This is my law page. I hope to make it interesting for both law students and laymen. If anyone has interesting legal links or has a law-orientated page themselves, email me and I'll put it up here. This page obviously has a bias towards Australian law (especially New South Wales). I apologise for my partiality, I have tried to include International and Aboriginal Issues links to make this interesting to both Australians and those who are not.

If you discover that it is exam time and woe betide, No Lecture Notes! Here are some great sources for that problemo:

• COLIN COLIN stands for "Contract Law Information Network". It is run by the wonderful ANU. It is actually their lecture notes posted up by their lecturers in the aim of improving legal teaching (sounds good to me!) and is highly recommended if you have patchy notes and so do all your friends.
• Uniserve Law This is also supported by the ANU, this attempts to do the same thing for: Property Law II (University of New England), Marketing Law (Open Learning), Legal Theory (ANU), Equity and Trusts (U.N.E.), Civil Procedure and Evidence (U.N.E.), and Legal Systems and Methods (U.N.E.) ~just follow their "undergraduate courses link". They also have links to International Commercial Law, Australian Law Reform Commission publications and various other legal resources. There are also links to other law faculties in Australia.

I would like to create a database of lecture notes. Not only is this useful for all lazy students who don't take notes, but I think that it provides nice summaries for the average person to get an idea of the law (or at least alert their attention to certain issues and frameworks). For conscientious students, it also gives another perspective as to how the course is run at a different univerversity or in a different state or country. So please anyone who types out their notes and is interested in helping out, drop me a line.

• NSW Criminal Law Notes these date from 1996, criminal law is not as dynamic as say, constitutional law, so there have been few changes since. However, if anyone has suggestions on updating these notes, please do not hestitate to contact me.

If you are looking for Legal Resources here are some good and great links:

• AUSTRALIA
  • AustIIThis is the starting point for any internet research, it has most or maybe all High Court Cases, some state jurisdictions, Legislation (wunderbar!) and some journal references as well as links elsewhere.
  • The Law Society of NSW Find a lawyer or read the Law Society Journal or Caveat Bulletin online. Fairly essential for any law student and compulsory for practicising lawyers. They have a very comprehensive section of local and international legal links.
  • The Sydney Law Review This is the journal of the Faculty of Law at Sydney University, you'll find the current issue and some back issues online.
  • National Library's Reader's Guide to Law Reports This is for people who are rusty or unaccustomed to law reports, it covers things such as: how to identify & locate law reports, guides & indexes, citation of law reports, unreported judgments, law reports online and in microform, etc.
  • National Library of Australia Readers Guide #2 Australian Statute Law Same as above only it explains the world of LEGISLATION to you.
  • The Australian Sentencing Judgements Bulletin They summarise unreported decisions of the High Court of Australia, Federal Court of Australia and the Supreme Courts of all States and the Northern Territory. Interesting little thing.
  • Telstra's Legal Alert A few articles on some things that Minter Ellison finds important.
  • Legal Directory This is useful if you're trying to find a lawyer. It is a database of the leading firms in Australia and their overseas offices. This database can be searched by name, area of specialty, area of practice, or location. A list of firms meeting your criteria will be returned and you can select from this list to get more detailed information.
  • Dan's Australian Law Index 3 Not yet fully operational but very promising. There are many legal links here including the personal pages of some lawyers (yes, I'm nosey). As many links have yet to be completed, I'd start with the What's New? section, at least you'll get somewhere there.
  • Butterworths There's everything here, top recommendations for legal books (just what you wanted for your holiday reading), links to lawyers for legal advice, on line forums, access to their databases and heaps heaps more from one of our favourite law book publishers. Just go there for their well presented and well researched links. Perhaps the first place to start for one who is new to internet research.

  
  

• INTERNATIONAL
  • AustII's World Links A starting point for your international research.
  • Guide to Law Online and GLIN (Global Legal Information Network) provides a database of national laws from contributing countries around the world accessed from a World Wide Web server of the U.S. Library of Congress. The database consists of searchable legal abstracts in English and some full texts of laws in the language of the contributing country. It provides information on national legislation from more than 35 countries, with other countries being added on a continuing basis." There is a members section and a non-members section.
  • GLIN's Guide to the world's nations (law) This lists a plethora of countries, just click on a country and a list of links to legal sites will appear.
  • The Seamless Website "This law related site should be of interest to lawyers, legal professionals, law students, business persons, consumers, and anyone who is seeking legal and law related information." It will be of interest if you are in America or you have any interest in American law or things. There are also heaps of personal links to lawyers which is interesting because the index also lists other more professional pages they've developed, such as the German Law Page (use a translator!) or the Consumer Law Page (how to sue if you get food poisoning). Have fun!

If you are interested in finding out about a particular firm - or using some of their resources - here are a few of the many law firms that have gone online:

• Minter Ellison They are situated in a very nice building on Martin Place. And isn't their domain name cute?
• Clayton Utz A very little snazzy page indeed with great links and downloadable articles.
• Phillips Fox They have cute icons here so they must be nice... One of big Sydney law firms but their layout is friendly, not coporate.
• Allens Allens and Hemsley One of the biggest if not the biggest in Australia (and worldwide). They scare me, probably because they are super professional. Their training in their summer clerkship and graduate programs is supposed to be brilliant though.
• Freehill Hollingdale and Page. Another huge professional site, according to Butterworths "Freehills website design accentuates simplicity, and it works. It contains the usual information, including an overview, practice groups, careers and library. The library link contains newsletters and links to other pages. Definitely worth a visit."
• Mallesons Stephen Jacques Out tacky tile buttons out! Oh well, this has a lot of information about the firm, yet another biggy. There is a link to OurReading Room which includes links to relevant newspapers with web sites, including the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, The Australian, AFR and many others.

If you would like more information on Aboriginal issues, here are some good places to start:

• Aboriginal Studies WWW Virtual Library Here you will find quite a few links that explore indigenous legal issues as well as a whole lot of other interesting things.
• Bill's International Aboriginal Links: Australia A large number of useful and interesting links, there are also a huge list of International Indigenous links.
• The Native Title Archive A collection of legal authorities and documents relating to the Australian High Court's Mabo decision and the Federal Native Title Act. Unfortunately, the Anthropology Department is unable to continue to maintain this site. It is being left here as a resource, but is incomplete and will not be updated.
• The National Native Title Tribunal is a "Commonwealth Government body that facilitates the making of agreements among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, governments, industry and others whose rights or interests may co-exist with native title rights and interests. The Tribunal is not a court and does not decide whether or not native title exists." Lots of practical information including a registration test guide for applicants, the act itself and understanding it.
• The Papers of Edward Koiki Mabo. In March 1995 the National Library of Australia purchased the papers of Edward Koiki Mabo from his widow, Bonita Mabo. Before the papers were transferred to the Library they had been stored at the Mabo family home in Townsville.
• Proposals For The Recognition and Protection of Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property. This Project aims to develop recommendations for increasing the protection and recognition of Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property. The Discussion Paper which is published on this site, aims to facilitate discussion and seek responses to various reform options. All comments will then be considered in the development of recommendations to be put to the ATSIC Board of Commissioners later this year. ATSIC will then make recommendations directly to the Government. People are invited to have their say by making submissions
• Australian Indigenous Peoples and the Law (NTU Faculty of Law List of Web Resources) "I have established this collection of web pages to help my students locate useful legal material that is available on the web. The emphasis is on links to primary sources of law and secondary sources that are either comprehensive, clear, topical, authorative or interesting. There is a one sentence summary of many of the entries."
• SOF Indigenous Resources Links to General, Art and Legal links.

 

This is my section devoted to non-lawyers. When you start studying law you realise how stupid the legal system is and how the average person has no idea of his/her rights and liabilities. It often goes against any common sense and in most cases not knowing the law is NO DEFENCE in the eyes of the law. Here are some sites that help out the non-lawyer which comprises, thankfully, the majority.

 

• Redfern Legal Centre Your rights online. This is probably the best place to start, there is plenty of information online and also legal advice by phone. One of the specialties is Tenancy matters. There are also plenty of factsheets that give brief and to the point summaries on what your rights actually are.
• Legal Help Online from the Law Society of New South Wales "As a service to the community the Law Society has developed a series of useful guides about common legal problems. If you are in any doubt about information in these guides contact your solicitor, or phone Community Assistance at the Law Society for a referral on (02) 9373 7300. "
• Duhaime's Legal Dictionary So you don't understand legal terms? Unfornately definitions can be vital and often words are misleading. This dictionary is researched, written in plain language and provided free of charge by lawyer Lloyd Duhaime.

 

 

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