Researching Secondary Law Resources

The Laws of Australia (Westlaw Australia)

The Laws of Australia legal encyclopaedia covers over 320 specific topics across 36 broad subject areas of Australian law. It states the core principles of the law around a legal topic and acts as a starting point for researching key legislative and case law.

The legal encyclopaedia and is available in print at both the Burwood and Waterfront campus libraries, and online on theWestlaw Australia database.

Accessing Westlaw Australia

Access to the Westlaw Australia subscription database is via a single sign-on system. This means that it recognises users as individual Deakin users.

1. Go to the Westlaw Australia database homepage via the Library A-Z databases.
2. If this is the first time that you are accessing Westlaw Australia and you see the below Microsoft sign in screen, enter your @deakin email address and click on Next.
   NOTE: Do not create a login, or use a personal Microsoft or gmail email, or your mobile phone number.
   
    
3. You will then be redirected to the usual Deakin Single Sign on screen. Enter your Deakin login credentials at this point and it will take you through to the Westlaw Australia database.

You should only need to do this process once, or if you clear your Internet browser's history or cache.

Browsing The Laws of Australia subject headings

1. Go to the Westlaw Australia database homepage via the Library's A-Z databases.  
2. On the Westlaw Australia homepage select the link to The Laws of Australia.
   
   
    
3. On the Table of Contents, browse for the subject heading you are researching. Click on the + signs next to the relevant subject heading to expand the headings and then select the relevant sub-heading title link or click on Chapter View.
   
   

Searching The Laws of Australia subject headings

1. Go to the Westlaw Australia database homepage via the Library's A-Z databases and select The Laws of Australia as illustrated above.
2. On The Laws of Australia home page, you can tick the box next to the relevant subject heading and search just within that Chapter title.
   
   

Using The Laws of Australia Advanced Search

1. Go to the Westlaw Australia database homepage via the Library's A-Z databases and select The Laws of Australia as illustrated above.
2. On The Laws of Australia homepage, select Advanced on the top right of the screen.
   
   
    
3. Use the form templates to type in your search terms. This example uses the phrase “postal rule” in the Legal Principle box.
    
   

   Note

   Note the Connectors and Expanders help column on the right side of the screen.
    

   
   
    
4. Click on the title of the content to view the full text of that entry.
   Note: the square brackets are paragraph numbers. Content in The Laws of Australia is organised by paragraph numbers.
   
   

Viewing The Laws of Australia content

1. Once you are viewing the full text of an encyclopaedia entry, you will see on the left where you are located within this Chapter title. This gives you the opportunity to browse up or down to other paragraph numbers within this Chapter title.
   
   
    
2. Above the paragraph title, there are options to annotate, deep-link, save to folder, download, email or print, the full text content of this paragraph entry.