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Case Law: Law 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.

Law Reports: an overview. This part of the Guide will explore the wonderful world of the Law Report!

Law Reports are also referred as Law Reporters or a Law Report Series.

Down the track, an Unreported Judgment may subsequently be reported in one or more Law Report, if it is deemed important by the Judges or changes a significant point of law.

Legal Publishers such as Butterworths, Thomson Reuters, Wolters Kluwer, to name a few, publish specific Law Reports, which can be either Reported Authorised or Reported Unauthorised. 

When Unreported Cases are ultimately published in a Law Report, they are considered Reported and the Publishers allocate each Case a unique identifier known as a Case citation. (NB: You can find out more about Citations in the Citations and Citators tabs).

Depending on the Publisher, the Report is either arranged by year, presented in round or square brackets (the importance of this is explained more later!) or by volume number. The Law Report that forms part of the Citation is abbreviated. Here are a couple of examples:

  • Fraser v Vitkus [1990] VR 125 - the Victorian Reports are organised by year, so the year is presented in square brackets. 
  • New South Wales v Lepore (2003) 212 CLR 511 - the Commonwealth Law Reports are organised by volume number, so the year is placed in round brackets.

For more information on the use of square and round brackets read this article: Legal Research Tips: Square Brackets Versus Round Brackets.

Law Reports compile, index, and publish the decisions of the Courts. They also provide the text of the Judge/s' decision/s. In addition to the text of the Judgment, each published Case generally contains the following text:

  • catchwords that describe the subject content of the Case.
  • headnotes that provide a summary of Judges, issues and the facts of the Case.
  • may also include information on relating to the Legislation that has been considered by the Case. 

Here are some Australian examples of Authorised and Unauthorised Law Reports and the accompanying abbreviation:

  • Commonwealth Law Reports (CLR)
  • Federal Court Reports (FCR)
  • Western Australian Reports (WAR)
  • Victorian Law Reports (VLR)
  • Australian Law Reports (ALR)
  • Intellectual Property Reports (IPR)
  • Motor Vehicle Reports (MVR)
  • Australian Torts Reports (ATR)

For more information about legal abbreviations have a look at our Abbreviations Library Guide. 

You can find Law Reports online from within the subscription Databases such as Lexis+, Westlaw AU, CCH iKnowConnect, or in print format, on the shelves in the Beasley Law Library. You can also search for individual Law Reports by title in OneSearch. 

Now that you know what Law Reports are, continue reading to find out more about the different types of Law Reports and the difference between an Authorised Law Report and an Unauthorised Law Report. 

Law Reports may be connected to a specific Australian Jurisdiction. In Australia, the Law Reports relating to a specific jurisdiction's highest Court, have the highest authority. For example:

  • the High Court of Australia's official Reporter is the Commonwealth Law Reports.
  • in Western Australia the Western Australian Reports is the official Reporter connected to the Supreme Court of WA. 

These kinds of Law Reports that are connected to the respective Court, are known as Authorised Law Reports. 

Here are some other examples: Federal Court Reports, Victorian Reports, New South Wales Law Reports etc.

For a detailed overview and a list of the main Authorised Law Reports connected to various Courts, have a look at the Authorised Law Reports tab of this Guide. 

Cases may also be published in what are called Generalist Reports. Law Reports may also relate to specific subjects or legal areas. For instance, criminal law, torts, family, property, taxation law etc. These kinds of Law Reports, collect decisions on particular areas of law and may also cover several jurisdictions. These kinds of Law Reports are known as Subject - specific Reports. Generalist and Subject - specific Law Reports are considered Unauthorised Reports. 

Here are some examples: 

Generalist Reports (Unauthorised) Subject - specific Reports (Unauthorised)

Australian Law Reports

Australian Law Journal Reports

Australian Criminal Reports

Family Law Reports

Intellectual Property Reports

Motor Vehicle Reports

Continue reading to find out more! 

We found out earlier that decisions may be reported / published in more than one Law Report.

When this happens, the Databases will display all the places the Case has been reported. These are called parallel citations.

For example, the case below was heard in the High Court of Australia. It was deemed important by the Judges and was subsequently reported in the Commonwealth Law Reports, which is the Reported and Authorised Law Reporter of the High Court of Australia. But the Cases' journey did not end there! It was also reported in the Administrative Law Decisions, the Australian Law Reports and the Australian Law Journal Reports. These are the Reported Unauthorised versions. 

Which one should you cite in an essay?

IMPORTANT TIP! To ensure you are compliant with the AGLC4, you must always cite the Reported Authorised version of a Law Report, if this version is available. 

If a Case has not been published in an Authorised Law Report, then you will need to cite, either the Generalist Unauthorised Report or the Subject-specific Unauthorised Report. But which one is more authoritative? You will need to cite the Generalist Unauthorised Report over a Subject-specific Unauthorised Report. For example, the Australian Law Reports (ALR) should be cited in preference to the Motor Vehicle Reports (MVR). For more information on this have a look at Rule 2.2.2, page 50 of the Australian Guide to Legal Citation.

IMPORTANT TIP! Before citing an Unreported Judgment in your assignments, always check to see if it has been reported and where it has been reported. 

You can consult a Case citator in the Australian databases - CaseBase in Lexis+, KeyCite in Westlaw AU, or LawCite - to see if a Reported version is available. If an Authorised Reported version is available, use that version as it represents the highest authority. If not, then you will need to cite the Unauthorised version. If the decision has not been reported in any Law Report, use the online Unreported Judgment and cite it using medium neutral citation style.

Here is the order of authority (highest to lowest):

  1. Reported in an Authorised Law Report Series - cite this if it is available.
  2. Reported in an Unauthorised Law Report Series - cite this if 1. isn't available. Remember: the Generalist version take precedence over the Subject - specific version!
  3. Unreported Judgment - cite this version if neither 1 nor 2 are available. 

Please Note: An Unreported Judgment may be cited as an authority, but it is less persuasive than a Reported decision. Although there is debate about the precedent value of Unreported decisions, in practice and in academia they are heavily used as they may contain the only statement of the law on a particular subject.
 

 

(Fig 1. Images generated using Microsoft Edge's Copilot, powered by DALL·E from the prompt "can you create infographic that depicts the lifecycle of a case: a case is always born an unreported case and is “published” by the Court on the respective website first. if the case is deemed important enough by the judges, they are then published in one, or several Law Reporters.")

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