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Westlaw New Zealand

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Westlaw New Zealand Guide - How to find Commentary

Last Published: October 07, 2021

This guide will demonstrate how to locate, browse and search a commentary publication and where to find direct commentary citing legislation.

Browse to a Commentary Publication in a Practice Area

  1. Select Practice Areas Tab on the homepage.
  2. Select a Practice Area. e.g. Criminal.
  3. Click on Secondary Sources.
  4. Relevant commentary title(s) will appear. Click on the title to open the publication you wish to view. e.g., Adams on Criminal Law.
  1. The Table of contents will be displayed. Click on the plus symbol (+) to expand the table of contents. e.g., Offences and Defences, Crimes Act 1961, Part 10, section 231 Burglary. 
  2. Click on the words of the section title to open the legislation and direct commentary.

Search for a Commentary Publication using the Global Search Bar

  1. To find a commentary publication, type the title into the global search bar and select from the list. e.g., Land Law.
  2. The Table of Contents will be displayed. Click on the Add to favourites button to add it to your favourites for the resources that you use regularly. 
  3. To search the publication, type in your search terms into the global search bar e.g., "joint tenancy" and click search or press enter to run the search.

Find relevant commentary in the Citing References Tab

  1. Enter the section of legislation into the global search bar on the homepage. e.g., s 72 Property Law Act 2007 and select the section from the drop down menu displayed.
  2. The Citing References tab will list any document that cites and is linked to the Provision. Filter citing references by Secondary Sources on the left hand side. 
  3. See that Joint Tenancy is discussed in both Land Law and A to Z of New Zealand Law chapters.

Conduct a search across several commentary publications

  1. Open Secondary Sources located on the homepage under Content Types tab.
  2. Enter your search term into the Global Search Bar e.g., “constructive trust”. Click search or press enter to run the search.
  3. This will search all Commentaries, Journals and Law Reviews, and A to Z of New Zealand Law. Filter results by Publication Name using filter options on the left.
  4. Refine your results by selecting the publications you wish to view, which will appear in Selections on the right. Select Continue, then select Apply.
  5. Refine results further using the search within results field. Enter your search term e.g., “equitable remedies” and select Continue, then select Apply.
  1. Search results for "constructive trust" will be highlighted yellow, search results for “equitable remedies” will be highlighted purple. Click on the commentary title or highlighted terms to open the document.
  2. Tools to print, download or save search results to folders are displayed on the right hand side.

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