Key Books
Listed below is a selection of useful legal research textbooks which can be used in addition to your prescribed resources.
If you need help with accessing e-books check out the e-book's webpage.
Note
There are several key legal writing books. Explore the Legal Writing Skills page for key books and writing tips.
Legal Research
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Legal Research Skills: An Australian Law Guide (2025)
This guide is designed to support students undertaking legal studies and contribute to the development of research skills in Australian law schools. -
Laying down the law by David Harmer et al. (2024)
The 12th edition has been extensively revised throughout, including discussion on recent developments in case law and legislation, such as the Legislation Interpretation Act 2021 (SA) and continuing developments following the High Court's decision in Farah Constructions Pty Ltd v Say-Dee Pty Ltd. Other current issues, such as constitutional recognition of Australia's First Nations peoples and the implications for legal research and practice of the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence programs, are also considered. -
The New Lawyer by Nickolas James; Rachael Field; Jackson Walkden-Brown (2024)
The New Lawyer, 3rd Edition has been updated to ensure that first year law students do not feel overwhelmed by the transition to law school. This book addresses the law Threshold Learning Outcomes (TLOs) and outlines what students should know, understand and be able to do at the conclusion of their first year of study. -
Connecting with law by Michelle Sanson, Thalia Anthony (2022)
This book introduces students to the foundations of law in a thought-provoking way, challenging them to think critically, question ideas and connect with the law. -
Foundations of the Australian legal system : history, theory and practice by Augusto Zimmermann, Gabriël Moens (2023)
An introduction to the Australian legal system. Offering a wide range of topics found in most foundations of law units of study, this text covers the basic building blocks of the legal system, including the nature of law, legal referencing, a consideration of ‘precedent’ and the principles of statutory interpretation. It details the long history of the common law and describes the contribution of leading jurists to its development. -
Part one: Introduction -- Part two: Studying law in Australia -- Part three: Academic legal writing -- Part four: The Australian legal system -- Part five: Case law and precedents -- Part six: Legislation and Statutory interpretation -- Part seven: Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities -- Part eight: Secondary sources of law -- Part nine: Legal referencing -- Part ten: The essential legal toolkit – Index.
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Understanding the Australian legal system by John Carvan (2022)
This book is an ideal text for first year law students and those studying legal concepts at secondary school. It also assumes no prior knowledge of the subject, making it a great resource for students in other disciplines requiring a concise introduction to Australian law. Presented in an easy-to-read format that complements the book’s emphasis on clearly explained basic principles. -
Nemes and Coss' effective legal research (2021)
This practical book is an indispensable guide to mastering the techniques and strategies that are vital for successful legal research and writing. The authors canvass a wide variety of electronic and print based resources relevant to Australian law and provide worked examples based on contextual problems and pointers to potential dangers. Helpful illustrations, flowcharts and diagrams familiarise readers with the environment in which they will be undertaking research
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Essential Skills for First Year Law Students by Samantha Kontra (2022)
This book describes and teaches essential legal skills and is designed to accompany a first year level introductory course taught to law students. Content is structured in an approachable way and tips and tricks are included so skills can be honed while also absorbing the whole of the first year curriculum.
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Learning Law by Anthony Marinac et al (2021)
Learning Law is an accessible and engaging introduction to Australian law for students considering a career in the legal profession. This text teaches students how to deal with legislation and cases, focusing on core topics and contextualisation.
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Statutory interpretation : principles and context by Kath Hall, Claire Macken (2021)
Statutory interpretation has become the most important aspect of legal practice in Australia today, with many areas of law determined solely by statute. A strong understanding of the law and principles of statutory interpretation is essential for studying and practising law. This text provides readers with an up-to-date analysis on the process and principles of statutory interpretation in Australia, together with a discussion on the Australian legislative process and how legislation operates. -
Modern statutory interpretation : framework, principles and practice by Jeffrey Barnes et al (2023)
Statutory interpretation is both a distinct body of law governing the determination of the meaning of legislation and a task that requires a set of skills. It is thus an essential area of legal practice, education and research. Modern Statutory Interpretation: Framework, Principles and Practice is an original, clear, coherent and research-based account of contemporary Australian statutory interpretation. Written by experts in the field, the book provides a comprehensive coverage of statutory interpretation law as well as examining related areas. -
A practical guide to legal research by Jay Sanderson, Kim Kelly (2021)
A Practical Guide to Legal Research, 5th Edition, is a concise and accessible guide to legal research. It presents the essential skills of legal research in Australian Law and International Law, and provides focused examples that allow readers immediate practice. The Guide moves logically through the process of legal research by actually showing the reader how to do legal research, so is therefore an ideal resource for law students, legal information professionals and legal professionals.
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Legal Referencing by Anita Stuhmke (2019)
Correct legal referencing is an essential skill for students, academics and other legal writers. In this indispensable guide, the author explains the ‘hows and whys’ of good legal referencing and writing. In this fifth edition, the author discusses how to cite legal and non-legal sources. The citation requirements of the fourth edition of the Australian Guide to Legal Citation are clearly explained. Additionally, ‘how to’ examples are provided together with a discussion of citation management systems.
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Context and Method in Australian Law by Russell Hinchey (2019)
This textbook takes an innovative and novel approach to the teaching and learning of first-year law students. It is underpinned by active student learning though an inquiry-guided learning approach.
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Understanding how to go about solving legal problems is a critical skill law students require in order to achieve success at law school and later in professional practice. This innovative text is a guide to developing students' critical thinking in solving legal problems through the application of the principles of logic. The authors explain how syllogistic analysis provides the underlying basis for legal problem solving using the IRAC method commonly taught in foundation law studies.
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Legislation and statutory interpretation by Kath Hall, Claire Macken (2015)
Covers the relevance of legislation and statutory interpretation; legislation as a primary source of law ; the format of legislation; the legislative process ; the courts' approach to interpretation ; answering problem questions; how to research legislation.
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Foundations of Australian Law by Callie Harvey (2017)
Foundations of Australian Law is pitched exactly at the right level - in terms of both content and language - for business students, for law students, and for international students. This fifth edition has been fully updated to include changes in the law.
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Principles and practice of Australian law by Jennifer Greaney (2020)
As with previous editions, one of the book’s main aims is to provide an engaging introduction to the law that teaches foundational skills and knowledge while encouraging students to think broadly and critically about the law, their study of it and how they might put it to use.
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Western Legal Traditions by Martin Vranken (2015)
The rule of law constitutes the hallmark of contemporary Western society. However, public perceptions and attitudes to the law can vary in space and time. This book explores legal solutions to selected problem scenarios in their broader historical, economic, political and societal context. The focus is on the legal traditions of civil law and common law.
Exam Writing
Successfully navigating the particular requirements of law school and legal study can be challenging, even for the most capable of students. Mastering Law Studies and Law Exam Techniques de-mystifies the process of studying law and provides the foundations for law school success.
Now in its second edition, author Claire Macken draws on her experience as both a student and lecturer in law to provide practical study skills suggestions for university law students.
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Essential Skills for First Year Law Students by Samantha Kontra (2022)
This book describes and teaches essential legal skills and is designed to accompany a first year level introductory course taught to law students. Content is structured in an approachable way and tips and tricks are included so skills can be honed while also absorbing the whole of the first year curriculum.
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How to Write Law Essays and Exams by S. I. Strong (2018)
How to Write Law Essays and Exams provides law students with a practical and proven method of analysing and answering essay and exam questions. The book focuses on those questions that give students the most trouble, namely problem questions, but its techniques are equally applicable to other types of essays.
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This popular work by experienced law teachers continues to offer law students succinct but essential practical advice on to how to prepare well researched and written work required for assessment in law courses and the strategies for effective preparation and sitting of law exams.
Advanced Research Methods
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Researching and writing in law by Terry Hutchinson (2018)
Researching and Writing in Law, 4th Edition includes an updated legal research guide. It maps the developments that have occurred and provides keys to the fundamental electronic sources of legal research, as well as exploring traditional doctrinal methodologies. Included in this edition are extensive checklists for locating and validating the law in Australia, England, Canada, the United States and New Zealand as well as China, India and the European Union.
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Featuring contributions from a diverse set of experts, this thought-provoking book offers a visionary introduction to the computational turn in law and the resulting emergence of the computational legal studies field. It explores how computational data creation, collection, and analysis techniques are transforming the way in which we comprehend and study the law, and the implications that this has for the future of legal studies.
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Empirical legal research : a primer by Kees van den Bos (2020)
This exciting textbook introduces the basic tenets and methodologies of empirical legal research. Explaining how to initiate and conduct empirical research projects, how to evaluate the methods used and how to analyze and engage with the results, Kees van den Bos provides a vibrant and reliable primer for students and practitioners looking to engage actively in legal research.
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Empirical Legal Research by Frans L. Leeuw; R. Jennissen; Hans Schmeets (2016)
Empirical Legal Research describes how to investigate the roles of legislation, regulation, legal policies and other legal arrangements at play in society. It is invaluable as a guide to legal scholars, practitioners and students on how to do empirical legal research, covering history, methods, evidence, growth of knowledge and links with normativity. This multidisciplinary approach combines insights and approaches from different social sciences, evaluation studies, Big Data analytics and empirically informed ethics.
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An introduction to empirical legal research by Lee Epstein & Andrew D. Martin (2014)
An Introduction to Empirical Legal Research introduces that methodology in a legal context, explaining how empirical analysis can inform legal arguments; how lawyers can set about framing empirical questions, conducting empirical research, analyzing data, and presenting or evaluating the results. The fundamentals of understanding quantitative and qualitative data, statistical models, and the structure of empirical arguments are explained in a way accessible to lawyers with or without formal training in statistics.
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Research methods for law by Mike McConville and Wing Hong Chui (editors) (2017)
This text introduces undergraduates and postgraduate students to available methods of research - legalistic, empirical, comparative, and theoretical - drawing on actual research projects as examples.
Professional Legal Skills
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Practical Legal Skills : Developing your clinical technique by Ross Hyams (2022)
Practical Legal Skills is an established and respected handbook for those engaged in legal training at all levels. Written by an expert author team, it covers the practical skills of lawyering, including interviewing, advising, advocacy, writing and drafting, and negotiation and mediation.
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The Law Clinic Experience: A Guidebook for Students by Francina Cantatore (2023)
This book aims to equip law clinic students with useful knowledge, skills, tips and know-how to make the most of their law clinic experience and how to develop important employability skills for future success, whether in the legal profession or related pursuits. By sharing professional and industry insights such as best practices and research results on the positive effects of practice-based learning techniques demonstrated by law students, the book aims to inform and benefit law students at any point of their clinic journey, irrespective of the type of clinical experience they engage in. -
Advocacy in Practice by James Glissan (2020)
This highly esteemed work, now in its 35th year of publication, has once again been written by the authoritative and well-respected author James L Glissan QC, and provides useful and practical checklists for examination, cross and address.
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Learning to Litigate : A Guide for Young Lawyers by Neil Williams SC & Alison Hammond (2022)
It is sometimes said that great advocates are born, not made. The central tenet of this book is that such assertions are dangerous nonsense. Modern litigation is a sophisticated business, requiring a wide range of organisational, procedural, presentational and technical legal skills. Whether it be a plea of guilty before a magistrate or a multi-party commercial dispute involving billions of dollars and dozens of lawyers for each party, each stage in the preparation and presentation of a case requires skills that must be learned, then horned. -
A Practical Guide to Lawyering Skills by Fiona Boyle (Editor); Deveral Capps (Editor) (2019)
Legal skills are an important and increasing part of undergraduate law degrees as well as postgraduate vocational law courses. This fully updated fourth edition continues to bring together the theory and practice of these skills in an accessible and practical context. The authors draw on their experience of teaching and of law in practice to develop the core skills taught on both undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Skills covered include: written communication; mediation; opinion writing; drafting; advocacy; interviewing; negotiation; legal research.
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Professional judgment for lawyers by Randall Kiser (2023)
Written by the leading authority on legal decision making, Professional Judgment for Lawyers integrates empirical legal research, cognitive and social psychology, organizational behavior, legal ethics, and neuroscience to understand and improve decision making by attorneys, clients, judges, arbitrators, mediators, and juries. -
This book addresses the difficult decisions in the life of law students, graduates and young law professionals in deciding the area of legal practice to pursue as a career. This book is a practical guide for any student or current lawyer who is deciding and evaluating their future legal profession.
Law schools currently do an excellent job of helping students to 'think like a lawyer,' but empirical data show that clients, legal employers, and the legal system need students to develop a wider range of competencies. This book helps legal educators to understand these competencies and provides practical ways to build them into a law school curriculum.
- What is the 'It'? : A Handbook for Proofing Court Judgments by Stan Emmerson (2023)
Each year sees a fresh intake of judges' associates to Australia's courts. The proofing of judgments before publication is one of the most important of the many jobs they will be asked to do. It is also one of the most difficult. And yet the associate might have little or no experience in this task, and is likely to receive little, if any, training. This book exists to fill that gap.Proofing isn't just reading the judgment. It requires a particular mindset. It calls for focus and concentration, and attention to detail. And you have to know what you are looking for. This book highlights techniques for proofing a judgment effectively, things to watch out for, and traps that are easy to fall into. It also identifies many types of structural errors and ambiguities that appear frequently in judgments, and answers citation questions that won't necessarily be addressed by the court style guide.You will never look at the word "it" in the same way again.The author is uniquely positioned to write this book, having worked closely with a generation of associates to High Court judges. In a sense, the book is a distillation of all of the conversations he has had, and the questions he has most frequently found himself answering, over that time.