Skip to Main Content

University Library

Case Law: Judicially considered legislation

This Guides provides information relating to how to look for specific Cases, using different methods. It also includes links to various databases, to enable you locate Australian Case Law and Cases from other Jurisdictions.

Judicially considered legislation

In the CaseBase search form, type the title of the Legislation in the Legislation Title field, and the provision / section in the Provision Number field.

NOTE: because citation abbreviations are not standardised, don't use "s" or "ss" or "section" as part of the search.

Alternatively, you can use the single search box on the home page of Lexis+ and conduct this search:

"criminal code act compilation act 1913" w/s 27

At times you may want to explore if a section of an Act has been considered / cited in cases by the Courts. This can be done very easily in Westlaw AU.

To find out how, please have a look at this video, by clicking on the image. Please note: after you click on the image, you will be taken to Westlaw AU's Training Support page. To watch the video, click on the white play button. 

 

For more information on how you can search for cases that cite a section of an act, you can also check out this Westlaw Guide. 

LawNow Legislation in Lexis+ offers links to information in CaseBase and Halsbury's Laws of Australia. You can link directly from a legislative provision to cases considering that provision.

To locate references you can use LawNow in Lexis+ for whole acts or specific provisions.

Method 1:

  1. Click on the addition sign situated to the left to the word Legislation
  2. Click the blue Jurisdictions link 
  3. Select the Jurisdiction you require from the All Jurisdictions Homepage list
  4. Select All Acts by Title in the Acts column
  5. Browse alphabetically for the Act you wish to research
  6. Select the relevant Act you are researching
  7. Scroll down to the section / provision you are interested in
  8. Click on the blue View Legislation Citator link to display Cases citing the provision - NB: the Cases are listed in the Cases Activity area. Bonus: When you conduct this search, you may also be able to find relevant commentary in relation to the section!

NOTE: Please keep in mind the relative age of the Case in relation to the legislative provision. The current provision may have been amended since it was considered by the case/s.

Method 2:

 

Find Australian cases

Banner images: Image 1 retrieved from Pixabay. Image 2 by UWA Library. Image 3 retrieved from SBS. Image 4 retrieved from SL Blogs. Image 5 retrieved from Wikimedia.

CONTENT LICENCE

 Except for logos, Canva designs or where otherwise indicated, content in this guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Licence.