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Case Law: Authorised Reports

This Guides provides information relating to Law Reports, Citations and Citators, how to look for specific Cases, using different methods. It also includes links to Databases, to enable you locate Australian Cases and Cases from other Jurisdictions.

Authorised Law Reports

Although all Reported Cases are edited by legally qualified people, those Reports associated with the Superior Courts and checked by a Judge before publication are considered to be "Authorised". Headnotes authored by experienced practitioners and approved by the Courts, allow practitioners to quickly assess the relevance of a case.

When you have multiple citations for a Case always prefer that of the Reported, Authorised version, as it is considered to be the most "authoritative".

In Australia - Judges approve the reports before publication.

In the UK - Reports are edited by the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales. See the Other Jurisdictions tab for more information.

For an insight on Authorised Reports, have a look at this short video created by Westlaw AU. 

Appendix A of the Australian Guide to Legal Citation 4 is entitled Law Report Abbreviations. All Authorised Law Report Series are designated with an asterisk.

This table below summarises the Australian Authorised Reports: 

Court Law Report Series Abbreviation UWA holdings
High Court of Australia Commonwealth Law Reports CLR

Print: v.1 1903-present

Online: Westlaw AU 1903-present
Federal Court of Australia Federal Court Reports FCR

Print: v.1 1984-present

Online:  Westlaw AU 1984-present
Administrative Appeals Tribunal Administrative Law Decisions ALD

Print: v.1 1978-present

Online: Lexis+ 1978-present

Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court

 Australian Capital Territory Reports ACTR

Print: Included as part of the Australian Law Reports v.1 1973-present

Online: Lexis+ 1973-present
Supreme Court of New South Wales New South Wales Law Reports NSWLR

Print: v.1 1901-present

Online: Lexis+ 1971-present
Supreme Court of the Northern Territory Northern Territory Law Reports NTLR

Print:  v. 1-19 ; 1991-2007

Online: Westlaw AU 1991-present

Included as part of the Australian Law Reports v.1 1979-v.79 1991
Supreme Court of Queensland Queensland Reports Qd R

Print: 1902-present

Online: Lexis+ 1974-present
Supreme Court of South Australia South Australian State Reports SASR

Print: v.1 1911-present

Online: 1971-present
Supreme Court of Tasmania Tasmanian Reports Tas R

Print: v.1 1941-1953; 1979-present

Online: Westlaw AU 1979-present
Supreme Court of Victoria Victorian Reports VR

Print: 1957-present

Online: Lexis+ 1979 - present
Supreme Court of Western Australia Western Australian Reports WAR

Print: 1899-present

*Published as the Western Australian Law Reports, 1899-1959

Online: AustLII 1898 - 1958

Online: Westlaw AU 1983-present

 

For further legal publication abbreviation meanings, see Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations.

TIP: To check if a Case has been Reported in an Authorised Law Report Series, you will need to look the Case up in one of the subscription databases! Look to see if there are any parallel citations. If there are, you will need to determine which of the parallel citations is the most authorised. 

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