australia case-law legal-research
How do I read an Australian case citation and find the text of the judgement?
<p>I want to know more about a particular case. I've seen it referred to a couple of different ways:</p>

<ul>
<li><em>Tame v New South Wales</em> [2002] HCA 35</li>
<li><em>Tame v New South Wales</em> (2002) 211 CLR 317</li>
</ul>

<p>How can I access information about these cases?</p>

<p>The quickest way to get the text of Australian judgements is through <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/" rel="nofollow">AustLII</a>.</p>

<h3>Reading the citation</h3>

<p>Parties:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p><em>Tame v New South Wales</em></p>
</blockquote>

<p>In this case, the parties are (Clare Janet) <em>Tame</em> and (the State of) <em>New South Wales</em>.</p>

<p>Year:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>[2002]</p>
</blockquote>

<p>or</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>(2002)</p>
</blockquote>

<p>There is a subtle distinction between the above years: in brackets <code>[]</code> is <em>generally</em> (but not always) the year that the judgement was <em>made</em>, which may or may not be the year that the case was <em>reported</em>, which appears in parentheses <code>()</code>.</p>

<p>This case was both decided in, and reported in this law report, in 2002.</p>

<h3>Court</h3>

<blockquote>
  <p>HCA</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Where the citation includes brackets - <code>[]</code> - the abbreviation that follows is the <em>unique court identifier</em> of the court where the judgement occurred. This case was decided in the High Court of Australia. For a list of courts and abbreviations, see <a href="http://www2.austlii.edu.au/~davidv/alr/secure/tables/caselaw_table.html" rel="nofollow">AustLII's table of Australian case law</a>. <strong>This is called a <em>medium-neutral</em> citation</strong>.</p>

<p>Some reports are organised by year - unfortunately, there is no pattern to this - and they will have the year in brackets also. If more than one volume of a report of this kind is produced in this year, the volume number will appear between the year and the abbreviation as below.</p>

<h3>Report number and series</h3>

<blockquote>
  <p>211 CLR</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Where the year appears in parentheses - <code>()</code> - and a number, then an abbreviation follows, these are the volume and abbreviation of the law report. In this case, it is the 221<sup>st</sup> volume of the Commonwealth Law Reports.</p>

<h3>Pinpoint reference</h3>

<blockquote>
  <ul>
  <li><em>Tame v New South Wales</em> [2002] HCA <strong>35</strong></li>
  <li><em>Tame v New South Wales</em> (2002) 211 CLR <strong>317</strong></li>
  </ul>
</blockquote>

<p>The final number is the <em>pinpoint reference</em>. In a medium-neutral citation, this is the judgement number - the <em>n</em>th judgement that year.</p>

<p>In all other cases, it is the page on which the judgement commences in the law report.</p>

Authorised and authoritative law reports

<p>All law reports are <em>authoritative</em> and can be employed in court, however the <em>authorised</em> law reports of a court are the <em>official</em> law reports - there is only one for each court. Judgements that highlight a novelty or a particular point of law are generally reported in the authorised law report.</p>

<h2>How to use a citation</h2>

<p>The practical upshot of this is that AustLII provides <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/lawcite/" rel="nofollow">LawCite</a>, which is a free case citator - you can search for cases.</p>

<p>All you need is either:</p>

<ul>
<li>The year, court abbreviation, and judgement number, or</li>
<li>The volume, report abbreviation, and page number</li>
</ul>

<p>In the above examples, these would be</p>

<blockquote>
  <ul>
  <li>2002 HCA 35, and</li>
  <li>211 CLR 317  </li>
  </ul>
</blockquote>

<p>... respectively. This is referred to in the citator as the citation (which is confusing because the entire thing is a citation).</p>

<p>LawCite provides, for your convenience, a table of:</p>

<ul>
<li>Cases that cite the case your case,</li>
<li>Law reform reports referring to your case,</li>
<li>Law journals referring to your case</li>
<li>Legislation cited in the case your case, and</li>
<li>Cases and articles cited in your case.</li>
</ul>

<p>These are extremely useful in finding related cases during your research.</p>
