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Pacific Islands: legal resources: Home

Subjects: Law: Foreign Law

Purpose of this guide

This guide is intended for students and researchers studying the law and legal systems and traditions of the smaller island nations and territories of the Pacific Ocean at the University of Oxford, although students and researchers from any field may find it useful.

Use this guide to find out about sources and commentary for Pacific Island jurisdictions, including ebooks, ejournals, and databases.

Pacific Island Legal Resources : quick start

Online resources requiring an Oxford SSO

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council hears ‘appeals to Her Majesty in Council’ from Kiribati, Tuvalu, Cook Islands & Niue

Online resources which do not require an Oxford SSO. PacLII is a recommended starting point, particularly if you are interested in jurisdictions belonging to the common law or Anglo-American legal tradition. 

The Law Bod shelves its collections of printed materials for these individual Pacific Island nations on Level 1 (one floor beneath the entrance level). The books are grouped by jurisdiction, with shelf marks beginning with the country name or an abbreviation of it. 

For these jurisdictions you may find useful chapters in books shelved in the collections of comparative law studies, with shelf marks beginning Cw Gen or General. These collections are on Level 2, the entrance level to the law library.

For more information please see the Books page in this guide

The Law Library's collection is searchable using SOLO, Oxford University's online catalogue

If you are having difficulty using SOLO there is an online guide below,

Your searches in SOLO may well reveal other Bodleian Libraries have material which would support your research. 
In most cases, if you have a current Oxford University Card or a Bodleian Reader's Card, you will already be able to access these libraries - however, please do check information on the other Libraries' own websites, particularly their location & opening hours.

Geographic terms you may encounter, and the countries they are usually taken to include

Oceania: Australia (including Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Norfolk Island) and New Zealand, and the island groupings below.

Melanesia:  Fiji, Nouvelle Calédonie (New Caledonia, France), Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu 

Micronesia:  Guam (United States), Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru,  Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (United States), Palau

Polynesia  American Samoa (United States), Cook Islands (NZ), French Polynesia (France), Niue (NZ), Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie and Oeno Islands (UK), Samoa, Tokelau (NZ), Tonga, Tuvalu, Wallis and Futuna (France)

French Polynesia  Society Islands (Tahiti and Moorea), the Gambier Islands, the Tuamotu Archipelago, the Marquesas Islands, and the Austral Islands (Tubuai Islands and Bass Islands).

South Pacific Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

Related Bodleian guides

Key library