LibGuides: Australian Migration Law: Cases

Australian case citators

Australian case citators are important research tools for finding cases by topic. They provide references and links to reported and unreported judgments and also indicate relationships between cases, helping determine their precedent value.

CaseBase This link opens in a new window
CaseBase on Lexis+ provides access to case annotations. The database contains mainly Australian cases but some UK and NZ cases are included.
Westlaw AU Cases Advanced Search This link opens in a new window
Westlaw AU Cases Advanced Search provides access to case references, citations, litigation history, and digest information for Australian cases from 1825.

Migration cases

Migration decisions are not always available or reported. Those decisions that are reported are found in a number of general law report series which are listed below.

Administrative Appeals Reports
Administrative Appeals Tribunal
Decisions in the AAT’s Divisions are usually published unless the AAT has ordered otherwise. Only selected decisions of the AAT’s Migration & Refugee Division are published. No decisions of the AAT’s Social Services & Child Support Division are currently published.
Administrative Law Decisions
Commonwealth Law Reports
Federal Court Reports
Federal Law Reports
Federal Circuit Court of Australia
The Court can review some decisions made under the Migration Act 1958. These include decisions made by the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship, the Refugee Review Tribunal and the Migration Review Tribunal. This database contains selected decisions of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia from April 2013. Please check the Federal Magistrates Court of Australia database for earlier decisions.
Federal Magistrates Court of Australia
The Court can review some decisions made under the Migration Act 1958. These include decisions made by the Minister for Immigration and Citizenship (the Minister), the Refugee Review Tribunal and the Migration Review Tribunal. This database contains selected decisions from the Federal Magistrates Court of Australia from 2000 until April 2013.
Immigration Review Tribunal Decisions 1990 -1999
Full text decisions from 1990 as selected by the Tribunal.
Migration Review Tribunal Decisions
This database contains the complete collection of decisions of the Migration Review Tribunal from 1 June 1999 (the commencement date of the Tribunal) to 12 May 2004. After that date until 30 June 2015, only selected decisions have been made available. On 1 July 2015, the Migration Review Tribunal was merged with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. See the link to the AAT for recent decisions.
Refugee Review Tribunal Decisions
1993 - 30 June 2015
This database contains the full text of selected decisions of the RRT. On 1 July 2015, the Refugee Review Tribunal was merged with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. See the link to the AAT for recent decisions. The RRT published a range of statements of decision and reasons, which the Principal Member considered to be of 'particular interest' (s431 of the Migration Act 1958).