Environmental Law at Murdoch Library   Tags: enivironment, law, legal, resources  

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This guide is intended to help you find material on environmental law, especially the unit Environmental Policy and Law ENV228/528, including some of the specialized resources such as

• second reading speeches,
• bills,
• acts,
• treaties and
• law reports.

Most of this material is housed in the Law Collection in the South Wing 3 of the Library, or available electronically from Journal Articles and Databases or the Internet.

At all times of the year a general reference service, staffed by librarians with a range of subject specialties operates from the Reference Desk at the front of the library. At certain times of the year a Legal Research Assistance Desk (Law), staffed by senior law students, operates on Level 3 of the South Wing.

A map of the law library is available at the Legal Assistance Desk. This explains the layout of the collection and introduces you to the main resources.

Legal materials may be classified as either primary or secondary sources of information.

Primary sources consist of the authoritative text of the law and include bills; legislation (acts or statutes of parliament); subordinate legislation, which consists of rules, regulations and by-laws; law reports, which are reports of decisions of courts on points of law; and treaties, which are agreements between the governments of two or more countries.

Secondary sources consist of materials that comment, and interprete (usually) primary sources. They include legal dictionaries and encyclopedias, guides and handbooks, text books, journals and indexes to journal articles.

When conducting legal research it is often helpful to begin with secondary sources, which will give you an overview of your topic and lead you to the relevant primary sources.

The Law and its language can be complex and unfamiliar. Use the following glossaries to quickly find meaning. Also use the Reference Resources for more comprehensive coverage.