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.
Sessional details are the number and year of the Act. They are in the format XX of XXXX and can enable you to identify the Act by number alone without reference to the long or short title of the Act.
You will need to use the sessional details/number and year:
- To determine the title of a piece of legislation when all you have is the sessional details;
- When an Act has never been reprinted and you need to look at the Act in its original form;
- Where the Act is an amending Act and you need to see how the amendments were structured and what other amendments were made at the same time;
- When you need to look at the original, unamended Act for historical analysis;
- When you need to determine how an Act has changed over the years.
Sessional details of Western Australian Acts can be found by either using the printed annual volumes or Western Australian Legislation.
Identify Sessional Details Online
Sessional details can also be found online via Western Australian Legislation website.
Task: Source the sessional details for the Dog Act 1903 (WA).
Step 1: From Western Australian Legislation select Original Acts as passed or As Passed.
Step 2: Locate the year that the Act was enacted, in this case 1903. Click this link.
Step 3: Locate the short title of the Act in the list of Acts given for the year. The Acts will be listed next to their corresponding number and this number combined with the year will give you the sessional details for the Act. In this case, 6 of 1903.
Alternatively you can Browse Acts by title to locate the sessional details of an Act.
Finding Sessional Details in Print
You can use the printed annual volumes for the Statutes of Western Australia to source the sessional details/number and year of an Act.
This number is also the location number for an Act on the shelf or in the bound annual volumes.
The Statutes of Western Australia are towards to the south-eastern corner of the Law Library, at call number R 348.9410221 W527 1.
Check the Law Library Map to help you locate these, or see the Law Library Self Tour.
