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Legal abbreviations: Law reports - Australia

Law reports A-Z

Which version of a case should I cite?

It's common for leading cases to be published in several law report series.

According to rule 2.7 in the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (AGLC), the "most authoritative available version of a case should be cited."

When deciding which version of a case to cite, rule 2.3.1 sets out the following hierarchy: 

  1.   Authorised report series
  2.   Generalist (unauthorised) report series 
  3.   Subject-specific (unauthorised) report series
  4.   The unreported (AustLII) version of the judgment


Tip #1:  To find out if a case has been 'reported', look up the judgment in a case citator (e.g. CaseBase).

Tip #2:  For Australian judgments, CaseBase always lists the most authoritative case citation first.

Casebase image

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