Library guides: Legal Research Skills: Commentary

What is commentary?

Legal commentary publications (sometimes called 'loose-leaf services') regularly update legal topics and comment on the law with reference to legislation and cases.

Each of the legal publishers produce their own commentaries. It is recommended that you search across all databases to ensure you find all the relevant commentary on your topic.

Key databases for commentary

Westlaw Australia
Includes legal commentary across many subject areas, with particular strengths in administrative, banking & finance, bankruptcy & insolvency, commercial, competition & consumer, contract, corporations, criminal, employment, evidence, food & liquor, immigration, Indigenous, IP & technology, local government & planning, practice & procedure, property, sports, tax, torts, and traffic law.
Lexis+ (Australia)
To be used exclusively for academic research only.

Provides Australian case law (including the CaseBase case citator), legislation, journals, commentary (including a comprehensive legal dictionary & the Halsbury's legal encyclopaedia), and practical guidance modules. Some international content (NZ, UK, US, Canada & Hong Kong) is also included.

View the Lexis+ (Australia) Help pages to get started.
View list of all sources or follow the instructions in the Legal Research Skills guide to access content from the different jurisdictions.
CCH iKnowConnect
Provides subject-specific Australian commentary, legislation and case law, with particular strengths in commercial, competition & consumer, contract, corporations, employment, family, IP, commercial property, taxation, and torts law.
To learn more about using CCH iKnowConnect, attend free live webinars run by CCH staff or read the training guides.
Note: SCU does not currently have access to the personalisation features such as saving favourites, shortcuts, email alerts, folders or search history.

Westlaw AU

To search for commentary through Westlaw AU:

Under Content Type, click Commentary
Click Advanced next to the search box
Use the advanced search form to search by keyword, citation or legislation cited
On the results page, expand the Publication Type filter on the left-hand side to limit to Commentary

Lexis+

To search for commentary through Lexis+:

Click Advanced Search > select Secondary Materials from the drop-down menu
Search for commentary using keywords, or use the relevant fields to find commentary citing legislation or cases
On the results page, expand the Filters panel on the left-hand side. Under the AU Secondary Materials heading, tick Commentary to limit the results.

CCH iKnowConnect

To search for commentary through CCH:

Type your search terms into the top search bar
On the results page, expand the Filters panel on the left-hand side, then under Content Type, limit to Commentary