Reference Books
Print and E-Books on Australian Federal Constitutional Law
Law under a Democratic Constitution: Essays in Honour of Jeffrey Goldsworth by Call Number: eBookPublication Date: 2019
Blackshield and Williams Australian Constitutional Law and Theory: Commentary and Materials by Call Number: KM 76 BLACPublication Date: 7th ed, 2018
Encounters with Constitutional Interpretation and Legal Education: Essays in Honour of Michael Coper by Call Number: KM 76 ENCOPublication Date: 2018
Religious Freedom and the Australian Constitution: Origins and Future by Call Number: eBookPublication Date: 2018
Encyclopaedic Commentary
Encylopaedias are a great place to start your research - they provide succinct commentary on your topic and list leading and illustrative cases.
Halsbury's Laws of Australia is arranged by topic and includes commentary and leading and illustrative cases.
- Halsbury's Laws of Australia, Title 90 - Constitutional LawLexis + Australia (UniMelb staff & student access)
The Laws of Australia is another source of encyclopaedic commentary which can be browsed or searched and is arranged by topic and includes commentary and leading and illustrative cases. To browse, scroll to Topic 19: Government in the alphabetical topic list and then use the + sign to keep opening up to more and more specific topics. All topic 19 sub-topics are on constitutional law, beginning with Constitutional Law at 19.1.
- Laws of Australia (Thomson Reuters)Topic 19: Government on Westlaw AU
Australian Constitutional Law Journal Articles
Journal Articles
Journal articles provide current scholarly opinion and analysis of specific aspects of your topic. They are more in-depth and often more up to date than books or encyclopaedic commentary.
Indexes & Abstracts
The following resources allow you to search for many journals at the same time.
Australasian Databases
- AGIS Plus Text (Informit)(UniMelb staff & student access) - articles in Australasian law journals from the 1970s+ - some articles are in full text. AGIS is available electronically from the Law Library’s Research Databases page or the Catalogue. Use this database to search for articles on a specific constitutional law topic eg: separation of powers, or a specific section of the Constitution.
- AustLII (Australasian Legal Information Institute) This link opens in a new window(open access) - full-text journal and judicial scholarship articles
Multijurisdictional Databases
Don't restrict yourself to searching Australian journal databases - many others contain articles about Australian law. We recommend:
- Index to Legal Periodicals & Books Full(UniMelb staff & student access) - this database allows you to search over 1000 journals from all over the world at the same time. Articles are from the early 1980s to the current day.
- Index to Legal Periodicals Retrospective : 1908-1981This is a good source of earlier commentary on the Constitution. Many of the entries link to the full text.
- SSRN eLibraryFull text database of working papers and pre-published journal articles and book chapters. This is the best resource for completely up to date articles. It includes Legal Scholarship Network.
- Secondary Resources of Law - JournalsFor information on other databases to use to find relevant journal articles.
Selected Articles
- HeinOnlineWorld Constitutions Illustrated contains an excellent bibliography linking to the full-text articles. Scroll to Scholarly Articles Chosen by Our Editors for both early and current articles on specific topics.
Individual Journal Titles
Constitutional Law & Policy Review (ceased publication with vol 13(3) in 2011).
- Lexis+ AustraliaFrom vol 7 2004-vol 13 2011
- Constitutional law & policy review byUniM Law P CONS v.1-12, 1998-2010
Public Law Review
- Westlaw AustraliaFrom vol 1 1990
- Public Law Review byCall Number: P PUBL vol 1- 1990
- Federal law review byCall Number: FEDE vol 1- 1964