Research Databases - By Type

IMPORTANT: Most databases listed below require authentication using your University username and password.

Please note that the following selected databases are those most useful for legal research. A comprehensive list of all research databases available at the University of Melbourne is available via Discovery

Journal Articles

Journal Articles

Refer to the Legal Research: Secondary Sources Guide for detailed information.

AGIS Plus Text Full text and abstracts

The key resource for Australian legal journal articles, conference papers and reports. Coverage: 143 law journals. Indexed articles from 1970. Full text articles from 1995.

Austlii Legal Scholarship Library Full text

Australian (and some NZ) database of 60 full text law journals, including many not included in AGIS.

Index to Legal PeriodicalsIndex with some full text

Indexes articles from 1,025+ legal journals, law reviews, yearbooks, and bar association publications, and over 1,400 books per year. Includes full text coverage for 320+ periodicals from 1994. Mostly US content, but includes major periodicals from Canada, the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. ILP combines 2 databases: ILP Full Text (1982+) and ILP Retrospective (vol 1 – 1981 for most titles). Coverage: 1908+

Hein Online Full text

Retrospective legal periodicals. Coverage: Some titles from late 1800's. Generally does not hold material from the last 3 years.

Index to Foreign Legal Periodicals Abstracts

Multilingual index to 470 legal journals worldwide. Also covers some published collections of legal essays, Festschriften, Mélanges, and congress reports. Coverage: 1985+

LegalTrac Index with some full text

Key resource for legal journals, law reviews, newpspers, bar association journals, and international legal journals. Indexing for approximately 1700+ journals.
Jurisdiction: US focus and some titles from other jurisdiction such as Europe, Canada, Australia and South Africa.
Coverage: 1980+

Lexis Full text

900 full text journals, law reviews, bar journals and legal newspapers. Mainly US and Canadian titles.

LexisNexisAU Full text and article citator

Includes 12 Lexis journals in full text, as well as the ability to search for journal references to cases in Casebase. Coverage: 1990's+

Lexis-Nexis Academic Full text

350+ worldwide newspapers. Includes headline news, general news' topics, news/broadcast transcripts, foreign language news sources as well as company, industry, market and legal news.

Westlaw Full text

700+ journals, law reviews and bar journals. Focus is on US, Canadian and UK titles. Also includes Legal Journals Index, an index of 430+ UK and European Union titles. The index links to the full text of the articles. Individual staff password access

Multi-disciplinary Journal Articles

Academic Search Premier Full text

Multi-disciplinary full text database containing full text for 4,500+ journals, including 3604+ peer-reviewed titles and 374 mostly full text law titles. US focus, but includes some international. Coverage: Mainly from mid 1980s.

Cambridge Journals Full text

Journals from Cambridge publishing. 230 journals, including 23 law titles.

Expanded Academic (Includes Legal Trac) Full text

Multi-disciplinary database. 4,300+ indexed journals, 2,500 full text titles, and 3,000 peer-reviewed journals. Coverage: 1980+

Informit (Includes AGIS)

Key multi-disciplinary resource for Australian journal articles. 70+ databases. Coverage: 1970+

ISI Web of Knowledge (includes Current Contents) Full text

Multi-disciplinary database which covers agriculture, art, biology, computer science, earth sciences, engineering, environmental studies, humanities, life sciences, medicine, science, social sciences, and technology.

JSTOR Full text

Full text archives of 1000+ leading academic journals across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Includes approx. 60 law titles. Coverage: Does not hold issues for the most recent 3-5 years.

SSRN (Social Science Research Network - includes Legal Scholarship Network) Full text and abstracts

The SSRN elibrary includes an abstract database containing abstracts from 260,000+ scholarly working papers and forthcoming papers, and an electronic paper collection currently containing 200,000+ full text papers.

Newspapers

Factiva Full text

25,000+ authoritative sources including 3000+ newspaper titles. Includes Dow Jones and Reuters newswires, the Associated Press, and D&B company profiles. May be unavailable at peak usage times.

Lexis-Nexis Academic Full text

350+ worldwide newspapers. Includes headline news, general news topics, news/broadcast transcripts, foreign language news sources, company, industry, market news and legal news.

Commentary

CCH Online - Intelliconnect Full text

Australian CCH online commentary services covering topics such as Corporations, Trade practices, Tax, Health and Medical Law, Industrial Relations, Torts and Climate Change.

Legal Online Full text

Australian legal commentary materials published by Thomson, including the Laws of Australia, and online versions of legal texts.

Please note: Thomson Legal Online is in the process of being replaced by a new Thomson platform, Westlaw AU . For more details on the change and updates as they happen, see the News section of the Law Library website.

LexisNexisAU Full text

Collection of Australian legal databases covering a large range of law areas. Includes Halsbury's Laws of Australia.

Lexis Full text commentary

Westlaw Full text commentary

Cases

AustLII

Australian and New Zealand unreported decisions, including most Australian courts, and many lower courts and tribunals.

CaseTrack

Click here to get password You may need to click on "Login as a different user". Full text UK judgments may also be accessed on Westlaw and Lexis. Coverage: 1996+

CCH Online - Intelliconnect

Australian CCH law reports.

Justis

Full text of the The Law Reports (1865+), the Times Law Reports (1990+), the Weekly Law Reports (1953+) , the Daily Law Reports (1999+) and the International Law Reports (1919+).

Lawcite

Free access cross-jurisdictional case citator hosted on CommonLII.

Legal Online (formerly Law Book Online)

Law reports published by Thomson, including the Commonwealth Law Reports (1900+), the Australian Law Journal Reports, Australian Criminal Reports, Australian Tax Reports, and the Administrative Appeals Reports. Legal Online also includes unreported decisions, as well as the Firstpoint case citator and digest.

Lexis

US case law, but also material from Australia, Canada, UK, the United Nations, and other international organizations. Includes Shephard's Citator service. Some users experience problems when using Internet Explorer. If this occcurs, you should try using an alternative browser such as Mozilla.

LexisNexisAU

Collection of full-text Australian legal databases. Includes law reports such as the Australian Law Reports, Family Law Reports, Intellectual Property Reports and Victorian Reports. It also includes Unreported Judgments for each of the Australian states and territories, and the CaseBase case citator.

Westlaw

Coverage includes US, UK, and Canadian case law. Includes the Keycite citator services. Individual staff password access

Worldlii

World Legal Information Institute. Links to case material and legal resources worldwide. Browsable by country name.

Case Citators

Casebase (LexisNexis AU)

Mostly Australian and some UK cases. CaseBase is a comprehensive citator and annotator of cases from 60+ Australian and overseas' reports. Includes some digest material and links to articles. Updated daily.

CaseTrack

UK case citator. Click here to get password You may need to click on "Login as a different user". Full text UK judgments may also be accessed on Westlaw and Lexis. Coverage 1996+

Just Cite (Justis)

UK case citator.

FirstPoint (Legal Online)

FirstPoint case citator, includes useful digests of cases. Features a subject-based taxonomy with linked cases. Full text of cases is accessible where available on the Thomson web site. Updated daily. Coverage: Reported Australian case law from 1825, and unreported Australian cases from 1999. Updated daily.

Keycite (Westlaw)

Covers Australian, UK, US, Canadian, NZ, and Hong Kong case law.

Lawcite (AustLii)

International case citator available on the Austlii site. Freely available material.

Shepard's Citations Service(Lexis)

Covers US cases.

Legislation

Australian

Refer to the LibGuide on Australian legislation for more sources and detailed information.

Australian Parliament House Website

Includes Commonwealth Bills and Bills Digests, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), Explanatory Memoranda, Committee Reports.

ComLaw/FRLI

Full text Commonwealth legislation and legislative instruments.

Timebase

Searchable legislation for all Australian jurisdictions. It also includes alerting service on legislation developments, bills, EMs and repealed legislation. Point-in-time for some law subjects.

SAI Global (Lawlex)

We have free access to material 'above the redline', including Hansard, legislation, second reading speeches, and debates.

Victorian Legislation & Parliamentary Documents

Includes full text, up-to-date legislation, and historical versions of legislation.

UK

Justis

Online legal library with UK legislation. Includes historical UK legislation.

US

Lexis

Includes federal public laws and the United States Code Service, as well as state codes, Federal and state registers, and state constitutions.

Westlaw

Comprehensive database of US case law and Shephard's citator service. Selected law report series from other jurisdictions, including Canada and the UK. Individual staff password access

Parliament

Australian

Australian Parliament House Website

Includes Commonwealth Bills and Bills Digests, Parliamentary Debates (Hansard), Explanatory Memoranda, Committee Reports.

Victorian Legislation & Parliamentary Documents

Includes full text, up-to-date legislation and historical versions of legislation.

UK

UK House of Commons Parliamentary Papers

This full text database contains over 200,000 House of Commons sessional papers from 1715 to the 2003/04 session, with supplementary material back to 1688

Reference & Encyclopaedias

Halsbury's Laws of Australia

Large online encyclopaedia covering a wide variety of Australian legal subjects, mostly at an intermediate level. 89 titles cover both mainstream and more specific subject areas. Commentary on the law includes references to Australian legislative and judicial authority.