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Secondary Sources in Law : Home

This guide contains resources and guidance to help students find secondary legal materials.

Welcome

 

If you are a law student looking for secondary sources, this guide is for you.

  • In legal research, secondary sources are materials that analyse, discuss, critique and comment on the law. They provide valuable insights and analysis of legal principle or issues, and highlight areas of contention or debate.

  • Explore this guide to learn how to find, evaluate and reference different types of secondary sources.

Key resources for secondary materials

 

 

Legal Encyclopedias

 

Legal Dictionaries

 

Legal Databases

Resource types

 

Book icon

Books

Useful for providing an overview of a topic or issue. Contains background information and context and is very useful as a starting point for research - especially if you are new to a topic!

Journal article icon

Journal Articles

Contains the latest research on very specific topics and often contains in-depth analysis. Journal articles are published more quickly than books so can be used to find more up to date information.

Grey Literature Icon

Grey Literature

This includes government or non-government organisation (NGO) reports, guidelines and statistics. They often contain an overview of an issue as it applies to a specific region, state, country or worldwide.