Authorised Reports are edited and checked by the Judge before publication. A list of Australian authorised reports can be viewed below.
A useful list of the coverage within these reports is available here.
| Court | Report | Abbreviation |
|---|---|---|
| High Court of Australia | Commonwealth Law Reports | CLR |
| Federal Court of Australia | Federal Court Reports | FCR |
| Administrative Appeals Tribunal | Administrative Law Decisions | ALD |
| Australian Capital Territory Supreme Court | Australian Capital Territory Reports | ACTR |
| Supreme Court of New South Wales | New South Wales Law Reports | NSWLR |
| Supreme Court of the Northern Territory | Northern Territory Law Reports | NTLR |
| Supreme Court of Queensland | Queensland Reports | Qd R |
| Supreme Court of South Australia | South Australian State Reports | SASR |
| Supreme Court of Tasmania | Tasmania Reports | Tas R |
| Supreme Court of Victoria | Victoria Reports | VR |
| Supreme Court of Western Australia | Western Australian Reports | WAR |
Unauthorised Reports are published quickly as they are the first version of the judgment released by the court. For this reason they are not the preferred authoritative version. They remain however a legitimate record of court decisions and be be the only source to locate certain cases.
If a judgement is published in both an authorised and unauthorised report series, cite the authorised version.
Examples of unauthorised reports include Australian Law Reports (ALR), Federal Law Reports (FLR) Australian Industrial Law Reports (AILR) and Australian Criminal Reports (ACR).
Case Law is developed by the courts, through Judges’ decisions, based on legal disputes. Case Law is also referred to as Common Law and is not based on Legislation. The courts use “the Doctrine of precedent” principle and the arguments are presented in the courts, supported by reference to earlier cases.
Judges decisions are made available in two forms:
1. Reported decisions are published in Law reports which are the written judgements of courts on points of law. They raise significant points of Law or expand on a specific point of Law already published. These decisions are made in superior courts.
2. Unreported Judgments are not published in Law reports, usually because they are either recent judgments or do not contain significant points of Law.
This guide (produced by ANU Library) helps to differentiate between reported, unreported, authorised and unauthorised versions of a case.