Legislation is law laid down by an organ of the state which has the power to do so. These laws are embodied in writing and are known as ‘statutes’ (or ‘acts’). In South Africa, Parliament is the highest organ that can pass legislation on the national level. The Constitution empowers Parliament to do so. There are also lower bodies, that can pass subordinate legislation such as municipalities that enact by-laws (Viljoen, D.K. (2010), Beginner's Guide for Law Students, 4th Edition, Juta Law, Cape Town).
Legislation is a primary source.
Find search guides, training videos and tutorials to assist you with finding Legislation and conducting research with Legislation on the Research Support tab.
Reputable Internet links to early SA legislation and international legislation can be found on the Reputable Links tab
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South African Databases:
International and Foreign Databases
FINDING SOUTH AFRICAN LEGISLATION
Statutory materials such as the Acts of Paliament are officially published in the Government Gazette. They are also published in consolidated ("as amended") form by the major South African legal publishers, Juta and LexisNexis. The consolidated versions are available electronically on Jutastat Online, LexisNexis and Sabinet Legal.
The statutes are also available in hard copy in the library.
Statutes can also be found in electronic format on the UJ subscribed Databases.
Click on thenext to a particular database link to view the jurisdictions covered in that database.
