Although it is recognised that biaxial or triaxial stressing can affect the fracture conditions and stress/strain field of a cracked body, insufficient attention has been paid to how biaxial or triaxial stresses affects the properties of the J-integral. In this paper, two-dimensional incremental and three-dimensional incremental theory elastic-plastic finite element programs have been adopted to analyse the effect of biaxial stressing on J-integral of a finite plate containing a through-thickness crack and subjected to biaxial stresses. Constitutive equations describing the material behaviour were chosen as: (i) the practical stress strain relation of 16MnR; (ii) modified yielding plateau stress strain relationship of 16MnR; and (iii) Ramberg-Osgood representation. The finite element analysis results show that the properties and values of J-integral under biaxial stressing can be significantly different from those under uniaxial stressing. Attention must, therefore, be paid to J-integral calculations when considering it as a fracture parameter to analyse multi-stressing situations. 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.