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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:

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.

Legal case abbreviations

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

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

Database
High Court of Australia Commonwealth Law Reports, 1903- CLR Westlaw AU

Federal Court of Australia

Federal Court Reports, 1984-

FCR

Westlaw AU
Administrative Appeals Tribunal Administrative Law Decisions, 1976- ALD Lexis Advance
Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory

Australian Capital Territory Law Reports, 2007-

Australian Capital Territory Reports, 1973-2008

ACTLR

ACTR

N/A

Lexis Advance

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)

Lexis Advance

NSWLR website

AustLII

AustLII

Supreme Court of the Northern Territory

Northern Territory Law Reports, 1991-

Northern Territory Reports, 1979-91

NTLR

NTR

N/A

Lexis Advance

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

Lexis Advance

Lexis Advance

Queensland Judgments website

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

Westlaw AU

AustLII

AustLII

Supreme Court of Tasmania

Tasmanian Reports, 1979-

State Reports Tasmania, 1941-78

Tasmanian Law Reports, 1897-1940

Tas R

Tas SR

Tas LR

N/A

AustLII

AustLII

Supreme Court of Victoria

Victorian Reports, 1957-

Victorian Law Reports, 1874-1956

VR

VLR

Lexis Advance

AustLII

Supreme Court of Western Australia

Western Australian Reports, 1960-

Western Australian Law Reports, 1898-1959

WAR

WALR

N/A

AustLII