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In this Topic, you will learn how to find the number of an Act when you have its name and year, or how to find the name of an Act when you have its number and year. The number and year notation of an Act is also known as its "series details" or "sessional details".
Identify Series Details of a Commonwealth Act from the Federal Register of Legislation when you know its name
Your task: Use FROL to find the series details of the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (Cth).
Step 1: Locate the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (Cth) on FROL following the steps in the previous topic: Source an Act - Cth.
Step 2: Once you have located the Australian Citizenship Act 2007 (Cth) there are a number of places where you can find the sessional details of the Act:
- Select the Details button
- Look for the number and year below the name of the Act
- in this example, the Australian Citizenship Act was the 20th act to pass through parliament and become enforced in 2007
Using the Search feature to find an Act from its Series Details
Use the Federal Register of Legislation's Search to source an Act by its series details - the Act number and Year it was given assent.
Acts are numbered in each year in arithmetical series, beginning with the number 1, in the order of assent in each year. When the signed assent copy of the Act is returned from the Governor-General, details concerning Act number and date of assent are transposed to a ‘publication’ copy of the Act.
Step 1: Complete the Search page:
In the Search for box, type the Act number and year
From the Search in drop down menu, select Name and text
From the Search using drop down menu, select Contains phrase
Below the search box,
from the Filter by Collection menu,
check Act
Click Search
Example: Geneva Conventions Act 1957 (Act No. 103, 1957)
Search for: 103 1957
Note that, because we are searching for the phrase, the numbers must be in the order as they appear in the document
Step 6: Select the Act from the results list. Note that you can see that you will be taken to the version of the Act that is currently in force.
Using the Advanced Search feature to find an Act from its Series Details
Step 1: Select Advanced search
Step 2: Select Year/Number (All) >
Step 3: Check the box beside Act
Step 4: Add the Year/Number in the search box
Format: YYYY/NNN
Example: 1957/103
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Source a Commonwealth Act when you know its Series Details
Your task: Use FROL to find the Act with the series details 103 of 1957.
The previous example shows you that it is relatively easy to find the series details of an Act when you have its name and year. More commonly, you will have the series details of an Act and need to find its name.
Step 1: From the FROL homepage, select the Browse tab.
Step 2: Change the Browse by filter to Year / Number
Step 3: If you are unsure whether the Act is currently in force, change the Browse for filter to All
Step 4: You will now see a menu of tiles grouped by decade. Select the relevant year for your series details. In this case, 1950.
Step 5: Select the year from the menu below the decades. In this case, 1957
Once you have located Act number 103 in the list of Acts for the year 1957, you will see that these series details belong to the Geneva Conventions Act 1957 (Cth).
