NOTICE: This guide is currently under review, with a new guide to be launched before Semester 1, 2025. In the meantime, please direct any queries or feedback about this guide to the Library's Digital Experience via our Enquiry and Feedback form.
It is important for you to become familiar with one of the main starting points for legal research: encyclopaedias.
Encyclopaedia contain broad overviews of a subject area, and give some structure to further research and study.
They are an excellent source of finding relevant primary legal sources such as cases and legislation.
As a student you should take time to look at the contents pages of a book or chapter.
Consider the notion that a table of contents is a conceptual map or framework of the key elements of a subject - it can point out the components of a particular area of law.
When should you use an encyclopaedia?
Legal encyclopaedias can be useful tools for legal research, particularly in the beginning stages of research. Specialist encyclopaedia provide an overview of the topic you are researching.
Ideally you should read an encyclopaedia to see a topic in context and to gain an overview of the main concepts, historic turning points and references to key authorities.
The key authorities referred to in legal encyclopaedia are primary materials - cases and legislation.
Sometimes a book may be so well regarded that it is also be included in the list of authorities, although it will never be considered a primary statement of the law.
An encyclopaedia is a very important starting point for your research, but never the end point.
The arrangement and structure of the two Australian legal encyclopaedia vary considerably.
Look at them both and work out what the differences are, which you prefer and why you prefer one over the other.
In this topic your task is to use the two Australian legal encyclopaedia and consider them as potential starting points for your research.
The two encyclopaedia are Halsbury's Laws of Australia (available via the database, Lexis Advance) and The Laws of Australia (available via the database Westlaw Australia).
Read the information below and work through the exercise steps to become familiar with accessing and using these two encyclopaedia.
Start Research with a Legal Encyclopaedia
Start your research using a legal encyclopaedia.
The articles provide a summary of a concept or issue, as well as relevant legislation and case law.
Halsbury's Laws of Australia on Lexis Advance
Research topic: Find information about the power and duties of solicitors in relation to wills.
Use Library Search to access this encyclopaedia by typing in the title
Example: "Halsbury's Laws of Australia"
To access Halsbury's Laws of Australia you must access the Lexis Advance database.
Step 1: Under the Publications list on the right-hand side of the screen, locate Halsbury's Laws of Australia.
You may need to click on More and scroll down to find it.
Once you have found Halsbury's Laws of Australia, click on the title.
Step 2: Select Go to Advanced Search from the resulting dropdown menu.
If you wish to browse this encyclopaedia instead, select View Table of Contents.
Step 3: Enter your search terms into the red-bordered search box at the top of the page and click on the magnifying glass symbol to search.
We are looking to find some information about the power and duties of solicitors in relation to wills - use these search terms:
will and "powers and duties"
You will find more than 100 results.
This is too many to easily handle and so you should narrow your search to decrease the number of search results.
Step 4: Narrow your results by entering additional search terms into the Search Within Results box on the left-hand side of the page.
Our original question was to "Find information about the power and duties of solicitors in relation to wills.
An obvious term to add to your search based on this question is solicitor.
However, if you simply add solicitor as a search term, you might miss discussion about solicitors (in the plural).
To find discussion about a solicitor or solicitors, you use a truncator.
In Lexis Advance, the truncator used is an exclamation mark.
Therefore, if you narrow your original search by adding the term solicit! the database will look for results within the original 100+ items you found, which also contain the words solicitor or solicitors.
After narrowing your search you will have decreased the results down to around 30 results.
The result we will look at now is the result entitled:
(B) Seeking Advice under Trustee Legislation
Clicking on this title will take you directly to the relevant section of the encyclopaedia.
It will look like the screen shot below.
You will notice the title of the paragraph, its currency (i.e. when it was last updated) and its number.
Also note the footnotes in the paragraph (not shown here, but you will see them when you look at the database itself).
Footnotes are used liberally to reference and support the statements made within the paragraph.
The footnotes themselves can be found at the end of the paragraph and refer you to primary sources such as legislation and cases: e.g. Trustees Act 1962 (WA).
The Laws of Australia on Westlaw Australia
Use Library Search to access this encyclopaedia by typing in the title
Example: "Laws of Australia"
Filter the Results to only content available as Full Text Online
Click on the link to Full text Online in The Laws of Australia result
The Laws of Australia on Westlaw Australia
If you recall that The Laws of Australia encyclopaedia is available on the Westlaw Australia database, you can access Westlaw Australia, then select the link to The Laws of Australia from the list of Content Types on the home page.
Research topic: Find information about the duty of care for solicitors in relation to wills.
Search The Laws of Australia |
Browse The Laws of Australia |
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Step 1: Select Advanced Search
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Step 1: The chapters in The Laws of Australia are arranged alphabetically. Navigate down the list to
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Step 2: Complete search fields: All of these terms field: wills AND "duty of care" Legislation Cited (Title) field: "Wills Act 1970"
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Step 2: Expand relevant Chapters by clicking on +
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Step 3: Click on the magnifying glass icon to Search |
This is a more serendipitous way to arrive at a relevant paragraph. However, if you are unsure of your search words, expanding chapters can prompt you in the right direction. |
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Step 4: The results screen will show you a wide variety of information including:
At the time of writing, this search returned only 1 result. Navigate down the Results list and locate the paragraph with the number 36.3.1040. Click on the paragraph title: [36.3.1040] Executors, in their capacity as executors, owe a general duty of care to beneficiaries of the estate. |
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Step 5: The top of the paragraph shows you the 'breadcrumb' or path within the Laws of Australia. This is valuable to you as it provides you with a conceptual map of where you are within the encyclopaedia. Selecting the paragraph title will also change the left side of the screen, opening up the hierarchical table of contents for the encyclopaedia. |
Once you have accessed the paragraph [36.3.1040] make a note of a few features:
- Details of the paragraph number will be reiterated under Citation.
- The currency of the paragraph is given under Current as at.
- The Document Path is given, which provides a conceptual map of where you are within the encyclopaedia.
- You will also see the content of the paragraph and the related footnotes.
The footnotes provide details of the primary sources of law which are relevant to this paragraph.
You should never quote from a legal encyclopaedia.
Instead, you should quote directly from the primary sources of law given in the footnotes.
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