Case law

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Introduction

This guide will help you undertake case law research, including finding cases by citation, cases on a particular point of law, subsequent consideration of cases and cases considering a particular piece of legislation. The guide concentrates on Australian and UK case law and covers both print and electronic access to case law.

There are two main research tools which assist with finding case law information:

  • Case Digests arrange cases by subject, and give a brief digest or summary of each case, as well as case citation/s to find the full text of the case.
  • Case Citators indicate how a case has been affected by subsequent judicial action (i.e. whether it has been reversed, distinguished, considered etc. in later cases), as well as case citation/s to find the full text of the case.

CaseBase (LexisNexis AU) and FirstPoint (Legal Online) are electronic databases that are hybrid digests/citators. Other tools will also be discussed below. Electronic resources are available through the Library Catalogue.

Finding case citations

The more information available about a case, the easier it is to find. Ideally names of parties, year, jurisdiction and court all contribute to finding a citation.

Australia

FirstPoint - Provides access to case references, citation, history, and digest information for Australian cases since 1825.

CaseBase - Provides case citations and annotations, including journal articles. CaseBase also allows searching by popular name.

United Kingdom

Westlaw - Provides full text access to UK authorized reports from 1865. Select the Westlaw UK tab and use the Case Locator to search by party name, citation or subject.

Current Law - Case Citator (R346.542) - Provides an alphabetical listing of reported cases. There are two cumulative volumes. 1977-1988, and 1989-1995. See annual volumes for 1996 onward.

The Digest (R346.542) - Provides comprehensive access to UK cases as well as some Commonwealth and EC cases. In order to find citations to cases, use the Consolidated Table of Cases volumes.

 Finding cases on a particular point of law (or subject)

Australia

FirstPoint - provides digest information for Australian cases since 1835. All case material is classified to a detailed classification scheme, which can be browsed or searched to locate cases on legal topics.

Australian Digest (R346.594) - The Australian Digest is a guide to cases in Australian law from 1825 to the present day. It digests cases published in the various series of Australian law reports and notes English cases applicable to Australia. Recent coverage of cases is provided by Australian Legal.

Monthly Digest - Available electronically on Legal Online.

Australian Current Law - Reporter (R346.594) - Provides a subject guide to all unreported judgments from the High, Federal and State Supreme Courts, and other selected courts. Available on LexisNexis AU

Subject-specific law reports series - many law reports series publish only cases on a particular subject area, for example, Australian Criminal Reports, or Australian Torts Reports. These may be searched if available electronically, or use the index to the print version. To find subject specific law reports, search the Library catalogue by subject and choose Collection: Law Reports.

Unreported judgements - AustLII and LexisNexis AU provide the full text of unreported judgements of the Supreme Courts of WA, SA, VIC, NSW, QLD, NT, ACT, and TAS as well as the High Court, Federal Court, AAT, Industrial Relations Court, and Family Court. District Court judgments are available for WA and NSW on LexisNexis AU from 2005 -. Offers searching by subject.

United Kingdom

WestLaw - Contains the full text of UK authorised reports from 1865. Searchable by keyword.

The Digest (R346.542) - Covers UK cases as well as some Commonwealth and EC cases. Contains a digest of each case and annotations indicating whether the case has been judicially considered in subsequent cases. To find case law by subject, use the consolidated index volumes.

Current law (R346.542) - Annual volumes, called Yearbooks digest UK and Commonwealth cases. Cumulative subject indexes have been published for 1947-1976 in the 1976 Yearbook and for 1972-1986 Yearbook. For cases from 1997 onwards, check the subject index in the monthly issues.

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Finding subsequent consideration of cases

There are a number of resources to help you to establish whether a case has been subsequently considered in later cases (i.e. cited as a precedent in later cases).

Australia

FirstPoint - The record for a given case will list its subsequent consideration under "Cases Citing".

CaseBase - The record for a given case will list its subsequent consideration under "Cases referring to this case".

United Kingdom

WestLaw - Contains a UK case locator (UK-CASELOC) which gives the history and judicial considerations of cases.

Current Law - Case Citator (R346.542) - Alphabetical listing of reported cases with references to cases which have judicially considered the original case. Updated annually.

The Digest (R346.542) - At the end of each case summary, annotations indicate whether the case has been judicially considered. The main volumes are updated by the latest annual supplement.

Australian & New Zealand Citator to UK Reports (R346.542) - Lists UK cases that have been cited by Australian or New Zealand superior courts and covers cases from 1558 onward. A cumulative supplement is issued annually.

Finding judicial consideration of legislation

If you need to find cases considering a particular piece of legislation you can use:

Australia

CaseBase - May be searched for cases relating to an entire act or regulation or to specific sections of a piece of legislation. In the "References to legislation" box on the search form, type in the legislation title and the section no. separated by w/p connector e.g. corporations act w/p 180 (do not use brackets or s).

Commonwealth Statutes Annotations (Reference section) - An alphabetical index to current Commonwealth legislation. It lists general cases that cite statutes as a whole, as well as listing cases under specific sections of the legislation.

Australian Legal Monthly Digest (R346.594) - For recent information on Commonwealth and State statutes, use the table of Legislation Judicially Considered in each volume. References are to paragraph numbers within that volume. Available on Legal Online.

Australian Current Law - Reporter (R346.594) - Consult Table of Statutes Judicially Considered in each volume. References are ordered by jurisdiction, name of statute, and then section. Available electronically on LexisNexis AU.

United Kingdom

WestLaw - Contains a UK case locator (UK-CASELOC) which cites judicial considerations of legislation in cases.

Finding journal articles about a case

Australia

Index to Legal Periodicals and Books Full Text 1981 - Index to Legal Periodicals and Books Retrospective - Index the main law journals of US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Journal articles are available in full-text.

Attorney General's Information Service (AGIS) - An Australian index to legal journal articles.

CaseBase - Contains annotations to journal articles. CaseBase is a part of LexisNexis AU.

Australian Legal Monthly Digest (R346.594) - In the Table of Cases, recent journal articles citations are enclosed in square brackets after the main case entry. Available on Legal Online.

United Kingdom

Legal Journals Index - Available on Westlaw. All cases that either form the major topic or an article or case comment are indexed in the Case Index.

Further information

For further information on Case Law resources please contact a Librarian in the Law Library, or submit a request via Ask a Librarian.

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