Skip to Main Content

JCU logoLibrary Guides

Law Guide: Getting Started

Find targeted resources for legal research
Welcome to the Law Guide at JCU Library. The purpose of this guide is to provide students with a home-base for their legal research. The list below is not exhaustive, and students are encouraged to explore and navigate the different tabs and sub-sections listed at the top of this page. Any feedback on the content of the guide is strongly encouraged to improve services into the future.

Key Databases

Finding case law. Click here to be taken to the finding cases page. This can also be accessed via top navigation and is linked below.

Case law may be referred to as judgments or decisions, and sometimes reasons or orders. These are written decisions given by a Judge.

You can find case law online on court websites or AustLII which provide unreported decisions of cases. At JCU Library, we subscribe to databases which provide the authorised version of judgments published in law report series as well as unreported decisions.

Click on the image above or link below to be guided to options for accessing case law from JCU Library and beyond.

Finding legislation and related material. Click here to be taken to the finding legislation page. This can also be accessed via top navigation and is linked below.

Legislation and other related materials, including bills, explanatory memorandum, second reading speeches, and other parliamentary documents are available freely from government websites in their respective jurisdiction.

Acts, or statutes, are primary sources of law. It is important to ensure you are using the most up-to-date version of legislation.

Click on the image above or link below to be guided to options for accessing legislation from JCU Library and beyond.

Finding secondary sources. Click here to be taken to the finding secondary sources page. This can also be accessed via top navigation and is linked below.

Secondary sources such as commentaries, dictionaries & encyclopedias, books, and journal articles are an important step when conducting legal research.

We recommend these resources as a starting point to your research. Secondary sources will provide information about key areas of law and will point you to primary law such as cases and legislation.

Click on the image above or link below to be guided to various secondary sources available from JCU Library.

We acknowledge the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first inhabitants of the nation and acknowledge Traditional Owners of the lands where our staff and students, live, learn and work.Acknowledgement of Country

Creative Commons Licence
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 International License, unless otherwise noted. Content from this Guide should be attributed to James Cook University Library. This does not apply to images, third party material (seek permission from the original owner) or any logos or insignia belonging to JCU or other bodies, which remain All Rights Reserved.

.