THE COLLECTION The Supreme Court Library is primarily a reference collection for the use of the judges of the Court and members of the legal profession. The collection consists of texts, law reports, journals, and unreported judgments. Materials can be consulted in the Library, and can only be borrowed by members of the legal profession to take into Court if required for Court proceedings. Inter-library loan arrangements to other Libraries are available subject to the discretion of the Librarian.

The library holds a collection of JUDGMENTS dating back to the 1950s. Most of the unreported judgments have been scanned into electronic format, and are available through links on the judgment catalogue record. Where a judgment has been officially reported there is no link, but the catalogue record will show a citation to the relevant Law Report. Until the 1980s there was no formal system for collecting these judgments, so the earlier holdings are very incomplete. (Therefore, the Library does not necessarily hold a complete collection of ALL judgments of the Victorian Courts).

High Court judgments from 1991 onwards are included in the Unreported Judgments collection.

Note that where a trial was held before a jury, there is no record of reasons for the jury verdict, as juries do not give reasons. This applies to both civil and criminal matters. The Library may, however, hold the judge's sentencing remarks, if the accused was found guilty. If you are looking for material relating to serious crimes of this nature, newspaper archives will probably be of more use than the Library catalogue.

The ARTICLES INDEX contains selected abstracts of articles from legal journals held by the Library. It is therefore not an exhaustive index, and dates from 1991 only.

The LEGISLATION INDEX lists gazette notice, proclamations, and commencement details for Commonwealth and Victorian acts from 1991 onwards.

DISCLAIMER. The Library does not guarantee that the information provided in these catalogues and indexes is a complete and accurate record of all judgments handed down or of all legislation made by the Victorian or the Australian government.