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Law - LLB and other law degrees (1st Year Support): Legislation

Research assistance, subject guides and useful library resources for first year law students, compiled by the Faculty of Law librarians

What is legislation?

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.

Law Database Links

Click on theInfo icon | Myiconfindernext to a database link to find a description of the database

South African Databases:

Sabinet Legal is now known as Sabinet Discover.

South African Legislation

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.

  • Butterworths Classified and Annotated Statutes of South Africa: classified and annotated from 1910 (RMF SOUT) is a loose-leaf edition that is updated twice annually.  Acts are published in Afrikaans and English;
  • Butterworths Statutes of the Republic of South Africa (RMF SUID BUTT) is a hard cover set and statutes are in English only.

Statutes can also be found in electronic format on the UJ subscribed Databases.

Research Support

Find search guides, training videos and tutorials to assist you with searching for legislation on the Research Support of this LibGuide.

Reputable Links

 
Reputable Internet links to Legal Information Institute websites, as well as to South African and International courts' websites, can be found on the Reputable Links page of this LibGuide.