Untitled Note
Tue, 3/1 2:56PM 4:00:01
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
research, journal article, essay, databases, rights, find, question, legal, human rights, case, search,
class, material, new south wales, terms, identify, moodle, general, great, australia
06:56
Hello everyone, as usual, we'll get started at 605. If you haven't had the opportunity yet, I've
once again included an edited version on the power of PowerPoint slides in the class six. So
weeks week three class six section on Moodle. You can find a short version of the short version
that is like a short version of tonight's PowerPoints there, and then the full set will be released
at 730 When we finish the class. So one more minute and then we will get started on the safe
means or today's class might be on moment.
08:37
Alright, let's get started with today's class. And so in today's class, we're looking at the topic of
practicing legal research through databases. And we touched on this a bit last night with a bit
of an introduction to some of the databases that you would have got a bit more experience
with looking at the module looking at my video and then also with the guide to legal research
as well. And so just a reminder that you can find the guide to legal research in the week three
class six section on Moodle and that really does contain a lot of really important information
about where to locate particular types of documents and materials, how to cite them. So, as
we'll talk about more in class seven, we use the Australian Guide to legal citation volume for
very specific there are changes between the volumes, but I really encourage you to work your
way through and hopefully you've had a chance to do that before tonight's class. But if you
haven't just to keep working your way through the guide to legal research and you will have
more of an opportunity to to undertake that research tonight. And then when the search essays
and research log material are released at 730 as well. Or I might do that a little bit earlier
depending on how we go for time. But there's no rush. So in tonight's class, we're going to build
on what we covered yesterday by looking at how we approach an essay question. So
specifically, how do we tackle develop a strategy for approaching an essay question so how do
we what do we do in terms of identifying terms in the essay question, developing a research
strategy for breaking down the research components and what we need to look for? How do we
undertake that research and the evaluate the quality and usefulness of the material? How do
we bring that all together? So everything all the research that we've done, how do we bring
that all together with the next stage after that being writing off? And then I'll also identify some
additional resources for you as well that are on Moodle. And then we'll finish up with just a brief
summary and what and what to expect with class seven, which we covered last night too. And
just to acknowledge that I really do get to stand on the shoulders of giants in this course and I
do have a big a big debt to those who have taught this in particular before just to get certain
Liga physique ski and Allosaurus then the first thing I want to do is just ask if anyone has any
questions from last night's class. Was there anything whereas you were kind of going through
today you're like, Ah, I kind of I think I get what she was saying or I think I kind of get what that
was but can I just share if you want to pop that in the chat or post your hand up please go
ahead. Don't worry, we're not going to do a little luck a little quick is like what I'm trying to
think of what kind of credits I would make you making to work out. What are the two
subscription databases that I mentioned last night? Not going to do that? Hi, I'm going to take
that silence as my cue ball. No, it's It's actually just daunting. Yeah, I can appreciate that. It's
um, yeah, I can really appreciate that. All of the everything that you've always wanted to hear
that was useful, Audrey. That's great. As I've kind of said, ad nauseum in previous classes, you
really are getting so much information in such a short amount of time. And this is and there's a
reason we do that because we want to be able to prepare uses those skills for your courses that
you might be doing now or in future terms. And so that's why the course really is front loaded
like this. But you are getting a lot of introductory information not only in those legal concepts,
but also in how to go about your research, hopefully today and the resources that hopefully
today's class will go through in terms of tackling a searcher say developing research surgery.
So that I appreciate that for some of you this might be what you do every day, you receive a
problem and you need to figure out how to tackle it. And so some of these it's very likely that to
many of you, at least some of what I'm going to say is very likely,
13:37
is something that you've thought about a lot or regularly but hopefully it will help fill in some
gaps and particularly supplement your existing knowledge, particular strategies about
developing your legal research skills, being able to identify good label materials for your work
in the future. So let us begin Okay, so this is a practice essay question. It's not the essay one of
the essay questions that's going to be released tonight. It is an essay question that we're going
to work through in tonight's class and I will be putting you into small terms. So little bit later on
so that you can together in a group environment workouts, ways of approaching this I'm going
to give you some questions you'll you may have seen those already in the the slides for
tonight's class, but this is what this is the essay question that we're going to use as an example
to work through this evening. And as I said before, some of the things we do may be very
obvious to do to us. Some of them may be entirely new, so I really do think that there'll be
something for everyone in tonight. So, our research question, our practice research question is
as follows. assess whether New South Wales should follow the lead of other Australian states
and territories and introduce a formal Bill of Rights. Okay, we've got our essay question where
to from here. So the first place to start when looking at a new research essay question is
assessing the question what you know about the topic already, and undertaking some basic
research on that topic, to help supplement what you know, and also to figure out what to do
next. So often just a really simple place to start is with a brainstorm. What do you know about
the topic? Then? What are you being asked to do? So to look at the task words, and we'll talk
about what those in the moment in a moment what are you being asked to do by the question
in terms of not the substance of the question, but are you being asked to assess for consider or
analyze or examine and they can be subtle differences between each of those terms, which is
why it's important to think about that. So you need to think about what you're being asked to
do in terms of the task word that you're being directed to do and what you're being asked to
write about. So the substance of the essay, what are the key words in the essay question that
kind of help you along your way, or they're designed to help you along your way Google and
Wikipedia. As I said last night, a group of basic introductions to topics. But as we said,
Wikipedia is not appropriate for research per se. And you need to be critical with sources that
you find via Google, which we'll talk about more later. And then it's also help helpful to start off
by consulting any legal encyclopedias. So like the laws of Australia, which is accessible via the
UNSW library, or any legal dictionaries, as well for more precise definitions of any terms.
Alright, so tackling a research essay question in the essay question that we have the task
words that we have is assess.
17:45
Sorry, assess whether New South Wales should follow the lead of other Australian states or
territories and introduce a formal Bill of Rights. So a really useful was boss is actually this
glossary of task words, which you can find via the link on the slides there. And again, this may
feel a little bit of yours. So you're like, I can't I can't believe I'm being told to. You know, what
argue means. But for some of you, you may not have done this for a while for some of you, you
may not have have had to your previous degree may not have been very legal focused or some
arts or very humanities focused. So this type of information can be really helpful. So it's great.
This resource is great to help you understand what you are being asked to do, by research
essay questions. So without question, the task word is the fifth. And this glossary of textbooks
defines assess as consider the value or or importance of something, paying due attention to
positive, negative and disputable aspects, and citing the judgments of any known authorities as
well as your own. So in assessing something you are being asked to in in this question, you're
being asked to assess and really that means weighing up the positive and negative aspects of
this proposition and putting forward your opinion as to whether or not it should occur. So the
next step you've been told to assess, okay, so what are you actually being expected to assess
that, though, what I have circled in blue, that's what you're being asked was this, whether one
New South Wales so at the state of New South Wales, you're not just being asked at a general
level of bills of rights and states and territories any good you're being asked to assess with a
New South Wales specifically to whether it should follow the wage. So whether it's to do but
some other Australian states, states and territories have done and then pray, whether it should
follow their lead and introduce a formal Bill of Rights. So you've got your task word which is
assess, you're being asked to put forward the positive and negative aspects and reach a
determination as to whether New South Wales should follow the leaf so should do what other
states and territories have done. And introduce a formal Bill of Rights. I lifts them we've got
from this, we've been told what we need to do in terms of the form in terms of what we're
being asked to do. We know what we're being asked to write about, but where do we start our
research? And that's when again, you need to closely read what is provided in the research
essay question. So if you want to answer in the chat, or if you want to put your hand up what
are the key terms in this essay question. It's clear that your essay needs to assess whether
New South Wales specifically should introduce a bill of rights. But what clues does the question
itself give you as to search terms to start with? So if you want to put your hand up or pop a
response in the chat, what are some of the things that the question itself is giving you some
hints about as to where you might start your research? If you were tackling this question, what
are some of the parts of the questions some of the terms of the questions? things give you an
idea of where to start learning? Thank you Sorry, buddy, do you want to go ahead?
22:51
Sorry, my technology. I would first of all, if you can see my other Australian states have a bit of
rights. Yep.
22:59
Yeah, good. Good. Excellent. So yep. Yeah, great. Excellent. So we've got So Bernie, your
response was great. Now, what Australian states have done so bright, so ready, right? To do
sprints of the new south of the gills with resell rights, so perhaps why we haven't introduced
one. potentially look at other states. Yep. And what deficiencies lead to it. Right, Joshua? Yeah.
The difference of the Bill of Rights between New South Wales in Australia. Yeah, that's great.
And actually, if you did that, you would find out that Australia doesn't have a bill of rights. So
that's it. So itself is interesting, and there's been a lot of discussion about that. And that's one
of the reasons that has led to the number of states and territories despite the good thing, but
good introduced the bill of rights. So for the good responses or well. So, once you've
determined do a few searches on Google. See if you can find out any more. Any further
relevant, more precise information that will help you then refine your research so some of the
questions that this essay question itself this one question gives rise to is, as you correctly
identify, Okay, one place to start is what other states and territories actually have formal
documented bills of rights. What is in those bills of rights? And what are some of the key
sections has there been much interpretation of these materials? Then what's the position in
new stuff by always how are these How was similar rights protected? So if it's not through a
formal Bill of Rights, have these been protected through for example, other legislation or the
courts? Is that protection adequate? As New South Wales previously considered introducing a
bill of rights, if yes, why did it decide not to do that? And what has scholars said so what have
academics or lawyers or politicians said about introducing a formal Bill of Rights in New South
Wales or in Australia more generally? So from this one question, you can see that there is a
variety of places that you can start your research that one question has given rise to the
following five different research questions or ways you can start thinking about your research.
Looking for states that would be the simplest way to proceed, is to actually find out okay, what
other states and territories have introduced those and where can I find them and have a read
through those? That is probably the simplest and most efficient way of beginning but then you
have a lot of other questions that will help you use your research topic, the topic of this essay
as well. Okay, so Wayne so you've you've identified your task once you've identified what
you're being asked to do. You've identified the key terms from the question and some of the
bigger questions that will help you answer or some of the questions that you'll need to answer
in order to answer the essay question itself. You sit down, you do a bit of research on Google or
Wikipedia. And then come back and you write down your ideas. What have you found out
already from just doing some basic searching around this particular search? Have you found
out what states and territories might have bills of rights? Have you found something that says
why New South Wales has decided not to do this?
27:42
From at this next stage, you'll likely come up with, for example, a list of statutes a list of other
bills of rights or human rights that that will give you a place to start when it sorry, let me
rephrase that. You'll likely have come up with a list of resources, like Human Rights Act, other
bills of rights that have been passed in other states and territories. And you can use those as a
hot focused tool. You can search for those in more specific databases like Westlaw, like awfully
like LexisNexis and that will give you a good place to start. But at the same time, you might not
have come across much material yet depending on the question. And so something you may
need to do is actually refine your search term. If you put human rights Australia into Google,
you're going to come back with a lot of material and a lot of it isn't going to be helpful
immediately or a lot of it is going to be repetitive. It's not going to give you the most targeted
responses or the most more targeted responses that you need. So at this point, you may need
to refine your search term. Does your initial research indicate that there are better terms you
could be using? So for example, could you be using instead of using the term we'll have right?
Could you use something like human rights? And have you encountered the names of of any
statutes or case law that might be useful in starting your research? So the next thing in the
chain in the process, before you begin that next stage, you might like to write down five
possible search terms and or Boolean searches, and then go through so write down your search
terms, determine h database you're going to use, whether there's a particular type of material
that he wants to focus on finding. And from there, for example, you could use your search
terms undertake a search for each of those five possible search trends in Westlaw or
LexisNexis. And honestly, to see what you come back with. Alternatively, you might like a
different strategy before you go straight into the databases. And it is whatever you feel
comfortable with. If it does still feel daunting, then you might like to do just a general search in
the UNSW library catalog. And that will bring up search material that will bring up research
materials like textbooks and legal encyclopedias, which will help us further on the topic without
diving us straight into doing a search that results in 500 cases that you're not sure what to do
with so as you begin your research, generals secondary sources, so textbooks or legal
encyclopedias will likely be helpful, in addition to more specific secondary sources, like books
on journal articles on that topic, and this will help you build up your confidence in locating and
considering relevant primary materials. So finding, finding for example, you may do a search of
the term Bill of Rights and you're looking for cases in LexisNexis and comes back we use 500
different case names and as I said, well that is really daunting. I would be daunted by that. But
if you have a case for her textbook or legal encyclopedia service light filter was Australia that
can help you refine that can help you identify key cases, that will be helpful. You'll be able to go
find that case find the legislation cited in that case. And it's it it will help you focus your
research and start to identify more concrete resources that you can then use to find other
material. So a good textbook really is one of the best places to start, particularly if you have
very little knowledge on a topic.
32:46
All right, the next stage is stage three, the next stage of your research. So if you already know
the name of so if during your pulmonary research, you've been able to identify a case or a
relevant piece of legislation, and you can use a database to find that legislation or that case,
and you might be able to pull up some journal articles like I did. In the video example that's on
Moodle if you're using search terms, so if you don't have the specific name of a case of his
legislation yet, you might just use your general Boolean search terms like or search term like
Bill of Rights in quotation marks and Australia. You can pop that into the library catalog or
Westlaw or LexisNexis to help you identify material and it may take a bit of time to work
through each database. If you are getting large numbers of hits that probably that well that can
mean a couple of things. It can mean that there's an been an enormous amount written. So an
enormous number of decisions in that area. If however, you're getting a lot of hits, but they
don't seem to be directly relevant. They're just mentioning something in passing. You may
need to refine your search terms work through each database slowly and taking notes along
the way. This is an ideal way to proceed. This is a strategy it may not be always be possible to
spend this amount of time working through you're working through an essay question or essay
topic you might be given a short amount of time. And that story is my light going through this
strategy in detail is because it does a quick few with a very focused way a ladder almost of
proceeding through these different stages. So stage one as we saw is assessing the question
and your own existing knowledge and undertaking basic research. Stage two is developing a
research strategy. So after you've done that initial research, refining your strategy for for in
order to locate more specific and relevant information, and then stage three, that next stage of
research heading into the databases and that is what we are going to do now. So I'm going to
put you into groups and this is what I would like you to do and this slide is in the PowerPoints
that are available on Moodle now. So I'm going to give you 20 to 25 minutes and this is what
you're being asked to do. So first up, Camera Camera Camera first, cameras and microphones
on please introduce yourself and where you're coming to class from today. Talk about your and
so just to clarify that this. What you're being asked to do is based on the practice essay
question for this evening. So I would like you to do your research based on the practice essay
question that's in the slides. I think that's about page four for slides. Assist with a New South
Wales should follow the lay of other Australian states or territories and introduced a formal Bill
of Rights. Okay, so that's your essay question. And I would like you to base your research on
that essay. Question. So cameras and mics on, introduce yourself. Talk about what you think
next talk about what you will on the topic already. You might have no knowledge and that is
absolutely fine. There are enormous amounts of areas of law where I definitely have no
preliminary knowledge and that's fine because it means that you're ready to go. Go with your
search terms and think up some search terms based on your essay. No worries Joseph if you're
in your group if you eat, you can communicate via the chat with your group members. Um, so
then after you've kind of talked through what you look for luminary
37:41
your preliminary ideas about the topic what you know already your preliminary knowledge,
then Google if you have my permission, use Google to find out some basic information on that
topic and to refine your search terms. Then utilizing your search terms, and those terms that
you've developed as a group, choose a database, and then try some of those search terms in
that database. You might come up with a lot of material and I think actually probably will come
up with a lot of material. But just have a go with doing some research in that database. And
then what I would like each group to do and just one person needs to post this is to provide a
response to the following two questions and this is in the legal research general discussion
forum, which you can find under the class six section on Moodle. So just one person is fine. And
if you do run out of time you don't get to this that's absolutely fine. If when we come back to
the main room, it would be great if you could just fill us in verbally on how you went. So what
we'll be talking about what I'd like you to post on but at the very least discuss when we get
back what were you able to find out by Google? Did this initial research affect your search
terms and what material were you able to find through the assigned data basis? All right. Okay,
so what I'm going to do now, does anyone have any questions? So introduce yourselves, talk
about what you know at the moment about the topic. Use Google to find out some basic
information, help refine your search terms, and then head into one of the legal databases as a
group and see what you can find there. Can you locate me legislation or case law that will help
you with this topic? If you can answer Question five on the legal research general discussion
forum, but otherwise be ready to kind of talk through your experiences when you get back to
class. All right, it is 637 Sydney time I'm going to give you 25 minutes, so I'm going to bring you
back to the main room at 7pm. If anyone has any questions along the way, please feel free,
free to fry. Feel free to reach out to me either directly through the group chat the class chat or
privately is fine to remain out. So again, if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out
like that. Okay, I'm going to launch everyone into their breakout groups now. It's 637 I'll bring
everyone back to the main room at seven o'clock Sydney time. Please keep an eye on the chat.
Thanks. Everyone.
41:37
Hello
41:47
she said to pause on the general discussion, but I don't see any questions. So where are the
questions? I'm just going to copy paste a question on Google Yeah, or Australian state bill of
rights probably. For me, I have no preliminary knowledge of like Bill of Rights in Australia, so I'll
probably have to research about that first and then search research when NSW and then then
yeah, and finally answer the question. Is Australia even half a Bill of Rights Apparently not.
47:48
Question one. What were you able to find out via Google? Did this initial research affect your
search terms? I was able to find out that Australia had no bill of rights Yes. Yeah, Google, it's
like, um, it's like Wikipedia and then like a lot of I'm not really like trustworthy information. It's
like a lot of news articles a bunch of like, government websites that I don't know if they're, like,
legit or not.
49:06
Yeah. I don't know. Just get a bunch of news articles everywhere
49:22
we read it, we were able to find a lot of articles on Google Yeah, I think they're like wanting to
implement like urging the government to implement like Bill rights but not really like. That's
their own like, opinion though. Like, all most of the information are very biased, I guess. On
Google. Mostly.
50:57
Did the initial research affect your research firms? I think? I think initial research on Google
should affect research in terms of research
51:14
research. I don't mind all the same. But I mean, there was like one, I'm almost off to Australia.
article that popped up on Google Yeah, it's um, Australia. Bill 2017. A Bill of Rights meeting the
human rights and fundamental freedom of all Australians. All people in Australia. And for
related purposes.
52:15
And then just show some on all still Yes. Yeah, even on Google, it's mostly like if you search like
on Bill of Rights Australia, it mainly pops up like human rights. bills and stuff. Yeah, it's all
human rights. The federal government does not want a national Bill of Rights. right to freedom
movement.
53:15
Yeah okay, Greece name the revised
53:37
website
53:43
I'm urging
54:03
for protection of your rights. Yeah, it's cool. It's just mostly like, everything that pops up is
human rights, human rights. Human rights are human rights protected. There's there's one
freedom of movement but it's still kind of human rights
55:12
everything is human rights. Here. Let me go on off till in this page okay, I type B all rights into
all stable, and then I always get a traditional rights and freedom or Charter of Rights or does
mania religious discrimination? How great. That was transitional rights and freedom. This is
2015 encroachment by Commonwealth laws. Try another another research I'm done also.
Talking to you in your library Oh, Asian. If I found this article on Lexis assess Bill of Rights why
now why New South Wales and it's on human rights again this isn't 2000 2000 The second
question what material you were able to locate through your assigned Eagle okay. We used to
exist. We use access axis we were able to find to find an article another call on intent
1:03:44
on course a document. Thanks What is going on in the thing? Oh, they follow the same they
found the same article as me so. Concordia University Library How does she even locate this
dissertation oh hi I love researching through UNSW Library Help me find this journal Okay. Law
Society journal. Number 38 article eight
1:08:35
I'm now sorry um, I hope you had a good opportunity to have a chat sorry to to drag you back
in with some great comments in the chat and let's have a bit of a debrief now. See how you
went and see if you had any difficulties in the task itself. So feel free to pop your hand up or
respond via the chat either is fine. So we'll go through the questions that are on the slide first
and then I'll actually address one of the questions the the scenario that came through on the
via the chat and what you do in circumstances like that. So let's start off then. So basic
question What were you able to find out about this topic via Google? What were you from just
some basic Google searching what were you able to find out? If anyone wants to pop something
in the chat or if anyone wants to put their hand up? Megan, thank you. Go ahead. Thanks.
1:09:48
I did it on the video that I'm
1:09:51
saying those Yeah. Great. Thanks.
1:09:55
Um, on the on Google, we found sort of more general information there were, you know, does
New South Wales have a bill of rights question and it returned or which states had a bill of right
have a bill of rights in Australia. It gives you that general sort of factual information and you to
summary paragraphs and things. Yeah. We didn't stay on Google for too long. We sort of did
that quickly. And then
1:10:24
yeah, and often it's the case. So just having thanks so much, Megan. And just having a look at
kind of what's come through the chat. Yes, two states and one territory, Victoria, Queensland
and the Australian Capital Territory, all have human rights acts. And yeah, you were there when
you would have come across a lot of opinion pieces. Francesca that's a really good point too.
And I mean, once you have that kind of basic information of okay, I know that Victoria,
Queensland and the A CT all had these human rights sites. That's a great place to start. Bernie,
go ahead. Thank you.
1:10:59
This is just a question and not in our chat. So you the question is asked for about a bill of rights
This is just a question and not in our chat. So you the question is asked for about a bill of rights
but everything that we were looking at where human rights act or action rights charter, so is
that is that a rabbit hole to go down? Or?
1:11:14
Yeah, that'd be a little bit actually. Yeah. Because I mean, in Australia, we have these types of,
yeah, basically, they're into like a Bill of Rights size and a human rights are essentially it's
changeable. They're statutes that provide for a list of human rights and you're going to find the
same sorts of things in each case. So yeah, that's in using the term Bill of Rights there. For
example, I was careful to use that rather than the Human Rights Act, because you would have
been able to find those immediately. So that was me being a little bit of a trickster, but well
spotted and they are pretty interchangeable. Sometimes the thing that they might be, but
yeah, in that circumstance, you certainly you've been I've had to driven yourself further into
that hole that would have been closed off quickly go that's a really good question, Bernie. So
the great thing Yeah, the great thing was something like this topic angers or is yeah, you are
able to find some really relevant information quickly, that you can then use too many go
straight into the databases. So moving to that second question, what material were you then
able to locate through the assigned legal databases? From what from what you had kind of
drawn on when you were googling it? Were you then able to take that information, refine your
search terms and pop that into your databases and what sort of materials did you come up
with? Again? Probably pop your responses in the chat or if you anyone wanted to put their hand
up? How do you decide to use which database? million dollar question um, it can just depend so
for example, if you if, if you remember from Yep, if okay. Oh, you found that article? Oh, yeah.
Yep. So in terms of deciding to use which database it can come down to a lot of things it can
come down to a personal preference. As you continue with your research, you might find that
you prefer one database over another. I find Lexus really user friendly. But as we discovered, it
doesn't always have all the relevant information there. Sometimes you have to kind of follow
things up, Westlaw. is great, because it has a lot of the reported case law. So we mentioned
last night, those authorized law reports. And it has a lot of reported cases. So if you are at a
stage where you're ready to really dive into the case law, then that can be good too. So a range
of rate arranges the range of factors can go into deciding which database to start with, but
really, you should be trying to work through all the databases in a systematic way. So I know
that a couple of groups found a journal article that found that Law Society journal article, what
else did you find what else were you able to locate through those databases?
1:14:41
Were you able anyone able to find any copies of the acts themselves?
1:14:47
Any case law was it just that you needed more time or didn't really have enough of a chance to
get your heads around the databases? Yeah, Megan. Thank you.
1:15:05
That's right. Yeah, I did find the legislation for the so the act for the states that didn't have one.
So I just, I didn't have a lot of time to read it. It was you know, had done this to date. It could
click into
1:15:21
Fantastic. Great. Thanks, Megan. I thank you. Yeah, got stuck trying to find the article. Yep.
Yeah. Um, John, yeah, you were also able to find a case and we were also able to find an
International Human Rights Act and New Zealand Bill of Rights great. Um, other anyone else?
Anyone else just want to pop in the chat anything that you are any other journal articles.
Megan, thanks.
1:15:57
Other members of the group so that stellar and night there was a fair bit of commentary on the
blurring the against including a piece from UC Davis. She specializes in constitutional law and it
was talking about shouldn't be while it's New South Wales, Australia. I think it was Australia.
She shouldn't have a Bill of Rights.
1:16:28
Good stuff. Okay, great. So your first kind of deep dive into these databases and to tie it back
with what we're going to be doing. These cells both had an inquiry great to tie it back to what
we're going to be what you're going to be doing with with your research log I now I want you to
take a moment to do something on top of this exercise. So this is just individually and I'm just
going to give you a few minutes and I encourage you to take these few minutes now. So I'm
assuming that every group sounds, some kind of resource, whether it was a statute, whether it
was a case, whether it was a journal article, and I would like you to kind of draft a research log
entry for this particular item that you found. So even the research log instructions document
which you hopefully have a look at already on Moodle and then 16 minutes a updated Research
Log document will be released on Moodle with the essay questions and what you need to
complete for the research log assessment task. as is noted there, our research log is a diary
that helps you to track your research progress. It provides a written record of the research
progress process, sorry, enabling you to keep track of your searches so that you can
progressively refine your research strategy. So using one of the resources that you found now I
have got an act or case name here, but if he found a journal article, think of how you could use
that instead. What I'd like you to do is just for yourselves, but I'm happy for you to post these
on to the legal research general discussion forum and I can give you feedback as well. So the
case name, I'd like you to do what I'd like you to do a draft research login tree. So using an
actual case that you found or a journal article, complete, provide the name and the citation for
the case at a journal article. What was the search terms that you used in order to do this? What
database he found missing? Or where did you find where did you find this particular resource
and why this is relevant to your particular topic. So just taking a couple of minutes now, with
the materials that you were able to gather, select one case statute journal article, just have a
go at filling this out. If anyone wants to put a response in the chat. That's great. Alternatively, if
you want to put it in the legal discussion, or legal research discussion forum, under the class six
section on Moodle, very happy to take a look and give you feedback. But just taking a couple of
minutes now and having a go at filling out a research log entry based on what we were able to
find.
1:20:45
So I'll give you another minute. Just filling out as much info as you're able to there. And then
we'll go through a couple of examples.
1:21:20
Okay, so here's a couple. Here's a few I prepared earlier. So if you were using a case, for
example, this might be what you're sorry if you're using a legislator, a statute or a piece of
legislation, this might be what your research log entry looks like. So you've got the name of the
Act, the year of the Act and the jurisdiction. So the name so the short title and the year are
always italicized. Whereas the jurisdiction is always in brackets and capitalized. And if you were
using Commonwealth it's CT haitch in brackets, New South Wales and SW in brackets, etc. The
search terms I use to find this were not particularly refined. I found this via looking that
searching for Human Rights Act state Australia and this came up through the Australian Capital
Territory legislation register, which is like the Federal Register of legislation, but for the ICT.
And the relevance is, as some of you noted, this is one of the few state territory statutes
governing human rights with the ACT stipulating a range of civil and political rights that apply
to those who are resident in the cabinet in the A CT. Then for something like a case, lander V,
council of the Law Society of the Australian Capital Territory, and the citation it is in the it is in
volume 168 of the Australian Capital Territory reports. Volume 168, was published 2009 And
this decision starts on page 42 of that volume. I found this vise searching for human rights at
2004 in LexisNexis au and the relevance of the case is whether a right to freedom of expression
under the Human Rights Act 2004 was compatible with the powers of the Law Society to
discipline a solicitor in that jurisdiction. So these are just some examples and in the sample
assessments that are on Moodle, you can there are two examples of research logs and the
corresponding research essays and you can find some more information. Where do you keep
this book while you are researching in a Word document or your cloud provider of choice
generally just in a Word document is fine. Or even if you prefer handwriting notes, that way is
fine too. And so these are just a couple of examples, and act and the case and the type of
material that for the research log that he needs to submit. This is the type of information that
you'll need to include. Now you might not have the chance to do this for every case statute
journal article that you find there's a number that you need to provide in the research log that
you'll be submitting as part of your assessment is good to keep notes on particularly where you
identify an important document. Whether it's a case or a piece of legislation, a journal article, a
book etc. Now, just to before we continue on, I did just want to highlight if you haven't had a
look through the chat, there was a really interesting discussion that went on there while we
were in the breakout groups, and it was about actually locating the full text of an article. A
number of groups found a particular journal article. And it was the citation is in the chat. It was
2038 issue eight of the Law Society journal starting page 69. Now I was able to identify that
that was the Law Society journal because I've been doing this a while. But if you are not sure of
the abri what the abbreviation for a journal is. That's again, one of those times where it's
absolutely fine able to find it in Google you could put something like LSJ Law Journal into
Google. And it would like to come up that way or a lot of universities has lists of law journals,
and what law journal abbreviations mean.
1:26:22
And so the problem here was that there was a little summary of the article in LexisNexis, but
not the full text, and that's going to happen from time to time. With a lot of databases. They do
now have full text and you can search only for full text articles. But it can if you go if you
proceed that way, it can limit what you'll find. So even though the LexisNexis database didn't
have the full text, there were also a few ways that you could access it through other databases.
So if you aren't able to find the full text of something, but looks really relevant, don't give up.
Determine what the journal is pop that journal title into the UNSW library catalog, and that will
indicate where you can find a full a full text version of that journal article. So I don't just want to
continue without stages of the research process. And we've been through the first three stages
of identifying the identifying what you're being asked to do and your terms, developing your
research strategy on executing that research strategy. And then your next step is to evaluate
the usefulness of what you've actually found. A general good rule is that it's better to have
fewer very good sources that are up to date than it is to have a lot of different material. Make
sure that you're accessing the most up to date version of any legislation that you need to refer
to and we talked about how to do that last week, for example with respect to the Patents Act,
and where to find the most up to date info. For cases. If you find a case, can you find out via
Lexus or Westlaw or offley How that case has been treated by other courts? Where so for
example, it might be a really interesting and what appears to be useful case but then it could
have been heavily criticized down the track more recently. So journal articles and books as I
highlighted yesterday, all journal articles are not created equally. For you want to be looking for
sources in scholarly peer reviewed journals. And if you're not sure about that, the journal will
say at the in the front pages of the which you can access through the database where you
locate that article and full report. who produced the report? Was it a Law Reform Commission
for example, was it a parliamentary committee or was it was it a perhaps a public think tank
who were paid to undertake that research? And so that may actually skew what the risk what
the findings are? So the next stage is to
1:29:42
review your material, read through what you've collected, develop your position, and
consolidate your research. After returning after reading through your material, it's good to go
back to that essay question and consider your position to the question. Do you have a sense of
how you'll answer it how you'll break it down? Would you be able to write a paragraph
summarizing that and Could you perhaps from what you've seen so far, it or write down a few
headings that will help structure your essay and what do you know is that the case that you've
been able to find these other statutes these other human rights acts so this the Human Rights
sex for these three jurisdictions, but you still really don't know why New South Wales hasn't
done this so you can identify that it's a gap and something that you need to undertake further
research on. And I put a note here that footnotes are a great place to identify further material.
So if you come across a journal article, or a case don't have a look through the footnotes,
because that's where you can find references to other material that we'll keep that you can
then locate and read. And that will help you further develop your arguments. Now. A really
important question is, how do I know when I sort of shouldn't stop researching where do I draw
the line? And it's really easy to fall into a research hole because when you're finding lots of
really interesting information, you will find that he just wants to keep going. But it is better to
do say a day of research, and then read through that material. And if possible, start writing and
then continue your research. If you identify gaps as you're writing. It's really easy to put off
writing and you might like to think about, okay, I know that that work that I've been doing isn't
a legal research. Essay, but how do I approach writing to either leave it to the last minute, am I
good at writing in small chunks? Am I a binge writer? So actually, I will research up into the
night before but then I know my process is just to get it all out is best Azhar to stop your
research, even if you feel like you don't know everything just yet to start and start writing
because at the end of the day, you're not going to be submitting what's in your head
downloaded onto a USB you're going to be submitting your recent essay. And I am yeah, look
there isn't. There isn't a general guidance on footnotes or the number of sources. As I said as I
said, yeah, there's kind of no kind of rule of thumb, unfortunately. It's, um, it's like I said it's
about it depends on the topic too, because you might find two really valuable Law Reform
Commission reports, but there are hardly any journal articles written in the area. So
unfortunately, there's no kind of role. It is really what you're able to find.
1:33:30
Yeah, so reading, the best thing to do is to read the if you find a journal article, but you're not
sure if it's going to be directly relevant to what you're doing. Read the abstract, which is that
short summary. That's a great place to start reading the abstract and then reading the
introduction if you're still not sure is the best way to go. Okay, I've got a couple more slides. If
you do need to go please do, because we are up to kind of what we'll be covering in class
seven. But just to finish up. After you get after you kind of get to that point finishing your
research even if it's just finishing your research after a kind of day or so have gone through the
various databases you're starting to write. This is what we'll be looking at in class seven. It is
really useful to try and write down your thoughts and position on a topic while you're
undertaking your research. So if you're reading a case, it's useful to write notes in the margins,
that sort of thing. Because when you have those notes, you will find it is much easier to start
writing your actual essay rather than just kind of trying to download everything for your head.
And you should also make sure that you're citing according to the Australian Guide to legal
citation, version four, because proper citation and referencing is a very key part of good legal
research. And scholarship. So you can find an abbreviated version of the aglc V four in the
Guide to legal research but you can also find a copy in the folder of the read the readings and
Materials folder for today's class. There's also some additional information here about about
searching and some of the different databases. In addition, we have our legal research general
discussion forum. So posts I would suggest posting questions or general questions in I'd prefer
it if you didn't post specific questions about the essay topics, or how to respond to a particular
research log query. But general questions of I'm not sure where to find this journal article. No
problems in addition, if you would want to there is also a legal research quiz that you can do.
This isn't mandatory, but it's a way of just helping you work through material identified hate
parts. It's there. You can do it. You don't have to do it. I think it is a little bit fun, but that would
be what I would say. Okay, let's finish up there. And we'll explore tackling legal writing in our
class on Saturday 12th of March. Just a couple of reminders that the little search essay
questions and the updated research while you need to look at both of those in tandem. They're
now available clips over while we're finishing up legal concepts quiz you do need to do that
needs to be completed by 4pm. Sydney time this Thursday remember to login but by 2:20pm
to get your full 100 minutes it will close at four o'clock. In addition, you can now sign up for
research consultations. Remember the wiki to sign up for research consultations is on is
underneath the class seven section on Moodle. And just to reiterate, we have that formal class
on Saturday. 12th of March that will run from nine to 11am if it is the case that because of
where you're coming to class from the timezone where you'll be logging in from if it would be
disruptive to have to attend that class. Please get in touch with me and we'll work through
some options. Does anyone have any questions before we finish up for this evening or today
depending on where you're at. And these slides are now available to info on Moodle as well. So
a few different things for you to download. Okay, well, let's finish up there. Remember, you can
email me any questions? And if there's Oh yeah, go ahead. Public Thank you. Sorry. Yeah, quick
question. So
1:38:19
you remember how it yesterday you said that to book the timing of the bad thing after the class
in the Saturday? Yes. Is that open already?
1:38:30
Is that's the wiki that I just mentioned that the class seven section on Moodle. Okay. So you'll
be able to sign up there now too. All right. Thanks so much everyone. Stay safe and well for
those in Sydney in Queensland State drive to and I will see you on Saturday, the 12th of March
but do feel free to reach out with any questions in the interim. I have a deep email obsession so
I'll get back to you quickly. Alright, thanks so much, everyone. Really great work over the past
few weeks. I'll see you on Saturday the 12th but no more Mondays and Tuesdays. I hate thanks
very much, everyone. Have a nice day. Or evening. Thanks. Thank you Bye So you're all just
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1:43:58
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2:18:02
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