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Self Paced Lesson - Legislation - Subject Guide: Commentary

 

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.

 

Legal commentary services provide comprehensive coverage of a specific area of law, such as criminal law, administrative law, contract, etc., and include learned opinion, terminology, legislation and case law to discuss, understand, interpret and inform on legal concepts and issues.

Commentary is authored by legal experts to keep legal practitioners, migration agents and government officers informed of key legal developments.

Commentary (also known as loose-leaf or updating services) is written about proposed and enacted changes to the law (acts and delegated legislation), significant cases, legal trends, submissions to government - any topic that impacts on interpreting and practising law.

Commentary is published for the professional practitioner market and has a very practical focus.
As such, they are useful in understanding how the law is applied in practice.

The print version of commentary were called 'looseleaf' publications, as they were updated on a regular basis.
Updating was done by issuing new loose pages which add to, or replace previous pages of the publication. 

Even though these services are available online there has been little change in the format, presentation and content from the printed versions.

There are three major databases containing legal commentary in Australia:

  • CCH IntelliConnect (contract, torts, family, tax, corporations law and more)
  • Lexis Advance (corporations, insurance, family, native title, evidence, wills and more)
  • Westlaw Australia (criminal law, equity, evidence and more)

 

Legal Subject Collections and Commentary lists commentary on legal topics from each of the main databases.

 

Tip:

Use Library Search to find which database provides access to a specific commentary.
For example, look for the commentary Commercial Contract Clauses will take you to Westlaw Australia.

Commentaries on Lexis Advance

Search

Your task: Search for commentary discussing the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (Cth).

Browse

Your task: Browse for information regarding the application of project management in relation to building contracts.

Step 1: 

Click on Advanced Search
Select Secondary Materials from the dropdown menu.

Step 1: 

Under the Publications list on the right-hand side of the screen,
select View all publications.

Step 2:

Enter the details of the Act in either:

Terms;  OR

References to Legislation by Title.

Then click on Search.

 Note: Do not search in both boxes at the same time.
This can negate the search and lead to no results!

 

You can also use the Terms search option to search for commentary on a particular topic by entering relevant search terms.

Step 2:

This will take you to an alphabetical listing of all of the commentaries held on Lexis Advance.
Scroll down until you find Building Contracts Australia (or use the alphabet across the top of the screen to see a list of commentaries beginning with B and select from there).
Click on the blue link to Table of Contents - Building Contracts Australia.

Step 3:

Look at the results list.  The left-hand panel will allow you to narrow the results.
Select Commentary from the Content type list to ensure your results are all from commentaries.
At the time of writing (2021), this reduces the number of results from 160 to 30.

 

Step 3:

This will open up the contents list for the commentary.
From here, select the + symbol next to Project Management.

Step 4: 

Look carefully at the commentary titles listed under Publication  in the Narrow By box.
You will see that the principle commentary dealing with the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (Cth) is the one that holds the largest number of entries relevant to your search.
Clicking on the title of a result will open the relevant commentary paragraph.

You can use the Search Within Results box to enter additional search terms when researching a particular topic.

Step 4: 

This will open up the introduction to the commentary to the section on project management, which includes a paragraph for Application.  
You will find the paragraph number in square brackets next to the paragraph heading.
On the left-hand side of the page you will see a tab for the Table of Contents.
Clicking on this tab will open the contents for this commentary.
From here you can jump to different sections of the commentary by clicking on the links.

Step 5:

Try both search options (Search Terms and References to Legislation by Title) to determine which is the principal commentary on Lexis Advance dealing with the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (Cth) - in this case, Halsbury's Laws of Australia.

Note: A Legislation Title search only gives results for annotated legislation, not commentary.  It is therefore not a relevant result for your search.

  

 

Journal Articles Referencing Legislation

Journal articles also provide commentary on legislation

 

Step 1:

Select the Legislation tab in the Quick Find box

Step 1:

Select Advanced Search - Secondary Materials

Step 2:

Enter the Act title and provision number

Example: Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) s.35

Select Search

Step 2:

Navigate down the Advanced Search template to the

References to Legislation by Title and References to Legislation by Provision Number

Enter the Act title and provision number

Example: Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) s.35

Select Search

Step 3:

Select the relevant Result

Step 3:

Results can be narrowed by Content Type to filter only journal articles

Note: At the time of writing, the Lexis Advance did not have any journal articles referencing this section of the Act

Step 4:

Navigate to the relevant section

  

Step 5:

Select the link to the Legislation Citator, located on the right of screen

  

Step 6:

Select Secondary Materials from the menu

Note: At the time of writing, the LawNow database did not have any journal articles referencing this section of the Act

  

 

Commentaries on Westlaw Australia

Research topic: 

The Lawyers Practice Manual Western Australia on Westlaw Australia is a research service designed to assist WA legal practitioners.

You can either browse or search for relevant information in this commentary.

 

Search

Your task: Search for commentary discussing the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (Cth).

Search

Your task: Search for information about drafting a will which includes discussion of guardianship

Browse

Your task: Use the Lawyers Practice Manual WA commentary on Westlaw Australia to browse for information regarding drafting a will.

Step 1: 

Select Content Type Secondary Sources

Step 1: 

Select Content Type Secondary Sources

Step 1: 

Select Content Type Secondary Sources

Step 2: 

Select Advanced Search

Step 2: 

Select   By Type   Commentary

Step 2: 

Select   By Type   Commentary

Step 3: 

Complete search fields:

All of these terms field:
    "Australian Citizenship Act 2007"

OR

Legislation Cited (Title) field:
    "Australian Citizenship Act 2007"

Note: Do not search in all three boxes at the same time.
This can negate the search and lead to no results!

Step 3: 

Navigate down the alphabetical list to 

Lawyers Practice Manual WA

 

Click on the publication title

 

 

Step 3: 

Navigate down the alphabetical list of publications to 

Lawyers Practice Manual WA

 

Click on the publication title

 

 

 

 

Step 4: 

Click on the magnifying glass icon to Search

Step 4: Option 1: 

Search within the publication:

Two options:

1. Navigate to the top Global Search box, and add search words

Example:   draft AND will

Click on the magnifying glass icon to Search

You should have around 35 results 

Refine your search by adding more terms into the Search within results box.
Add the word:
                      guardianship

Click on the Continue button
Click on the Apply button

This will reduce the number of results to around 7

 

Step 4:  

Expand relevant chapter headings to navigate through the publication.

Expand relevant Chapters by clicking on +

Look down the table of contents of the Lawyers Practice Manual, until you find PART 13 - Wills and Estates.  

Expand + PART 13 - Wills and Estates to open up the next level of the hierarchy.
Expand + Drafting a will 
Expand + Drafting a will again
Click on the heading The will 

  PART 13 – Wills and estates
  Drafting a will
  Drafting a will
   The will

This will open up the commentary.
You should be able to see paragraph [13.1.201] Stages. 

You can use this browsing technique for any of the commentary titles on Westlaw

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.

Step 5: 

Look at the results list. 

The left-hand panel will allow you to filter the results.

Expand Publication Name
Click on Select a Publication Name

Look carefully at the commentary titles listed under Publication Name. 

You will see that the principal commentary dealing with the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (Cth) is the one that holds the largest number of entries relevant to your search - in this case, Federal Offences.

Step 4: Option 2:

Check the box beside the relevant chapter

This will only search this chapter for the search words

  PART 13 – Wills and estates
Navigate to the top Global Search box, and add search words

Example:   draft AND will

Click on the magnifying glass icon to Search

You should have around 3 results 

Refine your search by adding more terms into the Search within results box.
Add the word:
                      guardianship

Click on the Continue button
Click on the Apply button

This will reduce the number of results to around 1.

Step 5: 

You can also search within the publication:

Two options:

1. Navigate to the top Global Search box, and add search words

Example:   draft will

2. Check the box beside the relevant chapter

  PART 13 – Wills and estates
Navigate to the top Global Search box, and add search words

This will only search this chapter for the search words

Try both search options (Free Text, Legislation (Title) and Legislation Cited (Title)) to determine which is the principal commentary on Westlaw Australia dealing with the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (Cth)

    

 

Journal Articles Referencing Legislation

Journal articles also provide commentary on legislation

Step 1:

Select Content Type Legislation:

Step 2:

Select relevant jurisdiction

Example: Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) s.35

Step 3:

Select the starting letter of the Act title

Step 4:

Navigate down the screen to the Act title

Step 5:

Click on the Act title to access the Act

Step 6:

Navigate down the screen to the section title

Step 7:

Click on the section title to access the section

Step 8:

Click on the Citing References tab

Step 9:

Select Secondary Sources

Step 10:

Navigate to relevant articles

Commentaries on CCH IntelliConnect


CCH also has user guides and help menus, including training videos that you may also find useful to look at after you have completed this section of this Topic.

 

Browsing Commentary on CCH

Your task: Use CCH to find commentary on legislation dealing with discrimination in Western Australia

Step 1: Access CCH IntelliConnect from the Murdoch Library Law Subject Guide.

Step 2: On the CCH homepage, the left-hand panel allows you to browse.
You will see a list of available subject areas.

Step 3: Click on the + sign next to a topic area in which you are interested to see the "books" (sources) that you can search.
In this case, select the + sign next to Discrimination.
Books (sources) will be displayed.

 

Step 4: Click on the + sign next to one of the books, in this example click on Australian State Equal Opportunity Legislation.

  • If you become disoriented in CCH hit the Home (top left) button which takes you back to the list of subject areas and subscriptions.

Step 5: This will open up the contents.
Select Western Australia.
From here you can "drill down" to get to the various sections of a piece of legislation - in this case Equal Opportunities Act 1984 (WA), or more detailed information such as Background.

 

Searching Commentary on CCH

Your task: Use CCH to search for commentary on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Step 1: Access CCH IntelliConnect from the Murdoch Library Law Subject Guide.

Step 2: Once you are on the CCH homepage, enter "International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights" into the search box at the top of the screen and click the magnifying glass symbol to search.

Note: You need to check the boxes in the left-hand column that you wish to search.
The search options allow you to search for words and phrases occurring in specific topics or at the CCH Book level.
If you wish to search all CCH content, do not make a selection at the left and choose 'all content' in the Search drop down list (this is the default setting).

 

Step 3: Take a look at the results page.
On the left-hand panel there are options to sort and filter your results.
Click on the + sign next to by Document Type and then filter the results by selecting CCH Commentary.

 

Step 4 (option 1): Expand + by Library
Look at the number of results in each Library.
You can see the Libraries with the most results
Expand each Library to see the specific Commentary titles and the number of results within each title

 

Step 4 (option 2): Ensure that your results list is sorted by Relevance.
Look at the first page of results.
You can see that of the first 6 results, 4 are from the Australian and NZ Equal Opportunity Commentary (at the time of writing).
This is therefore the principal commentary on CCH dealing with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

 

Step 5: You can also refine your search in other ways:

  • Refine your search by choosing within results from the Search drop-down box.
    Type "equal opportunity" in the search box to search within your results.
  • Leave the Sort option at "relevance".
  • The default limit for the number of results displayed is 10 per page.
    Each result links to a paragraph with the paragraph number and paragraph title listed.
    Note the table of contents in the left frame shows where the paragraph on the left sits within the book.

 

Step 6: Click on the title of a result to open it.
The document will appear in a new frame at the bottom of the screen.

Step 7: At the top of each search result frame there is a Path link which shows the context in which this paragraph appears.
You can click to a higher level of the document path, or click to a different part of the table of contents shown on the left.

 

You can find related information and narrow your search by looking at the links which appear in the left of the screen.
For example, you can refine your search by looking at the "Library" collection which holds the information you have found.
If your research is in the area of discrimination for example, you could narrow your search by browsing through the materials found in the "Discrimination" library.

  • Click on the by Library + sign at the left to see which books your search results occur in.
    Continue to open the + signs (for example next to the Discrimination heading) to browse further.
    The number of hits within each paragraph from your search is indicated on the right of each heading as you browse.
  • Work between results and document display to find useful discussion

 

Finding Specific Titles in CCH:

You can check to see if CCH holds specific titles by clicking on the Titles A-Z link at the top Browse section on the left-hand side when in the homepage. 

For example, you want to find out if Australian Corporate Practice Manual is held on CCH.
Click on the Titles A-Z link and an alphabetical list will open up in the main panel of the screen.
You can either scroll down the alphabetical list to see if the title is there, or use the Title Finder search box at the top of the right panel.

 

Commentaries on AustLII

AustLII does not include legal commentary in the strict sense of the word.

However, it does include journal articles.
AustLII has libraries on the topics:

Browsing Libraries on AustLII

Your task: Use AustLII to find material on space tourism

Step 1: Access AustLII

Step 2: On the AustLII homepage, select Libraries from the red banner 

Step 3: From the list of Libraries, select the Australasian Aviation Law Library

Step 4: From the Law Journals and Scholarship list, select Australian Legal Scholarship Concerning Aviation Law Issues 

Step 5: Sort the Results list by Date to list the results with the most recent first.

The Results List can be sorted by:
•  relevance
•  database
•  date
•  title
•  citation frequency

Step 6: Note the search that Browse has conducted on your behalf:
(airline or aircraft or aviation or aeroplane or casa or qanta or virgin blue or air new zealand or air pilot or airline) 

This search can be significantly broadened by adding the word airplane.
Change the search string to:
(airline or aircraft or aviation or aeroplane or airplane or casa or qanta or virgin blue or air new zealand or air pilot or airline) 

Note the HUGE difference adding one word to the search makes!

Searching Commentary on AustLII

Your task: Use AustLII to find material on space tourism

Step 1: Access AustLII

Step 2: On the AustLII homepage, select Libraries from the red banner 

Step 3: From the list of Libraries, select the Australasian Aviation Law Library

Step 4: Enter the search string      space W/10 touris*;
- this is telling the search engine to search for the word space within 10 word of the word tourist or tourism

Step 5: Sort the Results list by Database to group the results so that you can easily find articles.

The Results List can be sorted by:
•  relevance
•  database
•  date
•  title
•  citation frequency

 

Finding Specific Titles in AustLII:

You can check to see if AustLII holds specific titles by clicking on the Journals & Scholarship in the red ribbon.
This will take you to an A-Z listing of journal titles included on the AustLII database.

Use the tabs to navigate specific collections:      

 

 

A Bills Digest is a Parliamentary Library publication which provides an independent analysis of legislation before the Parliament.
Bills Digests are written to support the work of the Parliament—specifically, to assist MPs in their consideration of bills and the preparation of responses and speeches relating to bills and associated policy.
Bills Digests provide a separate and different perspective to the legislative material provided by the Executive (such as explanatory memoranda and second reading speeches).
A Bills Digest will often contain more background and a longer legislative history than an Explanatory Memorandum and will include reaction to the bill from other political parties and major interest groups.
Bills Digests are usually only prepared on government bills and are only prepared once a bill has been introduced into Parliament.

Step 1:

In ParlInfo, select the Guided Search tab

Select the Guided Search tab Document relating to a Bill

Add the name of the Bill (do not include the year or jurisdiction - just the topic words)

Add Bill title to Search text box: Australian Citizenship

Add dates 
Tip:- We know the Act is the Australian Citizenship Act 2007, so this indicates a date range

Click on Search

Step 2:

Select the relevant Bill title 

 

Step 3:

Click on the link to the Bill home page

The Bill home page includes:

Step 4:

Navigate to the bottom of the page to access the link to the Bills Digest

 

Step 4:

Tip: Open the PDF version of the Bill Digest, so that all links work (the on screen Bills Digest is plain text)

Read the Bill Digest to understand the purpose and background to the Bill

 

Subjects: Law, Research