Case Law: Legal Abbreviations

Legal abbreviations

Law reports and journals are commonly cited using an abbreviation for the name of the law report or journal.

If you are unsure what an abbreviation stands for and would like to access the report or journal - follow these steps:

First, look up the abbreviation in one of the following resources:

Next, search for the report or journal title in the library catalogue's Journal Search box:

The library subscribes to a number of law report series and journals - going back many years:

• Recent issues of many law report series and journals can be accessed online using the library catalogue.

• Other issues are only available in print, and you will need to place a request to access them from the Library Retrieval System (LRS). 

Common legal abbreviations used in law report series

Below is a list of abbreviations used for commonly cited law report series, with links to library content for each. For other abbreviations, use the links at the top of this page, and then look up the full title in the library catalogue.

AAR - Administrative Appeals Reports

AC - Appeal Cases (UK)

A Crim R - Australian Criminal Reports

ALD - Administrative Law Decisions

ALJR - Australian Law Journal Reports

All ER - All England Law Reports

ALR - Australian Law Reports

ATC - Australian Tax Cases

ATR - Australian Tax Reports (named the Australasian Tax Reports until 1988)

Ch/ Ch D - Chancery Division (UK)

CLR - Commonwealth Law reports

ER - English Reports (UK)

FCR - Federal Court Reports

FLR - Federal Law Reports

IR - Industrial Reports

KB - King's Bench (UK)

NSWLR - New South Wales Law Reports

QB - Queen's Bench (UK)

QR/ Qd R/ St R Qd - Queensland Reports

SASR - South Australian State Reports

SR (NSW) - State Reports, New South Wales (continued by NSWLR)

VR, VLR - Victorian Reports (named the Victorian Law Reports until 1956)

WLR - Weekly Law Reports (UK)