Australia is a federation within the British Commonwealth and includes six states (New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia) plus two territories (Australian Capital Territory and Northern Territory). Like the UK, Australia is a common law jurisdiction.
The Australian Constitution can be found at:
with additional Constitutional commentary in print available at the MacMillan Law Library
Further information on the legal and political background of Australia can be found at:
At the federal level, there are four principal courts:
Court decisions from the federal courts can be found on Westlaw, Lexis and the following:
Limited coverage of State Court and Territory Court opinions can be found on Westlaw and Lexis with the following reporters available in print at the MacMillan Law Library (Range 371 in the Granger Hansel Room - 3rd Floor):
The federal government in Australia has a bicameral legislative body consisting of the House of Representatives and Senate. Documents from these entities can be found at:
For individual state legislative information, see: