Square brackets are used where the year is necessary for identification of the volume of a law report.
The Queensland Reports, for example, start at volume one each year so you need to know the year and then the volume number within the year in order to locate a case. e.g: R. v Maxfield [2002] 1 Qd R 417.
Round brackets are used when the reference to the year is not necessary to identify the volume or report.
The Australian Law Reports are numbered consecutively, so you only need to know the volume number, e.g: Solomons v District Court of New South Wales and Others (2002) 192 ALR 217.
