by Lisa Incledon
Why case law?
0 Why are the decisions of past cases
important?
0 Judicial Precedent
Appellate Courts
0 Cases in the appellate courts are key to making law
because they bind all other courts.
0 House of Lords/Supreme Court
0 Court of Appeal
0 Divisional Courts
0 High Court (occasionally)
Finding Cases
All Cases have:
0 Name
0 Usually the name reflects the two parties in a case
0 Date
0 Year of the case (there can be some variation in the
year of a case)
0 Citation
0 Neutral (references court) or specific to law reports
Case Name
0 The name of a civil case will usually involve two individuals
or companies:
E.g. Donoghue v Stevenson
(the two parties were Mrs Donoghue and Mr Stevenson)
0 The name of a criminal case will usually involve ‘Regina’
(the Queen – meaning the state represented by the CPS):
E.g. R v Cheshire
(the case involved the prosecution of Mr Cheshire)
Citations
0 A case is cited with the year, a set of letters and the number
0 The letters may be neutral citations, specifying the court:
0 E.g. UKHL – House of Lords/ UKSC – Supreme Court
0 E.g. EWCA Civ – Court of Appeal (Civil Division)
0 E.g. EWCA Crim – Court of Appeal (Criminal Division)
0 E.g. EWHC – High Court [the Divison may follow in brackets]
0 The letters may also specify the set of reports the case is in:
0 AC – Appeal Cases Reports
0 All ER – All England Reports
0 WLR – Weekly Law Reports
Example
Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] UKHL 100; [1932] AC 562
0Name
0 Donoghue v Stevenson
0Date
0 1932
0Citation
0 Neutral: [1932] UKHL 100
0 Court specific: [1932] AC 562
Research Sources
0 The British and Irish Legal Information Institute:
www.bailii.org
0 Lexis Nexis and Westlaw
0 Expensive sources – some solicitors’ firms may have
access
Basic
Search Enter
keyword
More detailed/specific
search options
Best used to find cases
Example
Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] UKHL 100; [1932] AC 562
0Name
0 Donoghue v Stevenson
0Date
0 1932
0Citation
0 Neutral: [1932] UKHL 100
0 Court specific: [1932] AC 562