(a) Official report series
The official report series for High Court of Australia decisions is the Commonwealth Law Reports (CLR).
The official report series for the Federal Court of Australia is the Federal Court Reports (FCR).
The current official report series for the states and territories are: New South Wales Law Reports (NSWLR); Northern Territory Law Reports (NTLR); Queensland Reports (Qd R); South Australia State Reports (SASR); Tasmanian Reports (Tas R); Victorian Reports (VR); and Western Australian Reports (WAR).
A table of all the official report series for the various Australian jurisdictions is set out in Appendix 2. Where available use the official report series in preference to unofficial report series.
(b) Unofficial report series
Some of the official Australian report series are not commonly available in New Zealand. Accordingly, it is permissible to cite widely available unofficial report series if these are more readily available. One of the more commonly available Australian report series is the Australian Law Reports (ALR).
(a) Reported cases
When citing a reported case, include a court identifier, in accordance with rule 3.2.7. Use the court identifier adopted in the official neutral citation (in accordance with what follows below, the jurisdiction identifier may be removed if it is evident from the report series). A list of Australian court identifiers used in neutral citations is included in Appendix 2. As the Commonwealth Law Reports (CLR) principally contain decisions of the High Court of Australia, it is unnecessary to include a court identifier. However, judgments of the Privy Council formerly appeared in the CLR. When citing a Privy Council judgment, indicate this by using (PC) as the court identifier.
(b) Jurisdiction
When citing a decision of a state or territory court and the jurisdiction is not evident from the report series, include a jurisdiction identifier before the court identifier without a space.
Eg Transfield Constructions Pty Ltd v GIO Australia Holdings Pty Ltd (1996) 9 ANZ Insurance Cases ΒΆ61-336 (NSWCA) at 71,716.
Use the following jurisdiction identifiers:
|
Australian Capital Territory New South Wales Northern Territory Queensland |
ACT NSW NT Q |
South Australia Tasmania Victoria Western Australia |
SA TAS V WA |
Where the jurisdiction is evident from the report series, give only the court identifier and not the jurisdiction.
Eg South Australia v Johnson (1982) 26 SASR 41 (SC).
When available, use an official neutral citation before the report specific citation.
Most Australian courts adopted neutral citation in 1999. A list of when the major Australian courts adopted neutral citation and the court identifiers used is included in Appendix 2.
Note that some earlier decisions have been given what look like neutral citations by the Australian Legal Information Institute (AustLII). These are not official and should not be used.