2. In this session you will learn:
Primary Sources/Materials (Statutes, Law
Reports and Government Gazettes)
Secondary Sources/Materials (Books, Law
Journals, Reference Sources, Loose-leaf
publications)
3. What are the primary
sources/materials?
Primary sources/materials are the original sources
of law. It is the authority you use to provide
evidence to prove the truth of your case, for
example:
Constitution
Legislation (Acts or Statutes)
Law Reports (Case law or Judgments)
Government Gazettes
Treaties and Conventions
4. The Constitution is the
supreme law of the country. It
provides the legal foundation
for the existence of the
republic, sets out the rights
and duties of its citizens, and
defines the structure of the
government.
Legislation: The words ‘acts’,
‘statute’ and ‘legislation’ refer
to the law that comes from
Parliament. It is also known as
original legislation.
Subordinate or delegated
legislation are regulations
made by the government, eg.
Vehicle licence.
Law Reports: It’s a series of
books that contain judicial
opinions decided by the courts.
Government Gazettes: All
the Acts and their Amendments
is originally published in the
GG.
Treaties and Conventions:
Treaty refers to a written
agreement signed between
countries or nation states. A
Convention is a special type of
treaty or agreement between
many countries. It is a long and
careful process and end in an
agreement that is drafted and
ratified by member states.
5. Legal Primary
Sources/Materials - Examples
Constitution
Legislation (Acts or Statutes)
Law Reports (Case law or Judgments)
Government Gazettes
Treaties and Conventions
6. South African Primary
Sources/Materials Available in hard
copy in the Law Library
Constitution
Legislation (Acts or Statutes)
Law Reports (Case law or
Judgments)
o All South African Law
Reports
o South African Law Reports
Government Gazettes
Treaties and Conventions
7. What are the Secondary
Sources/Materials?
Secondary materials include all types of legal literature which are not
formal records of law, such as:
1. Reference Sources (Dictionaries, Encyclopaedias and Noter-ups)
2. Law Books (Text Books)
3. Loose-leaf publications (regularly updated)
4. Law Journals
5. Yearbooks
8. Textbooks are a very good source
for starting your research on any
topic. It will give you a broad
overview of the subject.
Best set of books to start your
research is the legal Encyclopaedia,
known as The Law of South Africa
(LAWSA). Is a good starting point
for researching South African law. Is
written by experts in their field and
is arranged alphabetically by subject
and each chapter covers a separate
topic.
Kept up to date with monthly
publications called Current law.
Current law is the most recent
developments in South African law
and very useful for research.
Dictionaries: Why is dictionaries so
important?
The Trilingual Legal Dictionary
provide definitions of legal words
and phrases and give meanings in
English, Afrikaans and Latin.
Loose-leaf: What is it?
Law journals are scholarly
magazines and are written by
academics and researchers.
Journals are also called periodicals
because they are published
periodically, from time to time.
Yearbooks: Annual Survey of
South African law and provides an
overview of the year’s legal
developments by famous judges.
9. South African Secondary
Sources/Materials available in hard
copy in the Law Library
1. Reference Sources
(Dictionaries, Encyclopaedias
and Noter-ups)
2. Law Books (Text Books)
3. Loose-leaf publications
(regularly updated)
4. Law Journals
5. Yearbooks
12. INFORMATION RETRIEVAL
TOOLS IN LAW LIBRARY
What are the information retrieval
tools in the Law Library?
Examples:
a. Juta’s Statutes of South African Index
b. Butterworths Index to titles of Statutes of SA
c. Butterworths Index and noter-up of All SA
Reports starting from:
1828 – 1944 Vol. 1 - Transvaal Cases
1828 – 1946 Vol. 2 - Cape Cases
1947 – 2008
d. Juta’s Index and annotations to the South
African Law Reports
( 1947 – 2008)
e. Juta’s Index and Annotations to the South
African Criminal Law Reports
1990 – 2015
f. Butterworths Labour Law Reports Index:
1994 - 2015
g. South African Law Journal Index;
1884 – 1997
h. Acta Juridica Index
1954 – 1983
i. Current Law consists of 12 review parts
per year and it is organized by subject and
in it is the most recent legal developments
of SA law.
j. LAWSA Encyclopedia is a very useful
starting point for researching South African
law. Each subject entry is written by an
authority in his field.
k. THRHR Index
1937 – 1994
l. De Jure Index
1973 – 1986
m. Industrial Law Journal Index
1980 - 2001
13. Foreign Indexes
As new student you will probably not have to find or use foreign
legal sources but no legal system exist entirely on its own.
Many of our laws are modelled on laws in other countries.
They have more or less the same functions and features as our own
Acts, Cases Textbooks and Journal Articles.
Index to legal periodicals ( Indexes journals falling within the Anglo-American
system of law)
Index to foreign legal periodicals ( Indexes journals from Europe, Asia Africa
including South African journals)
All England Law Reports Index Vol. 1936 – 1965
14. Abbreviations of Law Reports,
Journals, etc. can be found in:
1. Current Law
2. Index to legal periodicals
3. South African Legal Abbreviations by Nico M Ferreira and Karen E
Breckon.
What does the following abbreviation means?
LAWSA
BCLR
ALL SA
BLLR
Stell LR
When do you know it’s a Butterworth case and when it is a Juta?
15. Find Statutes on a Subject:
If you are searching for the latest legislation on
the Divorce Act, No. 70 of 1979
To start the search:
Step1. Find the Index of Juta’s Statutes
Step2. Find contents page and search for:
Alphabetical Index
Chronological table of Statutes
Title of statute
NB. There are 3 routes to access statutes!
Step3. Find the alphabetical index and search
for Divorce
Step 4. By searching through the Index you will
find the key words
Divorce laws: See Persons and the Family
and Marriages and Unions ( 7 ) NB: the
number in brackets indicates the Vol. to use
Step5. Find book Vol.7
Go to Groups and sub-groups
Search for Persons and the Family
Then Marriages and Unions
Step 6: The page number for Marriages and
Unions is pg. 4-213.
Go to p 4-213 and browse through table of
contents and find page number for Divorce Act
No. 70 of 1979.
Step 7. Divorce Act, No.70 of 1979 is on page 4-
232
Step 8.Go to page 4-232 and find the relevant
legislation on the Divorce Act No. 70 of 1979
16. A citation of a case consists
of five components
S v Huma 1996 (1) SA 232 (W)
1. Case name S v Huma
2. Year and volume case was reported 1996 (1)
3. Series of Law Reports SA
4. Page where case starts 232
5. Court in which case was decided (W)
17. Finding cases:
For eg. If you have an incomplete citation of a case for eg .
Johnson v Minister of Home Affairs, Start your search this way:
Step1. Find The Index and Noter-up of SA Law Reports.
Step2. Look under cases report in alphabetical order and find the full
citation of the case.
Eg. Johnson v Minister of Home Affairs 1997 (2) SA 432 ( C )
