HOW TO SEARCH
The ‘search' page gives you three ways in which to search for decisions on the RSAA database, PRECEDENT FINDER, DECISION FINDER and DETAILED SEARCH.
PRECEDENT FINDER
At the left of the page, PRECEDENT FINDER enables you to search by a topic, either a 'jurisprudence' topic or a 'procedures' topic. This is a fast way to access the decisions we think will most help you to understand the RSAA's approach to a particular topic.
Remember though - PRECEDENT FINDER is not meant to be exhaustive. It won't find you all the decisions on a topic - just the ones which are most likely to be helpful. To find all decisions on a topic, try entering the relevant words in the 'search terms' box on the main DETAILED SEARCH feature.
A good way to use PRECEDENT FINDER is to use it to find a key decision (eg, look up "burden of proof" and you'll see Refugee Appeal No 523/92 ) and then use the main DETAILED SEARCH feature to find later decisions which have discussed or applied that key decision.
DECISION FINDER
Frequently asked questions:
RSAA decision numbers sometimes have a year at the end. Do I need to include this?
No. In the early days of the RSAA (1991 to 1992), decision numbers began at 1 at the beginning of each year (1/91, 2/91 …1/92, 2/92 …) but this was discontinued after 1992 and the numbering in 1993 and 1994 simply continued in sequence until 1995, when the 70000 series of numbers took over.
The only years that might cause confusion are 1991 and 1992. There aren't many old decisions on the database however (most have limited value after so many years) and, in the unlikely event of two decisions having the same number, the search engine will give you both. Identifying which one you want should then be simple.
Under your old search engine, I had to put a * after the number. Do I still need to do this?
No. The asterisk was a 'wild-card' character, which was necessary because all decisions used to have the year as part of the 'name'. We've done away with the year as part of the decision 'name' now and so you don't need the * any more.I put in a number but I didn't get any result. What happened?
It might be because there hasn't been a decision using that number - sometimes, for example, an appeal gets withdrawn and so the numbering sequence has some gaps. Also, not all pre-1997 decisions are on the database.
DETAILED SEARCH
This is the main search engine. It's the most flexible way of searching for what you want. You can use the drop-down menus to focus your search as much as possible and also put in your search terms to search only among the selected decisions.
How do I make the best use of the drop-down menus?
DETAILED SEARCH gives you a handy range of drop-down menus which will simplify your search of the abstracts, especially when you use them in conjunction with the 'search terms' box.
The drop-down menus search the 'fields' of the abstracts, so that you can be certain that what you select is accurate and comprehensive. Say, for example, you want to see all decisions relating to the Democratic Republic of Congo. It won't matter if some older decisions referred to "the Congo", or "the DRC" or to "Zaire". All variations will be found.
Depending on the amount of information you already know, you can narrow the field very quickly and easily by using the drop-down menus. Looking for a particular decision but can only remember a few details? If you can remember, say, that it involved an appellant from China, or that it was published in 2000, you can select these from the drop-down menus in any combination.
"Judicial body" - Can I read High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court judgments here?
Yes, some. We've provided abstracts of some NZ Court decisions reviewing the RSAA and .pdfs of those decisions. The full texts are not searchable, but the abstracts are. The number of court decisions on the website is limited at present but more are being added as workflow allows.
Under "Decision Date", how widely does the 'around' feature search?A month or year either side of the month or year you select. So "2001" will search all decisions published from 2000 to 2002.
What is a "Cited Decision"?
A "Cited Decision" is simply one that is referred to in another decision. It might have been referred to because it is being followed, or because it is being distinguished or because it is relevant in some other way. The "Cited Decision" box doesn't distinguish between the possibilities because we understand that the reader probably won't know whether a decision has been followed or distinguished until the later decision is found.How do I best use the "search terms" box?
The search terms box is where you type in any specific words you're wanting to find. You can choose to search both the abstracts and full text RSAA decision or to search the abstracts only. To search the abstracts only, tick the "only search abstracts" box directly below the "search terms" box.
Searching for more than one word is best done using some simple Boolean logic:
- Two or more words are treated as a phrase. The search will look for exactly what you typed, eg jelly beans.
- If you want to search for documents that contain the two terms, but not as a phrase, then you must type jelly AND beans.
- The search understands "AND NOT" and "OR" and excludes them from phrases - eg jelly AND NOT beans.
- The search assumes that "AND" is more important to the logic of the search than "OR" or "NOT". For example, typing in jelly and beans or roll is interpreted as (jelly AND beans) OR roll.
- Brackets can be used to structure a Boolean search - but they must have a space before and after them - otherwise they will be treated as special characters and ignored.
Case-sensitivity, punctuation & special characters:
- We've tried to keep the pernickety rules to a minimum. So searches are not case-sensitive - typing jelly, Jelly or JELLY will all produce the same results.
- Punctuation or special characters (eg quotation marks etc) will normally force the expression to be treated as a phrase eg "2(d)", "people's".
- One very handy exception is the wild-card character * - jelly AND be* will look for anything containing both jelly and any words beginning be (eg beans, beetle, bed etc). Wild card characters are best used at the end of a single word rather than a phrase.
Wild-card characters can be especially useful for finding words containing quote marks (eg shi'a) or accented characters.
- The other exception is joining words with hyphens (-) eg well-settled - this is understood by the search engine to mean both well-settled and well settled. So, if you're not sure if a hyphen should be there, put it in and the search engine will know to look in the right place whether it's there or not.
Can I search by a claimant's name?
No. The identity of all refugee claimants is protected by section 129T of the Immigration Act 1987. You will not find claimant's names here at all.
SEARCH RESULTS
Your results will appear as a list of decision numbers with each one having an abstract, a .pdf full-text decision and an .html full-text decision (except High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court decisions which are available as .pdfs only).
What is an abstract?
An abstract is a short summary of a decision, which records the essential details, such as the date, name of decision writer, country and outcome. It also includes a short summary of the facts and the reasoning for the decision. It is a handy way to get an overview of a decision very quickly.
Why a .pdf copy and an .html copy of every RSAA decision?
We're glad you asked. Not only do e-government guidelines require us to provide both, but there are advantages to each format type. The .pdf file will take a little longer to load but will give you the decision exactly as it appeared when published in hard copy. Think of a .pdf file as being like a photograph of each page. This is especially useful for decisions written before we introduced paragraph numbering, because it allows you to find page numbers, which an .html file won't. .Pdf files are also useful because they cannot be changed. If you want to print off a copy of a decision, we strongly recommend you print off the .pdf file.
The .html copies will load more quickly and are useful for 'copying and pasting', if you wish to quote from a decision. They don't, however, always hold the formatting of older decisions correctly and the page numbering of the original hard copy is lost, because an .html file is just one long 'page'.
I notice some abstracts don't have a full-text decision with them …
Correct. There are confidentiality obligations about the identity of refugee claimants and the particulars of their claims, governed by section 129T of the Immigration Act 1987. The Authority needs to 'de-personalise' all published copies of decisions, to protect the identity of claimants. Sometimes, the particulars of a claim are such that any publication at all will make the claimant identifiable. In those cases, the duty of the Authority to protect the claimant's identity outweighs the public's legitimate research interest and the decision must be publication prohibited. All publication prohibited decisions are reviewed annually to assess whether the prohibition still needs to remain.I've got my results. Can I get more (or less) detail for each abstract you've shown me?
Simply click on the option at top left to select increasing amounts of detail (more index terms) - but remember - the more you have, the fewer records can be shown on the page without the need to scroll down. You pick the format which suits your needs.
Conversely if you want to print a list of decisions, you can reduce the number of screen pages you need to print by selecting fewer terms.I notice the results are given in date order - with the most recent at the top. Can I view the results any other way?
Of course. You'll see that all results found using the 'search terms' box are given a number of ••• as a ranking system. The more often your search term appears in a decision, the more dots it is given. You can choose to have your results sorted by this ranking system if you wish (you'll need to re-select the option each time you get new search results).
