Asia & Pacific Law
This guide contains regional and selected country specific resources for Asia, South-East Asia and the Pacific region.
Find out more about the legal systems and researching laws at GlobaLex Foreign Legal Research.
The Law Library has historical print holdings of primary sources for a range of Pacific countries. See the individual country tabs below.
Use PacLII for more current online resources.
See our separate page on this guide for China & Hong Kong.
Image source: Wikimedia Commons
Key databases
- Asian Legal Information InstituteFree access to cases and legislation
- CCH iKnowConnectProvides online access to selected CCH commentaries and primary sources for Singapore, Malaysia and New Zealand.
- CLJ LawDatabases covering the Malaysian legal system, including cases, articles, practice notes, forms, legislation and words and phrases.
- Pacific Islands Legal Information InstituteFree access to cases and legislation
- Westlaw ChinaDatabase contains comprehensive laws and regulations, cases from the Supreme Court and provincial, local, and special courts, and select model contracts and legal journals from the People's Republic of China.
Region-wide resources
- Asian Collections Library guide (Monash University Library)Find specialist collections, databases and websites of Asian-language materials with a focus on Southeast Asia and East Asia.
- Asian Law Online (Asian Law Centre, University of Melbourne)Online bibliographic database of materials relating to Asian legal studies.
- University of the South Pacific LibrarySearch online documents and collections.
- University of Queensland Comparative and foreign law guidesResearch guides covering legal research in countries including China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the South Pacific region.
Country resources
Cases & Legislation
Featured Books
Cases & Legislation
Legislation
Cases & Legislation
Legislation & Cases
Cases & Legislation
Legislation
Cases
Gazettes
Legislation
- Guam Legislature (1st legislature to current)Public laws, bills and resolutions, and committee reports.
- Guam-federal digest 1950-1987Digest of all published Guam cases reported in the Supreme Court reporter, Federal reporter 2d, and the Federal supplement.
Featured Books
Water Law in India by ISBN: 9780199472475Publication Date: 2017
Databases
- Manupatra: India law legal databaseIndian primary and secondary materials.
Legal encyclopaedia
Legislation
Cases
Historical sources
Legislation
Indonesian Law by ISBN: 9780199677740Publication Date: 2018Covering a wide range of substantive topics from public to private law, including commercial, criminal, and constitutional law, it is the first comprehensive survey of Indonesian law in English.
Cases
- Constitutional Court of the Republic of IndonesiaThe website and decisions are in both English and Indonesian.
Treaties
Parliamentary Debates and Papers
Legislation
Legislation
- EHS Law Bulletin Series (print)Contains almost all principal laws and orders of Japan written in English.
Legislation
Legislation
- Korea Legislation Research InstituteActs or subordinate statutes of the Republic of Korea, in both English and Korean.
Cases
- Supreme Court of Korea decisions: guideSelected Supreme Court Decisions or Orders delivered from 2000 - present.
- Constitutional Court of Korea decisionsInformation on English translations of the Constitutional Court of Korea’s decisions, mostly summaries of decisions. Full-text is available for some cases of international significance.
Journals
Databases
- CLJ LawEnglish language database aiming to contain the full-texts of all Malaysian cases and federal acts, including new bills, acts, subsidiary acts and amending acts.
- CCH iKnowConnect - MalaysiaUse menu at top of page to change from Australia to Malaysia, then use the left-hand menu to locate 'Your practice areas' then 'Income tax' and 'Commentary'.
Featured books
Legislation
- Federal ConstitutionAvailable in English.
Cases
Treaties
Cases & Legislation
- Marshall Islands JudiciaryCourt information, Supreme Court decisions, selected High Court and Traditional Rights Court decisions, Constitution, statutes, and selected regulations.
Databases
Cases & Legislation
Gazettes
Cases & Legislation
- Court Listener by the Free Law ProjectSearch for published opinions from the Supreme Court of the Northern Mariana Islands through 'Select Jurisdictions'.
- Northern Mariana Islands legislature: Commonwealth Law Revision CommissionNorthern Mariana Islands Commonwealth Legislature website, including Constitution, administrative code, and judiciary information
- Northern Mariana Islands Reporter (1989-1999) (online)Available via Harvard Law School's Caselaw Access Project
- United States Courts OpinionsNorthern Mariana Islands appears in 'Appellate' section under 'United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit', or in 'District' section under 'United States District Court District of Northern Mariana Islands'.
Gazettes
Cases
Research Guides
Gazettes
Cases & Legislation
- Philippine Laws and Jurisprudence databank (by Lawphil Project)Searchable database of documents including the Constitution, statutes, and judicial issuances.
Gazettes
- Parliament of Samoa: Parliamentary BusinessContains information about bills, acts and regulations, committee reports, Hansard, and papers of the Parliament.
- Samoa Legal Information Institute (SamLII)A searchable repository of Samoan legal information including the decisions of the Supreme Court, legislation and public secondary legal materials.
Databases
Legislation
Cases & Legislation
- PacLII Solomon Islands Primary MaterialsIncludes case law, legislation, and Constitution, as well as digital versions of the Solomon Islands Law Reports (1980-1990).
Cases & Legislation
Gazettes
Research Guides
Cases & Legislation
- Government of Timor-LesteLegislation available through top-level menu
Cases & Legislation
Databases
- PacLII Vanuatu: Primary materialsIncludes court judgments, legislation, the Constitution, and the Vanuatu Law Reports (1980-1994)
- Parliament of Vietnam: Legal Normative Documents portalCoverage of Vietnamese legislation is incomplete, but includes official English translations of documents such as laws, codes, resolutions, circulars, and decrees.
- WorldLII: VietnamIncludes commentary, law journals, and legislation.
Gazettes