Abstract: Resilience and vulnerability are highly contested concepts. In the context of cities they are often seen narrowly in terms of physical infrastructure, demographic data, tangible assets and documented economic flows. These are very important, but there may be more fundamental contributors to vulnerability in cities as large agglomerations of human diversity, wealth creation and almost infinite sources of potential crises. It has been well argued that a variety of networks underlie resilience, and that these are not always obvious. One area of less visible support that has received little attention in studies of vulnerability and resilience is the legal system. Legal systems attempt to regulate behaviour, allocate rights and responsibilities and hold governments accountable. It is acknowledged that legal practices reflect custom as well as political and economic realities, but we argue that they may have considerable impact on the vulnerability and resilience of Australian cities. They do this through laws concerning planning, livelihoods, commercial practice, safety, housing, and administrative review. The role of law in vulnerability is also examined by considering the vulnerability of those with different levels of legal status, such as illegal migrants. The paper sketches out the arguments with some illustrative examples and in doing so draws attention to an area rarely discussed in the context of resilience and cities.