LibGuides: Law (Postgraduates): Case law

Key databases for finding case law

The Library provides access to a range of specialised databases which you can use to find case law. The following will be useful for finding cases on your legal topics:

AustLII This link opens in a new window

BarNet Jade

BAILII - British and Irish Legal Information Institute This link opens in a new window
CCH IntelliConnect This link opens in a new window
ICLR This link opens in a new window
Lexis Advance Research This link opens in a new window
Provides Australian case law (including the CaseBase case citator), legislation, journals & commentary (including a comprehensive legal dictionary & the Halsbury's legal encylopaedia). Some international content (NZ, UK, US, & Canada) is also included.
View the Lexis Advance Research Quick Guide to get started. To be used exclusively for academic research only.

Lexis Advance Research Quick Guide

LexisNexis International (now available on Lexis Advance Research) This link opens in a new window
Thomson Reuters Westlaw This link opens in a new window
Westlaw AU This link opens in a new window
WorldLII - World Legal Information Institute This link opens in a new window

Judgments and decisions from Australian courts and tribunals

Latest cases

BarNet Jade Digests
Jade provides digests for major Australian court sites using RSS technology. You can keep an eye on the most recently released court decisions from your choice of selected courts in a single place. As you scan through the handy summary, you can click through to the full case, read it online, print it, or JADEmark it for later.

Case citators

A case citator is a legal research tool which helps you to track the history of a case and the treatment of the case by subsequent courts. Citators allow you to determine if a case is still good law and it acts as noting up tool, allowing you find other cases (and secondary materials) which have cited the original case.

CaseBase (Lexis Advance Research) This link opens in a new window
Westlaw AU This link opens in a new window
LawCite (AustLII) This link opens in a new window

BarNet Jade

Legal case abbreviations

Use the following tools to find commonly used law report series and court abbreviations.

Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations
Abbreviations for legal publications from the UK, Commonwealth, US, and a selection of other jurisdictions.
CaseBase Abbreviations
Lissts the abbreviations used in CaseBase documents.

Authorised Australian law reports

The following is a list of the authorised law report series for each Australian superior court.

Court	Title of report series	Abbreviation
High Court of Australia	Commonwealth Law Reports, 1903-	CLR
Federal Court of Australia	Federal Court Reports, 1984-	FCR
Administrative Appeals Tribunal	Administrative Law Decisions, 1976-	ALD
Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory	Australian Capital Territory Law Reports, 2007- Australian Capital Territory Reports, 1973-2008	ACTLR ACTR
Supreme Court of New South Wales	New South Wales Law Reports, 1971- New South Wales Reports, 1960-70 (view online only) State Reports of New South Wales, 1901-59 New South Wales Law Reports, 1880-1900	NSWLR NSWR SR (NSW) LR (NSW)
Supreme Court of the Northern Territory	Northern Territory Law Reports, 1991- Northern Territory Reports, 1979-91	NTLR NTR
Supreme Court of Queensland	Queensland Reports, 1958- State Reports Queensland, 1902-57 Pre 1902 Reports (free registration required)	QR (formerly Qd R) St R Qd QLR (Beor), QLJ, QSCR
Supreme Court of South Australia	South Australian State Reports, 1951- South Australian State Reports, 1921-50 South Australian Law Reports, 1865-1920	SASR SASR SALR
Supreme Court of Tasmania	Tasmanian Reports, 1979- State Reports Tasmania, 1941-78 Tasmanian Law Reports, 1897-1940	Tas R Tas SR Tas LR
Supreme Court of Victoria	Victorian Reports, 1957- Victorian Law Reports, 1874-1956	VR VLR
Supreme Court of Western Australia	Western Australian Reports, 1960- Western Australian Law Reports, 1898-1959	WAR WALR