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Commentaries

Legal commentaries

'Commentary services, also known as looseleaf services or reporters, are useful resources for providing current information on an area of the law. [They] provide authoritative statements of legal principles and topics, supported by and linking directly to case law and legislation. As well as a thorough overview of a topic, they usually include legislation, rules, practice directions, case law and commentary. They are subject specific, and are generally more up to date than books or encyclopedias.'

- Jay Sanderson, Drossos Stamboulakis and Kim Kelly, A Practical Guide to Legal Research (Thomson Reuters, 5th ed, 2021) 134-5.

Citing legal commentaries in AGLC4

See Rule 7.8 in the AGL4 for rules and examples on how to cite legal commentaries - called 'Looseleaf Services' in AGLC4.

Commentary sources

Administrative law

Bankruptcy and insolvency

Commercial law

Communications and media law

Competition and consumer law

Constitutional law

Corporations law

Court practice and procedure

Criminal law

Employment and industrial law

Energy and resources law

Equal opportunity

Evidence

Family law

Insurance law

Intellectual property law

Legal practitioners

Privacy law

Property (real and personal), conveyancing and land law

Taxation law

Torts and personal injuries

Trusts

Wills and estates

AustLII has Libraries which don't have editorial commentary but can include many of the other components of legal commentaries, including topic-specific legislation, cases, journals, and in some cases special collections. 

Look under the "Libraries" content area on the red bar of the AustLII home page.

AustLII contains the following libraries:

  • Australasian Aviation Law Library
  • Australasian Law Reform Library
  • Australasian Legal History Libraries
  • Australian Coronial Law Library
  • Australian Electoral Law Library
  • Australian Employment and Labour Law Library
  • Australian Environmental and Planning Law Library
  • Australian Health Practitioner Law Library
  • Australian Human Rights Law Library
  • Australian Indigenous Law Library
  • Australian Privacy and Surveillance Law Library
  • Australian Royal Commissions and Public Inquiries Library
  • Australian Taxation Law Library
  • Legal Profession Uniform Law Library (Australia)
  • Military Law and Peacekeeping Library (Australia)

The following resources contain international and foreign domestic commentaries (often called 'treatises' overseas):

Law: secondary sources