you access. Look for a currency statement, date or a note such as latest or in force (vs superseded or no longer in force).

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Key legislative research tasks

 

Current legislation

You will generally need to access current versions of legislation. These versions:
 
  • incorporate amendments made since the Act was passed by Parliament, or the delegated legislation was made by the authorised body, up until the reprint date
  • are also known as 'in force', reprints, consolidations or compilations
  • are available on official government legislation websites
  • are often organised alphabetically by short title.

The term ‘reprint’ may also refer to a set of Acts, reprinted as at a specific date in the past. These are historical, eg the Acts of the Australian Parliament 1901–1973 (12 volumes) includes all Commonwealth Acts as they stood in 1974.

Legislation as made

At times you may need to access legislation as it stood when it was first passed/made. These versions:
 
  • do not include subsequent amendments
  • may also be known as Acts as passed, sessional or numbered Acts (for Acts of Parliament). These are often accessed by year and number, eg Act number 40 of 2005.
  • are available on official government legislation websites although historical coverage varies. AustLII includes historical legislation eg Queensland Historical Acts 1867-1963
Acts of Parliament
 
  • also known as an Act or statute
  • laws passed by Parliament that have received Royal Assent.

Delegated legislation
 
  • Acts often contain provisions authorising specific bodies to create related delegated legislation
  • also known as subordinate or secondary legislation
  • the Federal Register of Legislation uses the terms legislative instruments and notifiable instruments - see the Glossary
  • the Statutory Instruments Act 1992 (Qld) defines subordinate legislation and related terms for Queensland
  • types of subordinate legislation include rules, orders, regulations, determinations, policies etc
  • generally deals with technicalities, detailed rules or regulations relating to the authorising Act's subject matter.
Identifying the date an Act came/comes into force. Individual provisions may commence on different dates.
 
  1. Read the commencement provision within the current reprint.
  2. In the absence of a commencement provision, or if it does not include dates, refer to the endnotes or legislative history.
  3. LawNow Legislation in Lexis Advance / Lexis+ Australia includes commencement information as part of an Act's Legislative History.

Automatic commencement provisions in Acts Interpretation Acts may apply where Acts do not expressly provide for commencement.
Researching legislative changes may include when a provision was inserted or how it has changed over time. When considering facts that occurred in the past, it may be necessary to identify how legislation stood at that point.
 
  • Reprint endnotes or legislative history include annotations summarising changes to provisions.
  • Read the text of the amending Act to view exactly how a provision changed.
  • Timelines, 'point in time' options and superseded versions show Acts as they stood at a point in the past.
Reprints consolidating amendments are published quickly online and are usually up-to-date. However, the ability to confirm commenced amendments have been incorporated into a reprint, and identify future amendments, are essential skills. This includes:
  • pending amendments that are yet to commence, eg they have not been proclaimed into force yet
  • proposed amendments in current Bills that may change Acts in the future.
Read the text of amending Acts/Bills to view exact changes.

LawNow Legislation in Lexis Advance / Lexis+ Australia shows pending amendments in the Legislative History and flags Bills. Government legislation websites also provide this information.
Use these resources to locate repealed Australian legislation (i.e. removed – no longer in force), or to access superseded Act reprints to view how an Act stood at a point in the past:
 
  • LawNow Legislation in Lexis Advance / Lexis+ Australia contains certain repealed and superseded legislation from all Australian jurisdictions. See ‘Repealed Acts’, ‘Repealed SubLeg’ and ‘Historical Versions’
  • Government legislation websites
  • AustLII website