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Legal abbreviations @ JCU Guide: About

This guide describes the most common abbreviations for law reports and journals held at JCU library and also gives information on our holdings - online, or in the Cairns or Townsville library collections.

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Why do I need this guide?

1 Decipher citations.

When you don't know which report or journal the citation is indicating use this guide.  
e.g. AFL is the Australian Family Lawyer
2 Find if the title is in the library.  

It might be in print, online or both.
This guide is the best way to see all the holdings at JCU. 

Legal Abbreviations@JCU

The way this guide works

Welcome to the JCU Library Guide to Legal Abbreviations

 
This list expands on some of the more commonly occurring abbreviations of the titles of law reports and law journals likely to be encountered by undergraduate students. Where titles are held in the James Cook University Library the call number is indicated, the last two columns indicate whether this title is in print in the Cairns or Townsville libraries, you can click the call number to go to the full library catalogue record to see holdings in detail.
 
Online access
 
Where part or all of a journal or report series is available online a link to the relevant database is provided, hover the mouse to see the name of the database. The link to an online database does not imply that the whole series of reports or all issues of a journal are available online; it is simply an indication that at least some of the material is available online. Please check the information provided by the database for full details of coverage of a specific title. Note: For reasons of space it is not possible to list here all of the titles available in Lexis Advance, but the most commonly encountered are provided.

Tips for finding full text

Each legal database links you to titles a bit differently and no cross-linking is available. What this means is that if you search for a case in CaseBase e.g. (1992) 175 CLR 1 the citation is not hyper-linked. This is because we receive this title in WestlawAU and you will find that if you use this guide to look up CLR the Available Online link will take you through to WestlawAU.  

Two of our major databases Lexis Advance (the international version) and Thomson Reuters Westlaw (not the more commonly used Westlaw AU) do not support "deep linking". Deep linking is what allows you to click on a title and be taken directly to that title.

If the title you require is within Lexis Advance or Thomson Reuters Westlaw you will be taken to the main directory page.

What if the abbreviation I need isn't here?

A useful online source of legal abbreviations is the Cardiff index to legal abbreviations
The Monash University Law Library also has a very useful legal abbreviations guide. 
 

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