|
Reported judgments are those recorded and published in law reports. Such decisions have raised significant points of law.
Unreported judgments are only available electronically. They are often recent decisions but also include those thay did not raise significant points of law. They may become reported decisions in due course. Unreported judgments are also known as "medium neutral".
Authorised reports are the official law reports checked by the court or tribunal
responsible for the decision before it is published.
Appendix C of Catriona Cook et al,
Laying Down the Law (7th ed, 2009) lists authorised and unauthorised law report series for Australia,
England, Canada, New Zealand, United States, and for international law reports.
'Print' means the printed form: as published on paper.
Use a Case Citator
Reported case citations
Cases which have been published in a series of law reports will be cited in the
following format: Parties' names, the year in which the decision was reported,
the abbreviation of the law report series in which the case was published,
followed by the page number on which the case commences.
Example: Chapman v Hearse (1961) 106 CLR 112
Medium neutral case citations
Medium neutral case citations are derived from the courts because these case
references are to unreported judgments. They will be cited in the following
way: Parties' names, the year the case was heard, the abbreviation for the
court that presided over the case, followed by the case number.
Example: Murray v R [2002] HCA 26
Follow these 3 simple steps or
click
here
for a more detailed explanation:
- Determine what the abbreviation
in the case citation means.
- Search the Library catalogue
by title, using the full title of the law report series.
- Check for online access via another database or for print holdings in the Library.
If the abbreviation is for a court instead of a law report series, you will
need to use a database that provides access to unreported judgments to obtain a
copy. Try these databases for Australian unreported judgments:
It is very difficult to find a case if you do not have the correct citation for
the case, so it is best to find the citation that matches your case first. Use
a Case Citator
to help you find the citation, then follow the steps listed above
on how to find a case when you know the citation.
More detailed information is available
here.
Use the party names or the case citation as your
search words to search any of the legal journal databases.
Annotations help you understand more about the history of a case and whether it
is still considered good law.
Case Citators annotate cases. Definitions of these annotations are available
here.
The Office of the Queensland Parliamentary Counsel
describes in diagram format the
legislative process for Queensland, from the development of policies to the making of laws.
This House of Representatives Infosheet, called
"Making laws", on the Parliament of Australia website
describes in detail how federal Australian laws are made.
|
