Library Guides: Law: Legislation

Introduction to legislation

Legislation is laws made by Parliament and comprises:

Acts (also called statutes) which may be amended later by Amending Acts or Amendments
Subordinate or delegated legislation (including regulations, rules, by-laws, ordinances, orders and legislative instruments) drafted by authorised bodies such as government departments, local councils and universities

Finding Legislation by Citation

1. Determine the jurisdiction - indicated at the end of the citation in brackets. For example, Freedom of Information Act 1982 (Cth) is an Act from the Australian (Commonwealth) Parliament.

2. Find the legislation online - go to the database for the relevant jurisdiction. There will be options to browse by legislation type, such as Bill, Act, Delegated Legislation and so on.

Australian legislation by jurisdiction

Hansards

Hansards are the official edited reports of parliamentary proceedings, including debates related to legislation. Click below to find Hansards for each jurisdiction in Australia

International legislation

For a more comprehensive list of International Law resources, please see the International Law Library Guide.

CommonLII
The Commonwealth Legal Information Institute aims to provide one central platform for the free searching of core legal information from all Commonwealth countries.
WorldLII
World Legal Information Institute. Free, independent source of information on worldwide law from over 200 countries, as well as international law.
Legislation.gov.uk
United Nations Official Document System
The Official Document System (ODS) is an online database of UN documents in full-text, born-digital UN documents published from 1993 onward, including documents of the Security Council, the General Assembly, the Economic and Social Council and their subsidiaries, as well as administrative issuances and other documents. The database also includes scanned documents published between 1946 and 1993, including all resolutions of the principal organs, all documents of the Security Council and the General Assembly Official Records.
AfricanLII
Links to the Legislation for the countries of Africa.

Legislation

Multijurisdictional legislation databases

AustLII
Australasian Legal Information Institute - over 700 databases from all Australian jurisdictions.
Lawlex
Bills, Acts, Regulations and Second Reading Speeches - all Australian jurisdictions.
LawNow Legislation
A LexisNexis database of Australian legislation. Browse by jurisdiction or topic. Each Act includes a detailed Legislative and Bill history, with links to Second Reading Speeches, Explanatory
Memoranda and historical versions.
TimeBase LawOne
Includes access to full text legislation across all nine Australian jurisdictions, including amending, subordinate and repealed legislation, Bills, Explanatory Memoranda and Second Reading Speeches along with detailed legislative histories. Updated daily.

The Australian Constitution

Link here to the Australian Constitution