Australian Guide to Legal Citation 4th Edition

Case citation hierarchy

The Australian Guide to Legal Citation ('AGLC') outlines the hierarchy of case citation and prescribes which version of a case you should cite where there are multiple versions. A basic summary is:

Authorised reported version
↓
Unauthorised reported version
↓
Unreported version

Common Australian authorised law report series abbreviations include: CLR, FCR, Qd R, QR, NSWLR, SASR, Tas R, VR, WAR. These are the 'official' report series for a court with judgments verified by judges or their associates before publication.

Unauthorised law report series may be generalist (eg Australian Law Reports), which should be cited in preference to subject-specific unauthorised series (eg Australian Contract Reports).

See the Law Subject Guide for a full explanation of case law reporting and case citation hierarchy.

Parallel citations

Significant cases are often published in multiple sources, including various law reports series. Each version of the case has its own unique citation, eg the below case has four separate versions:

Kartinyeri v Commonwealth [1998] HCA 22, (1998) 195 CLR 337, 72 ALJR 722, 152 ALR 540.

These are called parallel citations. According to the AGLC and court rules, you should cite the most authoritative version of the case, eg:

Kartinyeri v Commonwealth (1998) 195 CLR 337.

Other case citation rules

• The rules in AGLC part 1 apply generally to case citations, eg capitalisation should be in accordance with rule 1.7.
• The AGLC also contains rules for citing arguments by counsel, submissions, transcripts and quasi-judicial decisions (not covered in this guide) - see AGLC chapter 2.