Legal resources are broken into two categories Secondary and Primary. In general, when starting your legal research, it's good to start with secondary resources which will help you identify the primary resources you'll need to refer to. Secondary resources include:
- legal encyclopedias and dictionaries
- books,
- journal articles,
- legal commentaries and
- government documents - explanatory notes, 2nd reading speeches and law reform documents.
Secondary resources help us to understand, analyse and interpret the relevant Primary source material (legislation and case law) for your issues.
Before you start your legal research, it is useful to plan a search strategy. You should:
- Identify your search terms - consider the keywords and phrases that best describe the legal issues in your scenario.
- Identify alternative search words (synonyms) - legal dictionaries and encyclopedias can help you do this.
- Consider any search parameters - do you need to limit your search to a particular jurisdiction or point in time?
- Decide what type of secondary source you are looking for - e.g. journal articles.
