The South Auckland Research Centre holds a selection of major New Zealand legal resources. These items are available for reference use at the South Auckland Research Centre, and in some cases are also available in electronic format.
Bills (draft legislation)
Acts and statutory regulations
Selected case law
Legal definitions
Legal commentaries
Finding aids
Bills
[
available online]
Proposed legislation is introduced into Parliament in the form of Bills. Bills, which became law go through several stages in their passage through Parliament, and may be substantially altered or amended along the way.
Lists of Bills before Parliament and the stage which they have reached are found in the weekly Parliamentary Bulletin, also held by the South Auckland Research Centre.
See also:
Bills digests and research papers giving the background to individual Bills
Progress of bills before select committees.
Acts
[available online]
Acts, or statutes, are the final version of Bills which have become law. All Acts are given an abridged or 'short' title by which they are referred to (e.g., the Dog Control Act 1996).
Acts are published first individually then in annual bound volumes. Current Acts are also reprinted periodically with amendments incorporated in the Reprinted Statutes of New Zealand.
The South Auckland Research Centre holds copies of most New Zealand statutes of historical interest including a set of the Ordinances Of New Zealand 1841-1853 and the annual bound volumes of New Zealand Statutes from 1854 to 1987.
Historical statutes from 1888-1894 are 
available online.
The South Auckland Research Centre retains individual Acts until the annual bound volumes arrive. Bound volumes are retained without annotation.
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Case law
Case law is the body of law developed by the Courts when interpreting legislation. The decisions made in particular cases often serve as precedents for later decisions.
There are a large number of New Zealand case law publications.
- New Zealand Law Reports, which since 1883 has included the text of the major decisions of most New Zealand higher courts. The Manukau Research Library holds bound volumes of the New Zealand Law Reports for 1975 and from 1979 onwards.
- Thomson Reuters Law Partner database* gives access to:
- New Zealand Law Reports from 1958 onwards
- Brief Case (which summarises important cases)
- Viewcase (which provides the full text of selected cases), and
- A range of employment, resource management and local government cases.
- The full text of Judicial decisions from 2005 onwards are available online.
For advice on searching other case law and/or obtaining copies of decisions please contact South Auckland Research Centre staff.
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Legal definitions
The South Auckland Research Centre holds copies of:
New Zealand Legal Words and Phrases is also available via the Lexis Nexis website.*
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Legal commentaries
Auckland Libraries holds a large number of textbooks and commentaries on various aspects of the law.
The South Auckland Research Centre also holds a set of the Laws of New Zealand, a multi-volume topical commentary in all aspects of New Zealand law.
Laws of New Zealand is also available via the Lexis Nexis website.*
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Finding aids
The South Auckland Research Centre holds:
- Tables of New Zealand Acts and Ordinances
- Lists all New Zealand Acts and Statutory Regulations in force at the beginning of each year - published annually.
- Lists legislation alphabetically by title but does not provide a subject index to content.
- Copies are held by the South Auckland Research Centre, and a number of branch libraries.
- Butterworth's Index to the New Zealand Statutes.
- Thomson Reuters Law Partner database* - search legislation and case law by keyword or subject.
* For licensing reasons, the Thomson Reuters Law Partner database and Lexis Nexis website can be accessed only by Auckland Libraries staff at an Auckland Libraries site - please contact South Auckland Research Centre staff for assistance.
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