Law Courts Library

Department of Justice is now the Department of Communities and Justice.  Find out more >

Library collection 

 

Library shelves  

There are two physical court library collections located in the Sydney central business district, the largest being the Law Courts Library, located in the Law Courts Building, Queens Square.

The total collection comprises 400,000 hardcopy volumes.

Hard copy collection

The Library holds Commonwealth, state and territory materials. Apart from Australian materials, there are also extensive primary and secondary materials from other common law jurisdictions, notably the UK, US, Canada and New Zealand. The collection includes:

  • Law reports
  • Legislation
  • Legal texts and journals

Collections of historical significance

The Law Courts Library houses a body of rare books, which includes the:

  • William Charles Wentworth collection
  • Sir James Martin collection
  • Sir Frederick Darley collection

Online legal resources

Hard copy library collections are complemented by an extensive range of  online legal resources. Over 20 commercial online services are available,  which include over 150 series of full text law reports, electronic journals, case locators, legislation, looseleaf services and more.