Commonwealth Law Reports

Reports of decisions of the High Court of Australia

The Commonwealth Law Reports (CLR) (ISSN 0069-7133) are the authorised reports of decisions of the High Court of Australia.^[1] The Commonwealth Law Reports are published by the Lawbook Company, a division of Thomson Reuters. James Merralls AM QC was the editor of the Reports from 1969 until his death in 2016.^[2] The current editors are Paul Vout KC and Peter Willis SC.

Each reported judgment includes a headnote 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:

• Hannah Canham
• Roshan Chaile
• Ella Delany
• Bora Kaplan
• James McComish
• William Newland
• Jakub Patela
• Alistair Pound SC
• Stephen Puttick
• Daniel Reynolds
• Marcus Roberts
• Alexander Solomon-Bridge
• Ahmed Terzic
• 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 AU.^[3] 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.^[4][5]

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. An example of proper citation is:

Coleman v Power (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 [2004] HCA 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:^[6]

Coleman v Power [2004] HCA 39; (2004) 220 CLR 1

See also

• Law report
• List of Law Reports in Australia
• The Law Reports
• United States Reports
• Supreme Court Reports (Canada)

References

1. "Commonwealth Law Reports". Thomson Reuters Australia. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
2. French, Robert (29 May 2009). James Merralls' AM QC 40 Years as Commonwealth Law Reports Editor (PDF) (Speech). Retrieved 1 September 2016.
3. "Westlaw AU". Thomson Reuters Australia. Retrieved 1 September 2016.
4. "One-100 Project". High Court of Australia e-Resources. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
5. "One-100". openlaw.org.au. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
6. "Vendor and Medium Neutral Citations". AustLII. 15 October 2002. Retrieved 1 September 2016.