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Law Resource Guide

Finding Information and Legal Citation Guide

For help on how to find journals in the law library click here

For help in locating and utilising material in the Law Library please follow this link to the Guide to Legal Research

Finding background information

Reference books, such as dictionaries, encyclopaedias and handbooks are a useful starting point for your research. The Reference collection in the Law Library is located opposite the Biomedicine and Law Information Support Desk.
Dictionaries provide definitions, and help you to understand the terminology.

RK124.K1 AUST	Australian Legal Words and Phrases
RK127 BLAC 2004	Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed. 2004
RK127 NYGH-3	Butterworths Australian Legal Dictionary, 1997
RK127 OSBO 2005	Osborn's Concise Law Dictionary, 10th ed. 2005
yourdictionary.com	Online law dictionaries and other language resources.

Encyclopaedias give a general overview of a topic, and may also provide a list of useful references

Encyclopaedia of Forms & Precedents - online via LexisNexisAU
Halsbury's Laws of Australia - online via LexisNexisAU
The Laws of Australia - in print (Law Reserve KH51) and online via LawBook Online

Handbooks and Indexes

RK162.K2N NEW 2007	New South Wales law almanac
RKL27.K2N LAWH 2007	The law handbook : your practical guide to the law in NSW

RK112.K1 FONG 1995	Australian and New Zealand Legal Abbreviations, 1995
RK445 RAIS 1993	Index to Legal Citations and Abbreviations, 2nd ed. 1993

The School of Law uses AGLC2 style to identify the source of ideas, quotes etc… used. Australian Guide to Legal Citation / Melbourne University. V iew or download AGLC2 here

Finding books, audiovisual, etc.

Printed material for Law is mainly located in the Auchmuty Library on the Callaghan Campus.
The Law Library uses the Moys Classification System .Law Journals are arranged alphabetically by title and have a K1 prefix. Textbooks cover the prefixes KA-KE, KL-KN, KR-KZ. For a detailed synopsis of the Moys scheme CLICK HERE

Browsing the shelves may be useful in certain circumstances, but to ensure that you have your topic covered, you should search the Library catalogue, NEWCAT. If you have a reading list, then find items by title and/or author.
To find books and audiovisual material on a particular topic, use the Subject or Word search options in NEWCAT.

Often a Word search is the easiest way to find suitable items. Type keywords related to your topic and the catalogue will search for your terms in the title, author, notes and subject heading fields. Separate the words using and e.g.

Native and Title and Australia

When you find a useful book, check the subject headings given to it. This will help with further searching.
NB: NEWCAT uses Library of Congress Subject Headings, alternate entry points will appear when American spelling and terminology is used.

Specialised sources of law information

Digests

KH51 A3	The Australian Digest now available via Firstpoint
KF85 D1	The Digest (UK)
KF85 H4	Halsbury's Laws of England 4th Ed
KG382 AMER	American Jurisprudence 2d.
KG382 FEDE- 4	West's Federal Practice Digest 4th Ed.

Directories

K151.A81 AUST	Australian Law Students Directory, 2001-
RK151.A1 AUST	Australian Legal Directory, 2006
RK151.A82 WARN 2001	Legal Profiles 2001-2002