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:
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.
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 |
FCR |
|
Administrative Appeals Tribunal | Administrative Law Decisions, 1976- | ALD |
Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory |
Australian Capital Territory Law Reports, 2007- |
ACTLR ACTR |
Supreme Court of New South Wales |
New South Wales Law Reports, 1971- New South Wales Reports, 1960-70 (view online only) |
NSWLR NSWR SR (NSW) LR (NSW) |
Supreme Court of the Northern Territory |
Northern Territory Law Reports, 1991- |
NTLR NTR |
Supreme Court of Queensland |
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- |
SASR SASR SALR |
Supreme Court of Tasmania |
Tasmanian Reports, 1979- |
Tas R Tas SR Tas LR |
Supreme Court of Victoria |
VR VLR |
|
Supreme Court of Western Australia |
Western Australian Reports, 1960- |
WAR WALR |
Legal abbreviations are often used to identify legal publications such as law reports and journals. Use one of the following tools to interpret the abbreviation and then you can search the SCU Library catalogue to check for the location of the publication.
Alternatively, you can browse for cases on Jade:
Please go to the database Lexis Advance Research to access this title. Instructions on how to search CaseBase can be found in this video:
Search using a case reference
Search using a case name
Please go to the database Lexis Advance Research to access this title. Instructions on how to search CaseBase can be found in this video:
OR alternatively, search within a specific topic area
Alternatively, to browse cases by topic:
Please go to the database Lexis Advance Research to access this title. Instructions on how to search CaseBase can be found in this video:
Note: you can use the Cases Considered Search option, however, it is of little use by itself, but in combination with the other fields can be used to do things like finding all cases from a particular jurisdiction that have cited something from another.
Please go to the database Lexis Advance Research to access this title.
Alternatively, try the general search demonstrated in the video below.
Go BarNet Jade and follow the instructions in this video.
Please go to the database Lexis Advance Research to access this title. Instructions on how to use LawNow can be found in this video: