The Scheme of Moys Classification for Law Materials

Originally written by Betty Moys as a thesis to substitute the missing class K for law materials in the Library of Congress Classification. Betty is the founding member of BIALL (British and Irish Association of Law Librarians).

Moys Classification for Law Books is used by the majority of Australian law libraries to arrange their collections. It is a flexible scheme that can be adapted to suit the needs of very small to very large collections.

Here is the scheme of Moys Classification :

Primary law

Primary Law consists of documents that contain the law, namely; legislation, law reports , indexes, and are arranged by form.
KF - Great Britain
KF 20-34 English Legislation
KF 51-54 English reports of cases before 1865
KF 55 English Authorised law reports after 1865
KF 60 English General law reports
KF 65 English specialised law reports
KF 101-160 Scottish legislation and law reports
KF 201-260 Irish legislation and law reports
KG - North America
KG 1-280 Canada - legislation and law reports (located in the compactus stack)

KG 301-377 United States - legislation and law reports (the National Reporter System at KG 352 - located in the compactus stack)

KH - Australia and New Zealand (appears first in the sequence because you place your home jurisdiction first)

KH 6-22 Commonwealth - legislation
KH 41-47 Commonwealth - law reports
KH 62-69 New South Wales - legislation
KH 75-77 New South Wales - law reports
KH 82-89 Queensland - legislation
KH 95-97 Queensland - law reports
KH 102-109 South Australia - legislation
KH 115-117 South Australia - law reports
KH 122-129 Tasmania - legislation
KH 135-137 Tasmania - law reports
KH 142-149 Victoria - legislation
KH 155-157 Victoria - law reports
KH 162-169 Western Australia - legislation
KH 175-177 Western Australia - law reports
KH 182-189 Northern Territory - legislation
KH 195-197 Northern Territory - law reports
KH 201-209 ACT - legislation
KH 235-298 Australian Territories - legislation
KH 306-322 New Zealand - legislation
KH 341-347 New Zealand - law reports

Primary law shelving order

The home jurisdiction (KH for Australia and New Zealand) are located first in the primary law sequence, Great Britain (KF) follows next in the sequence, and North America (KG) is housed in the compactus stack due to space constraints (20,000+ volumes)

KF/23.C1/CUR Current law statutes annotated
KF/23.H1/HAL Halsburys statutes
KF/23.L1/LAW Law reports
KF/26/IND Index to the statutes 1235-1989
KF/51.S2/BAR Star Chamber proceedings
KF/53.E6/ENG English reports
KF/60.A4/ALL All England reprints 1558-1935
KF/60.A5/ALL All England reports 1936- present
KH/6/AUS Australia. Senate bills
KH/7/AUS Australia. House of Reps bills
KH/16/AUS Australia. Commonwealth Acts
KH/21/AUS Australia. Commonwealth statutory rules
KH/41/AUS Commonwealth law reports

Secondary law

Comments on and discusses primary materials and includes text books, monographs and treatises, and are arranged by subject

KA - Jurisprudence
KB - General and Comparative Law
KC - International Law (primary and secondary)
KD - Religious legal systems
KE - Ancient and Medieval law
KL - Legal systems - Common law

Covers non-specific legal topics such as the legal profession, legal education, research, administration of justice and legal history
KM - Public law - Common law
Governs the relationship of individuals and the state and includes constitutional and administrative law, taxation and criminal law.
KN - Private law - Common law
Regulates the relationship between individuals and includes contract, torts (negligence actions), property, family, health, industrial, equity, trusts, corporate and commercial law.
KR - Africa (primary and secondary)
KS - Latin America (primary and secondary)
KT - Asia and Pacific (primary and secondary)
KV - Europe (primary and secondary)
KZ - Non-legal topic (combination of KZ and a Dewey number to incorporate non-legal material)

Secondary law shelving order

KL/93.G1/CLA Advocacy techniques
KL/93.K1/CLA Trial tactics in Australia
KL/101.3/CLA A history of Gray's Inn barristers
KL/241.G1/SMI A history of US judges
KL/241.K2S/SOU South Australian judges - a controversy
KM/61/WAD British constitutional law
KM/70/CON Canadian constitutional law
KM/76/LUM Australian constitutional law
KM/76/MAK Constitutional law of Australia
KM/76/SAW Constitutional law
KM/335.K1/AUS Australian taxation law
KM/337.11.K1/AUS Income tax law in Australia
KN/112.A1/CAM British copyright law
KN/112.G1/TRA US copyright laws
KN/210.A1/CLA English trust law
KN/210.F1/CLA Canadian trusts
KN/210.K1/PAR Australian trust law
KN/213.K1/TRU Capacity in trust law
KN/284.K1/NAP Consumer law in Australia
KZ/302.3/MUL Handbook of persuasive tactics
KZ/305.4/FEM Feminist contentions
KZ/418.02026/PRO Justice as translation
KZ/791.4372/FEW A few good men
KZ/973.9/BUR Crossing the postmodern divide

Law Reference

Attorney-General's Reference Classification Scheme (this scheme was chosen because it has a far more detailed subject/number choice than Moys reference numbers).
REF/K2 - REF/K340
REF/K2 - Citators, Digests, Encyclopaedias
REF/K40 - Legal Bibliographies
REF/K190 - Legal Research
REF/K200 - Abbreviation Manuals
REF/K210 - Legal Dictionaries
REF/K220 - General Dictionaries
REF/K230 - Subject Dictionaries
REF/K250 - Legal Directories
REF/K330 - Encyclopaedias

Law reference shelving order

REF/K/2.A1/CUR Current law year book
REF/K/2.G1/WES Centennial digest
REF/K/2.K1/AUS Australian digest
REF/K/218.K1/JOU Australian encyclopaedia of forms and precedents
REF/K/252.K1/BOW The Macquarie easy guide to Australian law
REF/K/317.K1/AUS Quarterly legal and statistical bulletin
REF/K/332/INT International encyclopaedia of forms and precedents

Law Journals

K1/First three letters of the title, then file alphabetically by title. The theory of placing law journals unclassified lies in the need to find the journal citation without using the library catalogue. The titles of many law journals give no indication of the country of origin, and classification by subject and jurisdiction can be a hindrance. The ease of finding journals is more important to most lawyers than subject classification.

Law journal shelving order

K1/AUS Australian bar review
K1/AUS Australian business law review
K1/AUS Australian family lawyer
K1/AUS Australian journal of law and society
K1/JOU Journal of business law
K1/JOU Journal of contract law
K1/JOU Journal of law and economics
K1/LAW Law and history review
K1/LAW Law and philosophy

K1/LAW Law quarterly review
K1/LAW Law society journal