4 Sources of Legal Information
Theresa Buller
Legal information is divided into two categories:
- Primary sources, which are the law itself;
- Secondary sources, which provide commentary on the law or help you find the law.
Legal information is hierarchical, which means the courts take much more notice of some types of information than others.
- Primary sources of law are the law and these sources can bind the court, that is, the court must follow it.
- Legislation is the highest authority because it has been enacted by Parliament, which acts under our authority as voting citizens. Legislation includes statutes (also known as Acts or enactments) as well as secondary legislation (formerly called legislative instruments and statutory regulations) and other delegated legislation.
- Cases (or judicial decisions, also called judgments[1]) come a close second. Cases cannot contradict legislation, but they can bind the court.
- Secondary sources roughly fall into two groups:
- Commentary on the law. This is material written to help us make sense of the law. Books, legal encyclopaedias and journal articles fall into this category. They may help our understanding of the law and they may even sometimes be cited in court, but they cannot bind the court. Books, legal encyclopaedias and journal articles may provide you with a quick overview or an in-depth analysis of a topic along with references to cases or relevant legislation.
- Access tools or finding aids. This category includes some tools that will be familiar from other subjects, such as indexes and dictionaries, but some are peculiar to the law, such as citators and case law digests.
In legal research, students can approach a topic by looking at secondary sources of law to understand the key issues in that area of law. Secondary sources provide analysis and explanation of the law and identify relevant cases or legislation on a topic. Understanding the background of a topic before reading the primary sources (ie, cases and legislation) can help to contextualise your research.
- Note the lack of an ‘e’ in judgments when used in a legal context. ↵
