Oxford LibGuides: Australia: legal resources: Cases

Australian cases: online sources

Westlaw AU (selected content only)
This resource requires you to log in with your Oxford SSO again at the homepage. Includes among Authorised Law Reports: Commonwealth Law Reports (CLR), Federal Court Reports (FCR), Industrial Reports (IR) Specialist Law Reports include Administrative Appeals Reports (AAR), Australian Criminal Reports (A Crim R), Australian Law Journal Reports (ALJR), Australian Tax Reports (ATR), Federal Law Reports (FLR)
Local Government and Environmental Reports of Australia (LGERA) Also good source of transcripts "unreporteds"
Alternative names: Westlaw Australia ; Australian Law Resources Online ; Legal Online ; West Law AU

Australian Legal Database containing many law reports, journals, legislation, case digests and citators, encyclopaedias and commentary including the Laws of Australia.
Please note we do not have access to all content in this database.
Lexis+ UK
Sources - International Content - Includes Australian Law Reports and Family Law Reports, and transcripts "unreporteds" Change the drop down menu beside the top search box to Australia Cases before searching.
Alternative names:Lexis ; LexisLibrary ; Lexis Library ; Lexis International

Lexis+ includes extensive primary and secondary legal materials from the UK, EU, USA and many other jurisdictions. It is the only online source for the full text of the All England Law Reports and Halsbury’s Laws. International content can be accessed by following the “International” link on the home page. UK legal news and newspapers are also included
vLex Justis
Collects transcripts of Australian judgments.
vLex Justis offers access to a range of law reports, transcripts and legislation from the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the Caribbean, and the EU. For UK case research it has extensive information relating to where cases have been cited, etc including a precedent map.

In addition it includes the full text of the following: Aspinall's Maritime Law Cases, English Reports, State Trials, CCH Tax Cases, Immigration Appeal Reports, Inquest Law Reports, Mental Health Reports, Session Cases Archive, Irish Reports & Digest, Jersey Law Reports, Bermuda Law Reports, Cayman Islands Law Reports, The Singapore Law Reports, and the International Law Reports. Also included in the service is Justis Human Rights.

To access personalisation features please set up an individual profile on the platform using a unique id and password.

Please note that apart from the titles listed above, vLex Justis includes some abstracted materials for which you will need to refer to other online services or hard copy to obtain the full text.

vLex Justis includes content formerly available via JustisOne.
Westlaw Edge UK
Click on link to Westlaw International on home page. Australian materials include High Court cases since 1903 and Federal Court cases since 1984
Alternative name: West Law UK ; Westlaw UK

Westlaw is provided through a generous donation by Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP
Westlaw is a large database of UK, US and international legal materials including cases, legislation and journal articles.
Coverage:
•UK statutes, statutory instruments and law reports
•England and Wales law reports
•US federal and state legislation and law reports
•Australian federal and state legislation and law reports
•Canadian federal and state legislation and law reports
•Hong Kong SAR law reports and laws
•European Union legislation and law reports
•UK and US law journals and texts
•Common Law Library and over 200 books published by Sweet & Maxwell (Thomson Reuters)
Because of licencing restrictions this database is not available to "Walk-in" users of the library.

Queensland judgments
NOTE; Official, open access, website; Requires personal registration. ..
High Court of Australia: Cases heard
Official court website. These are the cases which have been heard by the Full Court, from February 2011, in which judgment has been handed down.

Brief details are provided for each matter together with the parties' written submissions as filed.

Online video recordings are gradually being restored and made available. (The previous service provider that the Court used to host videos of its sittings ceased operations from Monday 30 May.)
AustLII : Cases & Legislation
Free Access to Law This link takes you to databases by jurisdiction.Search box near top right allows search across all if you don't have this information. Note if you want to find case law discussing/applying legislation, first find the section of the act you are interested in on AUSTLII then, when that section is displayed, click "Cited by Note up references" link in the right hand column
NSW Caselaw (New South Wales, Australia)
Open Access. NSW Caselaw was developed in 1999 to publish decisions for New South Wales Courts and Tribunals administered by the NSW Department of Justice.Publishing of decisions is not mandatory within some courts and tribunals and only selected decisions are published. Has links to the individual court websites at foot of page
BarNet Jade
NOTE; Oxford does not have a subscription to this service. Registration is free. "JADE (Judgments and Decisions Enhanced) is a current awareness service that collects recent decisions of selected Australian Courts and Tribunals into an enhanced database. ...
Staying up to date with the latest decisions of Australian Courts and Tribunals has never been easier. Almost as soon as the court releases its decision online, Jade collects the judgment, notifies you about important cases by email or RSS feed and provides you with a facility to log in and make your own annotations. The easy to use and highly effective search engine allows you to quickly and easily retrieve the cases that you need."

Australian law reports in the LawBod

Australian law reports are shelved on Floor 1. Federal law report series come first, alphabetical by title.Next there are some law reports relating to individual states and territories. See tables for below for more detailed information.

Federal reports-

Abbreviation	Title	Shelf mark
CLR	Commonwealth Law Reports	Cw Austral 100 C30
FCR	Federal Court Reports	Cw Austral 100 F20
ALR	Australian Law Reports	Cw Austral 100 A15
ACLR	Australian Company Law Reports	Cw Austral 100 A25
ACSR	Australian Corporation and Securities Reports	Cw Austral 100 A26
ACR	Australian Criminal Reports	Cw Austral 100 A27
Fam LR	Family Law Reports	Cw Austral 100 F10

Other jurisdictions-

Abbreviation	Title	Shelf mark
NSWLR	New South Wales Law Reports	Cw Austral NSW 100 N30
Qd.R.	Queensland Reports	Cw Austral Qu 100 Q50
SASR	South Australian State Reports	Cw Austral SA 100 S65
Tas R	Tasmanian Reports	Cw Austral Tas 100 T30
V.R.	Victorian Reports	Cw Austral Vict 100 V30
WALR	Western Australian Reports	Cw Austral WA 100 W30

In addition the LawBod has LRC Law Reports of the Commonwealth (in the wider sense) at Cw Gen 100 L30 a series which claims to pick up " the key cases whose significance transcends local boundaries."

Related Commentary

Opinions on High
Open Access. Melbourne Law School’s academic blog covering the High Court of Australia. The Blog launched July 2013 with posts on "the most important case" interviews etc."

The Australian Judiciary by Enid Campbell; H. P. Lee
Call Number: Holders of an Oxford SSO can read this book online via title link
ISBN: 9780521769167
Publication Date: 2nd edn, 2012
Print copy is at KL240.A8.LEE 2013

Unlocking Australian case citations

See the Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations for help with turning abbreviations into titles of law reports, and vice versa.
The prelims of the latest Australian Case Citator bound volume (Cw Austral 160 A938b) can help translate abbreviations to full title too.

Citations to cases have the folllowing parts-

Title: formed by the two parties names.
Year
Volume number (if there is one)
Abbreviation for the law report series.
Number of the first page of the report.

For example-

Ackroyd v McKechnie (1986) 161 CLR 60

More detailed information about case citation can be found in the

Australian Guide to Legal Citation (AGLC)
Free resource. Available from University of Melbourne official website

Australian court structure

At the top level of the Australian judicial system is the High Court which interprets the Constitution and acts as final court of appeal.
The Federal Court has jurisdiction in national areas of activity, and hears cases brought under Commonwealth law. It also hears appeals from the Federal Magistrates Court
Each State and Territory has a Supreme Court. They also have Magistrates' Courts as entry level courts, and County or District courts at the intermediary level

High Court of Australia
Official website.
Federal Court of Australia
Official website
Federal Circuit : General Federal Law
Official website. The Court’s general federal law jurisdiction includes administrative law, admiralty law, bankruptcy, consumer law (formerly trade practices), human rights, industrial, intellectual property and privacy. The Court shares this jurisdiction with the Federal Court and in some cases state courts.
Federal Circuit & Family Court of Australia
Official website Includes overview of family law in Australia.