Commonwealth Law Reports


The Commonwealth Law Reports are the authorised reports of decisions of the High Court of Australia. 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.
Each reported judgment includes a headnote written by an expert reporter which, as an authorised report, has been approved by the High Court. 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.

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:
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:
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 may be used so that users can access the case from different sources: