The Commonwealth Law Reports (CLR) () are the
authorised reports of decisions of the
High Court of Australia
The High Court of Australia is Australia's apex court. It exercises Original jurisdiction, original and appellate jurisdiction on matters specified within Constitution of Australia, Australia's Constitution.
The High Court was established fol ...
.
The Commonwealth Law Reports are published by the Lawbook Company, a division of
Thomson Reuters
Thomson Reuters Corporation ( ) is a Canadian multinational media conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, where it is headquartered at the Bay Adelaide Centre.
Thomson Reuters was created by the Thomson Corpora ...
.
James Merralls
James is a common English language surname and given name:
*James (name), the typically masculine first name James
* James (surname), various people with the last name James
James or James City may also refer to:
People
* King James (disambiguat ...
AM QC was the editor of the Reports from 1969 until his death in 2016.
The current editors are Christopher Horan KC and Paul Vout KC.
Each reported judgment includes a
headnote
A headnote is a brief summary of a particular point of law that is added to the text of a court decision to aid readers in locating discussion of a legal issue in an opinion. As the term implies, headnotes appear at the beginning of the publishe ...
written by an expert reporter (by convention, a practising barrister) which, as an authorised report, has been approved by the High Court. The current reporters are as follows:
* Roshan Chaile
* Ella Delany
* Bora Kaplan
* Rudi Kruse
* James McComish
* William Newland
* Alistair Pound SC
* Daniel Reynolds
* Alexander Solomon-Bridge
* Julia Wang
* Michael Wells
* Jillian Williams
* Radhika Withana
The headnotes include a summary of counsel's legal arguments. The Reports also include tables of cases reported, affirmed, reversed, overruled, applied or judicially commented on and cited.
The Reports are available in PDF format from
Westlaw
Westlaw is an online legal research service and proprietary database for lawyers and legal professionals available in over 60 countries. Information resources on Westlaw include more than 40,000 databases of case law, state and federal statute ...
AU.
Scans of the first 100 volumes of the Reports, covering cases from 1903 to 1959, were freely published on the High Court's website and on BarNet JADE as part of the ''One-100'' project.
Editors and reporters
The editors of the Commonwealth Law Reports from time to time have been as follows:
The reporters of the Commonwealth Law Reports from time to time have been as follows:
Citation
For lawyers, the Commonwealth Law Reports are the preferred source for decisions of the
High Court of Australia
The High Court of Australia is Australia's apex court. It exercises Original jurisdiction, original and appellate jurisdiction on matters specified within Constitution of Australia, Australia's Constitution.
The High Court was established fol ...
. An example of proper citation is:
:''
Coleman v Power
''Coleman v Power'' was a High Court of Australia case that dealt with the implied freedom of political communication found in the Australian Constitution.. .
Background
Coleman was a law and politics student from Townsville, Queensland, Tow ...
'' (2004) 220 CLR 1
This citation indicates that the decision of the Court in the case entitled ''Coleman v Power'', decided in 2004, can be found beginning at page 1 of volume 220 of the Commonwealth Law Reports.
An alternative citation, which is medium neutral, is:
:''
Coleman v Power
''Coleman v Power'' was a High Court of Australia case that dealt with the implied freedom of political communication found in the Australian Constitution.. .
Background
Coleman was a law and politics student from Townsville, Queensland, Tow ...
''
004HCA 39
This citation refers to the case entitled ''Coleman v Power'', which was the 39th decision published by the High Court of Australia in 2004.
Both forms of citation (parallel citations) may be used so that users can access the case from different sources:
:''
Coleman v Power
''Coleman v Power'' was a High Court of Australia case that dealt with the implied freedom of political communication found in the Australian Constitution.. .
Background
Coleman was a law and politics student from Townsville, Queensland, Tow ...
''
004HCA 39; (2004) 220 CLR 1
See also
*
Law report
*
List of Law Reports in Australia
Law reports covering the decisions of Australian Courts are collections of decisions by particulars courts, subjects or jurisdictions. A widely used guide to case citation in Australia is the ''Australian Guide to Legal Citation'', published ...
*
The Law Reports
*
United States Reports
The ''United States Reports'' () are the official record ( law reports) of the Supreme Court of the United States. They include rulings, orders, case tables (list of every case decided), in alphabetical order both by the name of the petitioner ...
*
Supreme Court Reports (Canada)
The Supreme Court Reports (S.C.R.) is the official reporter (law), reporter of the Supreme Court of Canada. Since the creation of the Supreme Court, all of its decisions have been published in the Reports, in both English language, English and Fren ...
References
{{Reflist
High Court of Australia
Case law reporters