Pacific Legal Gateway

How To Use the Pacific Legal Gateway

The Pacific Legal Gateway is a collection of legal research sites from many different countries.

The Gateway has three main areas:

• The header at the top of the page
• The left-hand tool bar
• The centre information column in the middle of the page

Each of these areas contains links to legal research resources. Click on any one of these links and you will jump to a carefully chosen site outside of both the Gateway and PacLII that might be of help with your legal research.

Top

At the very top of the header, you will see links to standard PacLII materials such as the databases and the PacLII search page. You will also find a link to the Feedback page where you can leaves questions, comments and suggestions about the Gateway. There is also a link to the "Report an Error" page where you can report an error you find in the Gateway.

Centre

At the centre of the header, you will find the PacLII logo and the title "The Pacific Legal Gateway."

Bottom

At the bottom of the header, you will find navigational links for the Gateway. Each one of these links will take you to the relevant section in the centre information column.

Gateway Home

At the very top of the left-hand tool bar, you will find the Gateway Home link. Anytime you would like to return to the main Gateway page, click on this link.

Newsfeed

At the very top of the left-hand tool bar, you will find the Newsfeed. For more information concerning the Newsfeed, please refer to the Gateway FAQ page. Under the newsfeed but in the same section, you will find links to important Pacific news sources.

Search PacLII

Under the "Search" section, you will find a section entitled "Search PacLII." This will allow you to search PacLII databases directly from the Gateway. For more information on searching PacLII databases, please refer to PacLII's Search FAQ.

Help

Under the "Search PacLII" section, you will find the final section entitled "Help." This section contains Gateway FAQ's, this guide on how to use the Gateway and general information about PacLII.

The centre information column is divided into three different informational categories:

PacLII materials

The upper most section of the centre information column contains direct links to PacLII country databases. You can access these databases by either clicking on the country in the South Pacific Map at the top of the screen or by clicking on the name of the country in the list below.

Thomson Reuters Legal Databases

The Pacific Legal Gateway provides access to Thomson Reuters legal databases free of charge to members of the judiciary or public lawyers in the twenty jurisdictions that PacLII serves. If you would like access and you meet these necessary criteria, please contact PacLII.

Gateway Legal Research Resources

The Pacific Legal Gateway provides access to Thomson Reuters legal databases free of charge to members of the judiciary or public lawyers in the twenty jurisdictions that PacLII serves. If you would like access and you meet these necessary criteria, please contact PacLII. For a complete list of databases available through the Gateway, please consult the Gateway FAQ.

• Pacific Jurisdiction Links

  Directly underneath the PacLII Materials, you will find the Pacific Jurisdiction Links. These links have been divided into five categories for your convenience. These categories are:

  • Pacific Government Websites - links to government websites alphabetically organized by jurisdiction
  • Pacific Parliamentary Websites - links to parliamentary websites which contain on-line legislation
  • Regional Organisations - links to Pacific or Pacific-relation organisations working in or with the field of different types of law.
  • International Organisations - links to major International organisations which support the rule of law in the South Pacific
  • Pacific Law Journals - links to several academic Pacific law journals

• Additional Jurisdictions

  This section contains links to additional jurisdictions (Australia, Canada, France, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States of America) on which much of South Pacific is based. This section is laid out in a table format which reads from left to right and then top to bottom. You will see that across the top of the table all of the different categories are marked: country, case law, legislation, secondary material. Country names run from top to bottom. For example, if you look at the first country marked, Australia, and then you read from left to right, you will see that there are links for Australian case law, Australian legislation and Australian secondary materials.

• Reference

  Under Additional Jurisdictions, you will find the reference section. This section contains links to legal and general reference materials such as dictionaries, legal abbreviation guides and encyclopedias.

• Additional Legal Gateways

  Under Reference, you will find the "Additional Legal Gateways" section. Each country (Australia, Canada, European Union, France, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States of America) has at least one legal gateway that will lead you to a wealth of legal information for those countries. Do not be afraid to click through these different resources to discover a wealth of pertinent and interesting materials!

• Legal Search Engines and Library Catalogues

  The resources available in this section are excellent starting points for generalist Pacific legal research. Major search engines such as the Findlaw Lawcrawler and Google Law can provide beginning points for in-depth legal research. Library catalogues can help you to find general and obscure print resources that might not be available in your country.

• Legal Research Guides

  One of the Pacific Legal Gateway's goals is to provide legal research training materials free of charge to those using the site. The legal research guides provided in this section include guides to using the Internet, guides to better your PacLII searching techniques and guides for general legal research.

• News

  Part of being a legal professional is staying up to date on legal, local, regional and international news. The Pacific Legal Gateway makes this easier for you by linking to reputable Pacific news sources, both legal and general.

• Research

  Research assistance may be available from PacLII and the University of the South Pacific Law Library. Please feel free to inquire as to the extent of our available research services. There maybe a charge associated with these services. Contact: PacLII