These Fact Sheets are a guide only and are no substitute for legal advice relating to your particular issue. If you need legal advice about your particular issue, please call our FREE Environmental Law Advice Line
Last updated: 27 August 2008
1.2 How can I find environmental laws?
Sources of law
The two sources of law in Australia are legislation and common law (judge-made law).
Finding Legislation Online
There are now a number of different websites through which legislation and case law can be viewed online.
To access New South Wales legislation online, click here
To access Australia Federal legislation click here and search under Act Compilations.
NSW and Federal legislation and case law can also be found at www.austlii.edu.au.
Legislation
Legislation is the main source of environmental law in Australia. Legislation (also called statute law) refers to the Acts and regulations which are made by State or Federal Parliaments.
Legislation sets out the powers and processes by which ministers, government departments and local councils must make decisions about the environment. Legislation also set out the enforcement powers and penalties for breaching environmental laws.
Legislation can empower other public authorities to prepare plans and policies about the environment, eg enabling local councils to prepare local environmental plans (LEPs).
Click here to access NSW legislation as well as all State, Regional and Local Environmental Plans in NSW (Environmental Planning Instruments)
Click here to access Federal legislation on the ComLaw website
Strictly speaking, international environmental treaties and conventions are not a source of environmental law in Australia unless they have been recognised through legislation. To find out more about international environmental law as a source of law, see Fact Sheet 3.3.
To find the text of international treaties and conventions, click here.
Common law
The common law is also part of environmental law. Common law is law made by the courts. It is sometimes called judge-made law, or case law.
Under our common law system, the role of the courts is:
to decide upon any disputes about what legislation means in practice, by interpreting the legislation, and
to determine whether there has been a breach of the law, and if so, to decide on the appropriate penalty.
The decision of a court (a judgment) can form a precedent which other courts at the same or lower level in later cases are bound to follow.
Working out what the relevant environmental law is for a particular problem can be complicated. It may involve a two-step process of identifying the correct piece of legislation, and then finding out how the courts have applied that legislation.
Legal Information Access Centre
For assistance with legal research, consider contacting the Legal Information Access Centre ( LIAC ). LIAC is a specialist information service run by the State Library of NSW and is free for NSW residents.
LIAC provides legal research assistance through specialist librarians based at the State Library.
Sydney : LIAC's Head Office in the NSW State Library holds a range of environmental law texts in hard copy. Through the computers at LIAC's research centre in the State Library, you can also gain online access to an extensive number of legal research materials (eg planning and environmental law loose-leaf services).
Rural and remote access: Many public libraries across NSW have some environmental law texts in hard copy. You can also contact LIAC by email or phone and their librarians will discuss how they can assist with online access to more detailed legal research materials if necessary.
