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This presentation goes through how to find case law via hard copy and online sources
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Bodleian Law Library
Finding Case Law
Session overview
• What is Case law• Doctrine of precedent• Court structure• Reported case law• Law reporting pre and post 1865• Law report hierarchy• Deciphering citations• Unreported judgments• Finding case law• Updating case law
What is case law?
• Record of the judgment given in each case• Court recorder and reporters• ‘Handing down’ of the judgment
Why is case law important?• Becomes part of the body of law• Doctrine of precedent
Doctrine of precedent
• A court is bound by the decisions of a court above it and usually, by a court of equivalent standing
• Superior courts have the power to overrule decisions of lower courts
Court structure
A case can go to appeal to the EU if it concerns
a point of EU law
The highest court in the UK is the Supreme
Court
Reported case law
• Only small proportion of cases decided by courts are reported
• Cases are selected by law report editors – not the courts
Reporting criteria
• To be reported a case must: – raise a point of legal significance– materially modify an existing principle of law
or settle a doubtful question of law– may include questions of interpretation of
statutes and important cases illustrating new applications of accepted principles
Law reporting before 1865
• Nominate reports 1571-1865• Commonly referred to by the name of the
reporter of the cases• Reprinted in the English Reports and in
the All England Reports Reprint series
Law reporting after 1865
• 1865 watershed• Incorporated Council of Law Reporting
– Not for profit organisation– Authoritative reports
• All England Law Reports• Subject specialist reports• Newpapers and reports in journals
The Law Reports
• Appeal Cases (AC) or (App Cas), Chancery Division (Ch), Queen’s Bench (QB), Family Division (Fam)
• Most authoritative report series• Law report decisions are checked by a
judge prior to publication
Authority of law reports
Most authoritative
The Law Reports: Chancery (Ch), Appeal Cases (AC), Family (Fam), Queens Bench (QB)
The Weekly Law Reports
All England Law Reports
Specialist series e.g. Lloyd’s law Reports, Fleet Street Reports
Least authoritative
Journals and newspapers e.g. The Times, The Independent, New Law Journal, Solicitors Journal
Deciphering citations: breakdown of the citation
Horton v Sadler [2007]1 AC 307
Case CitationCase name
Party names of both sides of the case separated by a ‘v’
Year and volume number
Legal abbreviation for law report series
Page number
Case names
• Usually 2 party names:– Claimant v Defendant – Appellent v Respondent
• Have to be a ‘legal entity’ – Individuals, firms/companies, organisations,
The Crown.• Criminal cases The Crown is the claimant
– R v Smith– Rex or Reg v Smith (older cases)
Case names (2)
• Unusual case names– Attorney General’s References A-G Ref (No. 90 of 2009)
– Ex parte X ex parte Y
– Ship names “The South Star”
– Bankruptcy cases Re company no. x2005
– Family Proceedings Re D (a Minor) 2008
Square and round brackets
• Round brackets ( ) when the year is additional information– Derry v Peek (1989) 14 App Cas 337
• Square brackets [ ] when the year is the primary means of identifying the case– Lloyd v McMahon [1987] 1 All ER 118
Deciphering citations: Law report abbreviations
• Raistrick, D. Index to legal citations and abbreviations.
• Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations http://www.legalabbrevs.cardiff.ac.uk
Anatomy of a law report
(1) Names of parties, dates
of hearing, judge(s)(2)
Catchwords
(3) Headnote
(4) List of cases cited
Anatomy of a law report (2)
(5) Statement of pleading and facts
(facts may be contained in
the judgment)
(6) Names of counsel and in the Law Reports a
summary of their
argument
Anatomy of a law report (3)
(7) The judgment –
usually indicated by the name of the judge. Cur Adv
Vult indicates that the
judgment has been reversed
Anatomy of a law report (4)
(8) The judgment
decision or order
(9) Solicitors for each
party
(10) The reporter
Unreported judgments
• Transcripts are the unreported version of a judgment
• Although judgments are “published” on web sites, they remain “unreported” unless published in a law report series
• Can often be cited with a ‘neutral’ citation
Neutral citations
• 1999 onwards• Unique judgment number
[YEAR] COURT CASE NUMBER
[2001] EWCA Civ 101 [2006] EWHC 101 Admin[2003] UKSC 5
Finding case law: sources
Online resources• Commercial databases
– Westlaw (selected full text and citator)– Lexis Library (selected full text and citator)– Justis (selected full text)
• Free resources– Bailii– Supreme Court judgments – House of Lords judgments
Finding case law: sources (2)
Hard copy• Law reports series (full text)• Halsburys Laws (index)• The Digest (digest)• Current Law (digest)
Searching by party name: hard copy
• If you already have a citation - find the case by citation
• If you have a year – Current Law Case Citator
• If you just have the party names – The Digest or Halsbury’s Laws
Current Law Case Citator
Cases listed alphabetically with law report citations – with most
authoritative first
The Digest: table of casesMain table of cases volumes – gives the year and then a main
volume number
Table of cases in Vol 28(1)
gives a paragraph
number (not a page)
The Digest: summary and citation
The paragraph number relates to a digest of a case and this then gives a full law report citation at
the end.
Searching by party name: online
• Most subscription databases as well as Bailli.org have an option to search for party name.
• Remember that if it is a common name there may be too many results coming up – if you have a citation there may be an option to search using that.
www.bailii.org (free site)
Choose case law search for the advanced search
screen for cases
Bailii cases search screen
Use the box to put in case names
If you scroll down the page you will findfurther options to
choose specific courts
Westlaw cases search screen (subscription)
Just place the name in the party names field
Search in the cases database
Westlaw cases results screen
Full text of the reports available on Westlaw are linked
A full list of where the case has been reported in order
of authority
Case summary and citator
Lexis Library search screen (subscription)
Case names can be entered from the front
page
If searching for full reports then choose
‘all subscribed cases’
Lexis Library cases results screenEach separate report is
classed as a result
The law report or ‘source’ is at the end. It is not in the most authoritative order
Justis search screen (subscription)
In ‘Cases’ there are options to search by party name
Justis results screen
Law report citation
Year of judgment
Link through to full report
Finding case law: by subject
Hard copy– Use The Digest or Halsburys Laws
Online databases– Use the subject, keyword or heading box to
enter search terms
Subject searching: The DigestSearch the subject
indexes and these will give you both a volume number and paragraph
number
Subject searching: Westlaw
Updating case law: Is it still good law?
• Has the case been cited in later case law?• Authority of a case may be strengthened
by being approved in a higher court• Case may have been overruled• Lexis Library, Westlaw, Justcite, Lawcite
(free site)• Current Law Case Citator, The Digest
Terms used for citing
• Applied
• Considered
• Distinguished
• Overruled• Followed
Principle from an earlier case applied although facts materially different
Discussed, but no definite use in decision
There are substantial differences to earlier case
Principle from a lower court overruled
Court bound by precedents set in a previous case
Checking citators: hard copy
This lists cases that have cited Pepper v Hart. All it gives is a Current Law digest reference – you
need to use the relevant volume of Current Law Year Book to find the
name of the case
The citator covers a set time span and
you should start with the volume that
cover the year of the case – you need to
look at later volumes to keep updated
Checking citators: hard copy (2)
This is a later volume – if the case has not been cited within these years it will
not appear in the list
Pepper v Hart has been cited and so you can see there are the previous cases listed
plus a few later cases
Checking citators online: Lawcite (free source)
You can search by party name or citation and
then limit the results to a jurisdiction if necessary
Lawcite: results screenIf there is more than one case it will list them along with citations, dates and a flag to indicate which country the case was heard in. Click on the case you are looking for to see the
citator information
Lawcite: citator screen
This lists cases referring to the case searched for as well as a citation, where you can get the
full text and jurisdiction.
You can check which cases
have cited these cases by clicking
on this symbol
Checking citators online: Westlaw (subscription)
This time we are going to look at the citator tool
Westlaw: case analysis
Traffic light symbol
Subsequent cases citing Pepper v Hart
Westlaw: Case analysis (2)
Lists the cases under the different ‘treatments’
Checking citators online:Lexis Library
This time use the Case Overview
button
Lexis Library Case Overview results
Symbols to whether the case is
still ‘good’
Case history through the courts
Links to cases citing and cited by this case: click on to see the list
Summary
• What’s reported, precedent and hierarchy of courts
• Case citations, party names and abbreviations• Searching in print and searching online –
searching by name and searching by subject• Checking citators: is it still good law?
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