Cases and Legislation
Detailed information on finding cases, constitutions and legislation for each of the 10 countries in this guide is contained within the individual country tabs. This page is intended to provide access to single resources / databases that either list or provide access to cases, constitutions and legislation for all 10 countries.
Case law - regional resources
- Foreign Law Guide (Brill)(UniMelb staff & student access) covers all ASEAN jurisdictions. Each jurisdiction includes introductory information on the judicial system, lists of sources for commercial print and electronic law reports, and links to decisions on open access databases such as court websites.
- AsianLII(Open access) includes selected caselaw from some courts of most 10 ASEAN nations. However, many of the databases are out of date, so check the currency information on the database pages.
Recent books on Courts and SE Asian Judicial Systems
- Judicial Training in ASEAN: A Comparative Overview of Systems and Programs (Human Rights Resource Centre, 2014) (open access)
Asia-Pacific Judiciaries: Independence, Impartiality and Integrity by Call Number: eBookPublication Date: CUP, 2018
Legal Innovations in Asia: judicial lawmaking and the influence of comparative law by Call Number: eBookPublication Date: Edward Elgar, 2014
South East Asian National Constitutions
Use the resources on the Global and Comparative Constitutional Law page of our Constitutional Law Research Guide to find resources that include:
- Constitutions of all countries of the world
- Commentary on Constitutions
- Tools for comparing Constitutions
To compare two or more ASEAN nations' constitutions, we recommend Constitute (open access) on The Comparative Constitutions Project website. It includes:
- links to the constitutions of all ASEAN nations in English;
- a very useful 'compare' feature which allows Article by Article comparison, arranged by topic.
Warning - while very useful 'one stop shops', many of these sites & databases may not include the current version of a country's constitution. If it is important that you refer to the current version, ensure you access Constitutions from the individual countries' official government legislation websites. Also note that English translations are not official.
Legislation - regional resources
- AsianLII(Open access) includes full text legislation from all 10 ASEAN nations. However, many of the databases only contain sessional rather than consolidated Acts and many are out of date, so check the currency information on the legislation pages.
- Library of Congress Guide to Law Online(Open access) provides links to full text open access legislative sources of the 10 ASEAN nations.
- Lexadin World Law Guide(Open access) includes full text legislation for all 10 ASEAN nations. Please note that, although a potential useful website, many of the links are broken. The site has also not been updated since 2011.
- Foreign Law Guide (Brill)(UniMelb staff & student access) covers all ASEAN jurisdictions. You can search or browse by jurisdiction or subject. Each jurisdiction includes:
• introductory information on legislation, lists of legislative sources, including gazettes and statutes, and in what format these are available (including open access online sources); and
• a list of laws arranged alphabetically by topic.
Warning - while very useful 'one stop shops', many of the above sites & databases may not include the current or official version of a country's legislation. If it is important that you refer to the current version, ensure you access legislation from the individual countries' official government legislation websites. Also note that English translations are not official.