'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.
CCH IntelliConnect contains commentaries on many areas of Australian law. Browse the practice areas (listed below) for commentaries, or search and then filter your results to by document type to "CCH Commentary".
Accounting
Bankruptcy and Insolvency Law
Business Law
Company and Securities Law
Competition, Consumer and Contract Law
Conveyancing & Property Law
Corporate Governance & Compliance Law
Discrimination
Duties & levies
Employment and HR
Environment
Family Law
GST
Historical Editions
Industrial Relations
Insurance Law
Intellectual Property
Litigation & Court Practice
Privacy
Social Security
Sports & Medical Law
Superannuation & Financial Planning
Tax
Tax Archives
Torts & Personal Injury Law
Trusts & Estates Law
Workers Compensation
Workplace Health and Safety
Worldwide Tax
Lexis Advance Pacific contains the following commentaries:
Austin & Black's Annotations to the Corporations Act
Australian Administrative Law
Australian Corporate Finance Law
Australian Corporation Law Legislation
Australian Corporation Law Principles & Practice
Australian Corporation Practice
Australian Family Law
Carter's Criminal Law of Qld
Civil Procedure Qld District & Magistrates Courts Practice (Archived)
Civil Procedure Qld Supreme Court Practice (Archived)
Clean Energy Law in Australia
College of Law Practice Papers Qld
Communications Law & Policy in Australia
Copyright & Designs
Court Forms, Precedents & Pleadings Qld
Criminal Practice & Procedure NSW
Cross on Evidence
Energy and Resources Law in Australia
Ford, Austin & Ramsay's Principles of Corporations Law
Franchising Law & Practice
Industrial Law Qld
Patents, Trade Marks & Related Rights
Personal Property Securities in Australia
Procedures Advice Manual and Immigration Legislation
Ritchie's Uniform Civil Procedure NSW
Solicitors Manual
Westlaw contains commentaries on many areas of Australian law. If you are after a known commentary, you can type it into the search box on the home page to bring it up.
To browse all commentaries, from the home page, select 'Secondary Sources', then 'Commentary'.
You can then browse all the titles to make your selection, or use the 'Topic' or 'Jurisdiction' filters to narrow the options. Selecting the 'i' symbol next to a commentary will bring up information about it, including a coverage summary.
Please note that any title with the 'Out of plan' box indicates that we do not have access to that content in our subscription.
Westlaw Australia contains (but is not limited to) the following commentaries:
Australasian Dispute Resolution
Australian Succession Law
Commonwealth Statutes Annotations
Conveyancing Manual Qld
Dickey's Family Law with Legislation
Federal Administrative Law
Federal Circuit Court Guidebook
Federal Court Practice
Federal Offences
Forbes Evidence Law in Queensland
High Court Practice
Indictable Offences Queensland
Land Titles Law and Practice Qld
Lawyers Practice Manual Qld
Planning and Development Law Qld
Property Law and Practice Qld
Queensland Administrative Law
Queensland Civil Practice
Queensland Sentencing Manual
Summary Offences Qld
The following resources contain international and foreign domestic commentaries (often called 'treatises' overseas):
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:
