To find a case by name, citation or subject use a case citator. Citators track a case's history and its treatment by subsequent courts, as well a providing links to relevant cases, legislation and secondary sources. Examples are
Australian State and Territory Judgments on the web.
(Full text of judgments are not available through these sources.)
Understanding all of the elements to a case citation is the first step to locating the report and understanding the court judgments. The table below will explain how to read the citation Mabo v Queensland [No 2] (1992)175 CLR 1 to locate the correct source:
| Mabo v Queensland | [No 2] | (1992) | 175 | CLR |
1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
These are the names of the principal parties. The v is read as" and " in Australia |
This number distinguishes |
This is the year of the report |
This is the volume number of the report series |
This is the abbreviation of the law report series. CLR is the Commonwealth Law Reports. |
This is the first page of the case report. |
The following videos provide guidance on how to search for cases using the specific law databases:
Legal citations use abbreviations for publications and the courts themselves - For example, HCA for High Court of Australia and CLR for the Commonwealth Law Reports.
Find the official abbreviations for legal publications:
