Law report
Encyclopedia
Law reports or reporters are series of books that contain judicial opinions
Legal opinion
In law, an opinion is usually a written explanation by a judge or group of judges that accompanies an order or ruling in a case, laying out the rationale and legal principles for the ruling....

 from a selection of case law
Case law
In law, case law is the set of reported judicial decisions of selected appellate courts and other courts of first instance which make new interpretations of the law and, therefore, can be cited as precedents in a process known as stare decisis...

 decided by court
Court
A court is a form of tribunal, often a governmental institution, with the authority to adjudicate legal disputes between parties and carry out the administration of justice in civil, criminal, and administrative matters in accordance with the rule of law...

s. When a particular judicial opinion is referenced, the law report series in which the opinion is printed will determine the case citation
Case citation
Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past court cases, either in special series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a 'neutral' form which will identify a decision wherever it was reported...

 format.

The term reporter was originally used to refer to the individual persons who actually compile, edit, and publish such opinions. For example, the Reporter of Decisions for the U.S. Supreme Court is the person authorized to publish the Court's cases in the bound volumes of the United States Reports
United States Reports
The United States Reports are the official record of the rulings, orders, case tables, and other proceedings of the Supreme Court of the United States. Opinions of the court in each case, prepended with a headnote prepared by the Reporter of Decisions, and any concurring or dissenting opinions are...

. (See picture, right.) Though the term still carries that meaning in all English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...

s,, in the contemporary U.S. reporter also denotes the books themselves. In the Commonwealth
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...

, these are described by the plural term law reports, the title that usually appears on the covers of the periodical parts and the individual volumes.

In common law
Common law
Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...

 countries, court opinions are legally binding under the rule of stare decisis
Stare decisis
Stare decisis is a legal principle by which judges are obliged to respect the precedents established by prior decisions...

. That rule requires a court to apply a legal principle that was set forth earlier by a court of the same jurisdiction dealing with a similar set of facts. Thus, the regular publication of such opinions is important so that everyone—lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

s, judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...

s, and laymen can all find out what the law is, as declared by judges.

Official and unofficial case law reporting

Official law reports or reporters are those authorized for publication by statute
Statute
A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs a state, city, or county. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. The word is often used to distinguish law made by legislative bodies from case law, decided by courts, and regulations...

 or other governmental ruling. Governments designate law reports as official to provide an authoritative, consistent, and authentic statement of a jurisdiction's primary law
Primary authority
A primary authority is a document that establishes the law on a particular issue, such as a case decision or legislative act. The search for applicable primary authority is an important part of the process of legal research....

. Official case law publishing may be carried out by a government agency, or by a commercial entity. Unofficial law reports, on the other hand, are not officially sanctioned and are published as a commercial enterprise. In Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

 and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 (see below), official reports are called authorised reports - unofficial are referred to as unauthorised reports.

For the publishers of unofficial reports to maintain a competitive advantage over the official ones, unofficial reports usually provide helpful research aids (e.g., summaries, indexes), like the editorial enhancements used in the West American Digest System
West American Digest System
The West American Digest System is a system of identifying points of law from reported cases and organizing them by topic and key number. The system was developed by West Publishing to organize the entire body of American law...

. Some commercial publishers also provide court opinions in searchable
Full text search
In text retrieval, full text search refers to techniques for searching a single computer-stored document or a collection in a full text database...

 online database
Online database
An online database is a database accessible from a network, including from the Internet.It differs from a local database, held in an individual computer or its attached storage, such as a CD....

s that are part of larger fee-based, online legal research
Legal research
Legal research is "the process of identifying and retrieving information necessary to support legal decision-making. In its broadest sense, legal research includes each step of a course of action that begins with an analysis of the facts of a problem and concludes with the application and...

 systems, such as Westlaw
Westlaw
Westlaw is one of the primary online legal research services for lawyers and legal professionals in the United States and is a part of West. In addition, it provides proprietary database services...

 and Lexis-Nexis.

Unofficially published court opinions are also often published before the official opinions, so lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

s and law journals must cite the unofficial report until the case comes out in the official report. But once a court opinion is officially published, case citation
Case citation
Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past court cases, either in special series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a 'neutral' form which will identify a decision wherever it was reported...

 rules usually require a person to cite to the official reports.

Open publication on the Internet

The development of the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

 created the opportunity for courts to publish their decisions on Web sites. This is a relatively low cost publication method compared to paper and makes court decisions more easily available to the public (particularly important in common law
Common law
Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...

 countries where court decisions are major sources of law
Sources of law
Sources of law means the origin from which rules of human conduct come into existence and derive legal force or binding characters.It also refers to the sovereign or the state from which the law derives its force or validity....

). Because a court can post a decision on a Web site as soon as it is rendered, the need for a quickly printed case in an unofficial, commercial reporter becomes less crucial.

Decisions of courts from all over the world can now be found through the WorldLII Web site, and the sites of its member organizations. These projects have been strongly encouraged by the Free Access to Law Movement
Free Access to Law Movement
The Free Access to Law Movement is the umbrella name for the collective of legal projects across several common law countries to provide free online access to legal information such as case law and legislation. The movement began in 1992 with the creation of the Cornell Law School Legal Information...

.

Many law librarians
Law library
A law library is a library designed to assist law students, attorneys, judges, and their law clerks and anyone else who finds it necessary to correctly determine the state of the law....

 and academics
Academia
Academia is the community of students and scholars engaged in higher education and research.-Etymology:The word comes from the akademeia in ancient Greece. Outside the city walls of Athens, the gymnasium was made famous by Plato as a center of learning...

have commented on the changing system of legal information delivery - brought about by the rapid growth of the World Wide Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...

. Professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 Bob Berring
Bob Berring
Robert Charles "Bob" Berring, Jr. is a noted figure in law, as a professor, librarian, scholar and researcher.-Biography:...

 writes that the "primacy of the old paper sets [print law reports] is fading, and a vortex of conflicting claims and products is spinning into place." In theory, court decisions posted on the Web expand access to the law
Law
Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

 beyond the specialized law library
Law library
A law library is a library designed to assist law students, attorneys, judges, and their law clerks and anyone else who finds it necessary to correctly determine the state of the law....

 collections used primarily by lawyers and judge
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...

s. The general public can more readily find court opinions online, whether posted on Web-accessible databases (such as the Hong Kong Judiciary
Judiciary of Hong Kong
The Judiciary of Hong Kong is responsible for the administration of justice in Hong Kong. It hears all prosecutions and civil disputes, including disputes between individuals and the government. It is fundamental to Hong Kong’s legal system that members of the judiciary are independent of the...

 public access site, above), or through general Web search engines.

Questions remain, however, on the need for a uniform and practical citation format
Case citation
Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past court cases, either in special series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a 'neutral' form which will identify a decision wherever it was reported...

 for cases posted on the Web (versus the standard volume and page number used for print law reports). Furthermore, turning away from the traditional "official-commercial" print reporter model raises questions about the accuracy, authority, and reliability of case law found on the Web.
The answer to these questions will be determined, in large part, through changing government information policies
Knowledge policy
Policies are the paradigms of government and all bureaucracies. Policies provide a context of rules and methods to guide how large organizations meet their responsibilities. Organizational knowledge policies describe the institutional aspects of knowledge creation, management, and use within the...

, and by the degree of influence exerted by commercial database providers on global legal information market
Information market
Although information has been bought and sold since ancient times, the idea of an information marketplace is relatively recent. The nature of such markets is still evolving, which complicates development of sustainable business models...

s.

Design and cultural references

Reporters usually come in the form of sturdy hardcover books with most of the design elements on the spine (the part that a lawyer would be most interested in when searching for a case). The volume number is usually printed in large type to make it easy to spot. Gold leaf
Gold leaf
right|thumb|250px|[[Burnishing]] gold leaf with an [[agate]] stone tool, during the water gilding processGold leaf is gold that has been hammered into extremely thin sheets and is often used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of karats and shades...

 is traditionally used on the spine for the name of the reporter and for some decorative lines and bars.

In lawyer portrait
Portrait
thumb|250px|right|Portrait of [[Thomas Jefferson]] by [[Rembrandt Peale]], 1805. [[New-York Historical Society]].A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,...

s and advertisements, the rows of books visible behind the lawyer are usually reporters.

Canada

Each province in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 has an official reporter series that publishes superior court and appellate court decisions of the respective province. The federal courts, such as the Federal Court
Federal Court (Canada)
The Federal Court is a Canadian trial court that hears cases arising under certain areas of federal law. The Federal Court is a superior court with nationwide jurisdiction...

, Federal Court of Appeal
Federal Court of Appeal (Canada)
The Federal Court of Appeal is a Canadian appellate court that hears cases concerning federal matters arising from certain federal Acts. The court was created on July 2, 2003 by the Courts Administration Service Act when it and the Federal Court were split from its predecessor, the Federal Court of...

, and Tax Court
Tax Court of Canada
The Tax Court of Canada , established in 1983 by the Tax Court of Canada Act, is a federal superior court which deals with matters involving companies or individuals and tax issues with the Government of Canada....

, each have their own reporter series. The Supreme Court of Canada
Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions...

 has its own Reporter series, the Supreme Court Reports
Supreme Court Reports
The Supreme Court Reports is the official reporter of the Supreme Court of Canada. Since the creation of the Supreme Court, all of its decisions have been published in the Reports, in both English and French. The first volume was published in 1877 containing the first case ever heard by the...

.

There are also general reporters, such as the long-running Dominion Law Reports, that publishes cases of national significance.

England and Wales

In England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 and Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

, beginning with the reports of cases contained in the Year Books
Year Books
The Year Books are the modern English name that is now typically given to the earliest law reports of England. Substantial numbers of manuscripts circulated during the later medieval period containing reports of pleas heard before the Common Bench. In the sixteenth century versions of this...

 (Edward II
Edward II of England
Edward II , called Edward of Caernarfon, was King of England from 1307 until he was deposed by his wife Isabella in January 1327. He was the sixth Plantagenet king, in a line that began with the reign of Henry II...

 to Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

) there is a complete series of reports of cases decided in the higher English courts down to the present time. The oldest reports are in Legal Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

. Until the nineteenth century, both the quality of early reports, and the extent to which the judge explained the facts of the case and his judgment, are highly variable, and the weight of the precedent may depend on the reputations of both the judge and the reporter. Such reports are now largely of academic interest, having been overtaken by statutes and later developments, but binding precedents can still be found, often most cogently expressed.
In 1865, the nonprofit Incorporated Council of Law Reporting
Incorporated Council of Law Reporting
The Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England & Wales, more commonly known as the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting is a registered charity based in London, England that publishes law reports of English law...

 (ICLR) for England & Wales was founded, and it has gradually become the dominant publisher of reporters in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. It has compiled most of the best available copies of pre-1866 cases into the English Reports
English Reports
The English Reports are a reprint in 178 volumes of nominate reports of judgments of the English Courts reported between 1220 and 1866. They contain most, but not all, of the nominate reports....

. Post-1865 cases are contained in the ICLR's own Law Reports
Law Reports
The Law Reports is the name of a series of law reports published by the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting.The Council maintains that they are "'the most authoritative reports' and should always be 'cited in preference where there is a choice'." This series is now divided into four main...

. Even today, the UK government does not publish an official reporter, but its courts have promulgated rules stating that the ICLR reporters should be cited whenever possible. Otherwise, any report signed by a barrister may be cited in Court.
Publications
  • W. T. S. Daniel, History of the Origin of the Law Reports (London, 1884)

Scotland

The Session Cases report cases heard in the Court of Session and Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 cases heard on appeal in the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....

. The Justiciary Cases report from the High Court of Justiciary
High Court of Justiciary
The High Court of Justiciary is the supreme criminal court of Scotland.The High Court is both a court of first instance and a court of appeal. As a court of first instance, the High Court sits mainly in Parliament House, or in the former Sheriff Court building, in Edinburgh, but also sits from time...

. Those two series are the most authoritative and are cited in court in preference to other report series, such as The Scots Law Times
Scots Law Times
The Scots Law Times is the law reports service in Scotland, publishing over 1400 pages of reports each year. Published weekly during court term, the Scots Law Times covers every Scottish court, civil and criminal, from the Sheriff Courts to the House of Lords.Since 2000, the Scots Law Times...

, which reports sheriff court
Sheriff Court
Sheriff courts provide the local court service in Scotland, with each court serving a sheriff court district within a sheriffdom.Sheriff courts deal with a myriad of legal procedures which include:*Solemn and Summary Criminal cases...

 and lands tribunal cases in addition to the higher courts. The law reports service of Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 is supplemented by other reports such as the Scottish Civil Case Reports and Green's Weekly Digest.

United States

In each state
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, there are published reports of all cases decided by the courts having appellate jurisdiction going back to the date of their organization. There are also complete reports of the cases decided in the United States Supreme Court
Supreme Court of the United States
The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...

 and the inferior federal courts
United States federal courts
The United States federal courts make up the judiciary branch of federal government of the United States organized under the United States Constitution and laws of the federal government.-Categories:...

 having appellate
Common law
Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...

 jurisdiction since their creation under the United States Constitution
United States Constitution
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It is the framework for the organization of the United States government and for the relationship of the federal government with the states, citizens, and all people within the United States.The first three...

. The early reporters were unofficial as they were published solely by private entrepreneurs, but in the middle of the 19th century, the U.S. Supreme Court and many state supreme court
State supreme court
In the United States, the state supreme court is the highest state court in the state court system ....

s began publishing their own official reporters.

In the 1880s, the West Publishing Company
Thomson West
West publishes legal, business, and regulatory information in print, and on electronic services such as Westlaw. Since the late 19th century, West has been one of the most prominent publishers of legal materials in the United States...

 started its National Reporter System
National Reporter System
West's National Reporter System is a set of law reports for both federal courts and appellate state courts in the United States. It started with the North Western Reporter in 1879 which has its origin in The Syllabi ....

, which is a family of regional reporters, each of which collects select state court opinions from a specific group of states. The National Reporter System is now the dominant unofficial reporter system in the U.S., and some smaller states have discontinued their own official reporters and certified the appropriate West regional reporter as their official reporter. West and its rival, LexisNexis
LexisNexis
LexisNexis Group is a company providing computer-assisted legal research services. In 2006 it had the world's largest electronic database for legal and public-records related information...

, both publish unofficial reporters of U.S. Supreme Court opinions. West also publishes the West American Digest System
West American Digest System
The West American Digest System is a system of identifying points of law from reported cases and organizing them by topic and key number. The system was developed by West Publishing to organize the entire body of American law...

 to help lawyers find cases in its reporters. West digests and reporters have always featured a "Key Numbering System" with a unique number for every conceivable legal topic.
The U.S. federal government
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...

 does not publish an official reporter for the federal courts at the circuit and district levels (the sole exception is the D.C. Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit known informally as the D.C. Circuit, is the federal appellate court for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Appeals from the D.C. Circuit, as with all the U.S. Courts of Appeals, are heard on a...

). However, just as the UK government uses the ICLR reporters by default, the U.S. courts use the unofficial West federal reporters for cases after 1880, which are the Federal Reporter
Federal Reporter
The Federal Reporter is a case law reporter in the United States that is published by West Publishing. It begins with cases decided in 1880. It was preceded by Federal Cases...

(for courts of appeals) and the Federal Supplement
Federal Supplement
The Federal Supplement is a case law reporter published by West Publishing in the United States that includes select opinions of the United States district courts. Though West is a private company that does not have a legal monopoly over the court opinions it publishes, it has so dominated the...

(for district courts). For cases prior to 1880, U.S. Courts use Federal Cases
Federal Cases
Federal Cases, circuit and district courts, 1789–1880 was a law report of cases decided by the United States district and circuit courts between 1789 and 1880. In court citation it is abbreviated F.Cas. It was superseded by Federal Reporter and Federal Supplement....

. West also publishes several unofficial state-specific reporters for large states like California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

.

Some government agencies use (and require attorneys and agents practicing before them to cite to) certain unofficial reporters that specialize in the types of cases likely to be material to matters before the agency. For example, for both patent and trademark practice, the United States Patent and Trademark Office
United States Patent and Trademark Office
The United States Patent and Trademark Office is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that issues patents to inventors and businesses for their inventions, and trademark registration for product and intellectual property identification.The USPTO is based in Alexandria, Virginia,...

 requires citation to the United States Patents Quarterly
United States Patents Quarterly
The United States Patents Quarterly is a United States legal reporter published by the Bureau of National Affairs in Washington, D.C. The USPQ covers intellectual property cases including patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets, from 1913 to the present.The USPQ reports case law from...

 (USPQ).

Today, both Westlaw and LexisNexis also publish a variety of official and unofficial reporters covering the decisions of many federal and state administrative agencies which possess quasi-judicial powers. A recent trend in American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 states
U.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 is for bar associations to join a consortium
Consortium
A consortium is an association of two or more individuals, companies, organizations or governments with the objective of participating in a common activity or pooling their resources for achieving a common goal....

 called Casemaker
Casemaker
Casemaker is a Web-based legal research system owned by Lawriter LLC, an entity based in Cincinnati, Ohio USA. State bar associations join the Casemaker system to provide online legal research services for dues-paying attorney members....

. Casemaker gives members of a state bar
Bar (law)
Bar in a legal context has three possible meanings: the division of a courtroom between its working and public areas; the process of qualifying to practice law; and the legal profession.-Courtroom division:...

 access to a computerized legal research
Legal research
Legal research is "the process of identifying and retrieving information necessary to support legal decision-making. In its broadest sense, legal research includes each step of a course of action that begins with an analysis of the facts of a problem and concludes with the application and...

 system.

Publications

  • Eugene Wambaugh
    Eugene Wambaugh
    Eugene Wambaugh was an American legal scholar. He was born on a farm near Brookville, Ohio to Rev. A. B. Wambaugh and Sarah Wells Wambaugh. He was educated at Harvard . Admitted to the Ohio bar in 1880, he practiced law in Cincinnati until 1889...

    , Study of Cases (second edition, Boston, 1894)
  • C. C. Soule, Lawyers' Reference Manual of Law Books and Citations (Boston, 1884)
  • Stephen Elias and Susan Levinkind, Legal Research: How To Find And Understand The Law (Berkeley: Nolo Press, 2004)

Australia

The Commonwealth Law Reports
Commonwealth Law Reports
The Commonwealth Law Reports are the authorised reports of decisions of the High Court of Australia. The CLR are published by the Lawbook Company, a division of Thomson Reuters...

 are the authorised reports of decision of the High Court of Australia
High Court of Australia
The High Court of Australia is the supreme court in the Australian court hierarchy and the final court of appeal in Australia. It has both original and appellate jurisdiction, has the power of judicial review over laws passed by the Parliament of Australia and the parliaments of the States, and...

. The Federal Court Reports are the authorised reports of decisions of the Federal Court of Australia
Federal Court of Australia
The Federal Court of Australia is an Australian superior court of record which has jurisdiction to deal with most civil disputes governed by federal law , along with some summary criminal matters. Cases are heard at first instance by single Judges...

 (including the Full Court). Each state and territory
States and territories of Australia
The Commonwealth of Australia is a union of six states and various territories. The Australian mainland is made up of five states and three territories, with the sixth state of Tasmania being made up of islands. In addition there are six island territories, known as external territories, and a...

 has a series of authorised reports, e.g. the Victorian Reports, of decisions of the superior courts of the state or territory.

The Australian Law Reports
Australian Law Reports
The Australian Law Reports are an unauthorised series of law reports which report cases from the High Court of Australia, Federal Court of Australia and the Supreme Courts of the states and territories exercising federal jurisdiction. After each authorised series they are the most often cited...

 are the largest series of unauthorised reports although there are several others general reports and reports relating to specific areas of the law, e.g. the Australian Torts Reports publish decisions from any state or federal court relating to tort law
Australian tort law
Tort law in Australia is the body of precedents and, to a lesser extent, legislation, that together define the operation of tort law in Australia. A tort is a civil wrong, other than a breach of contract. Tort law is a way in which the law can interfere with relationships between private...

.

New Zealand

The New Zealand Law Reports (NZLR) are the authorised reports of the New Zealand Council for Law Reporting and have been published continuously since 1883. The reports publish cases of significance from the High Court
High Court of New Zealand
The High Court of New Zealand is a superior court of New Zealand. It was established in 1841 and known as the Supreme Court of New Zealand until 1980....

, Court of Appeal
Court of Appeal of New Zealand
The Court of Appeal of New Zealand, located in Wellington, is New Zealand’s principal intermediate appellate court. In practice, most appeals are resolved at this intermediate appellate level, rather than in the Supreme Court...

 and Supreme Court of New Zealand
Supreme Court of New Zealand
The Supreme Court of New Zealand is the highest court and the court of last resort in New Zealand, having formally come into existence on 1 January 2004. The court sat for the first time on 1 July 2004. It replaced the right of appeal to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, based in London...

. The reports, which were initially sorted by volume, are sorted by year. Three volumes per year are now published, with the number of volumes having increased over time from one, to two and now to three. The reports do not focus on any particular area of law, with subject specific reports filling this niche. There are approximately 20 privately published report series focusing on specialist areas of law. Some areas are covered by more than one report series - such as employment, tax and family law.

Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, the law reports are published according to the provisions of the Law Reports Act, 1875. There are at least six law reports now in Bangladesh, the most popular one is the Dhaka Law Reports (DLR), which started publication in 1948. Bangladesh Legal Decisions (BLD) is published under the authority of the Bangladesh Bar Council. The other law reports include Bangladesh Law Chronicles, Law Guardian, Bangladesh Law Times, Mainstream Law Reports.

After the Supreme Court of Bangladesh was established in 1972, it initially published a law report, containing the judgments, orders and decisions of the Court. The decisions of the lower judiciary were not reported in any law report. Chancery Research and Consultants Trust now publishes such decisions.

India

The Supreme Court Reports (SCR) is the official reporter for Supreme Court decisions. In addition, some private reporters have been authorised to publish the Court's decisions.
These include
  • Indian Supreme Court Law Reporter (ISCLR)
  • All India Reporter (AIR),
  • Supreme Court Cases (SCC),


In India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

, the All India Reporter (AIR) published from Nagpur
Nagpur
Nāgpur is a city and winter capital of the state of Maharashtra, the largest city in central India and third largest city in Maharashtra after Mumbai and Pune...

, Maharashtra
Maharashtra
Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...

 has the widest coverage. Along with its sister publication, the Criminal Law Journal (CrLJ), it reports most civil and criminal law judgements of the Supreme Court of India
Supreme Court of India
The Supreme Court of India is the highest judicial forum and final court of appeal as established by Part V, Chapter IV of the Constitution of India...

 and the High Courts of each of the States. It is published monthly, but reference is typically made to the annual bound volumes.

The case of Sebastian Hongray v. Union of India (dated: Nov 24, 1983) can be cited thus:
  • ISCLR/1984/47/01 – which corresponds to the Indian Supreme Court Law Reporter (name of the reporter), Year (of publication), Part (of the reporter) and assigned case number;

  • AIR 1984 SC 571 - where 'AIR' is the All India Reporter, '1984' is the year of judgement (AIR does not use a volume-based classification), 'SC' is the Supreme Court of India and '571' is the page number;

  • (1984) 1 SCC 339 - which corresponds to the Year (of publication), Volume (of the reporter), Supreme Court Cases (name of the reporter) and Page Number (within the volume);

  • 1984 Cri LJ 289 (SC) - which corresponds to Year (of publication), Criminal Law Journal (name of reporter) and Page Number (within the 1984 volumes). The forum is indicated in simple parenthesis.

  • (1984) 2 Scale 1352 - A citation of the 'Supreme Court Almanac' looks like this

  • (1984) 1 SC 374 - Judgements Today' like this


Indian Supreme Court Law Reporter (ISCLR) uses part-based classification and is being published weekly. ISCLR is recognized for its fastest and most accurate judgment reporting. This reporter use unique multi color highlighting feature to make the judgments easy to understand. ISCLR’s electronic version is distributed free of charge and is intended to help broaden public understanding of Law and of Supreme Court Judgments and Rulings.

The 'Supreme Court Cases (SCC)' published supplementary reports for a few years in the early 1990s. Those citations looked like this - Federation of Mining Associations v. State of Rajasthan1992 Supp (2) SCC 239, which points to page 239 of the Second Supplementary Volume of the SCC reports in the year 1992.

The SCC also have a separate series of subject-based reporting of the decisions of the Supreme Court. For instance - Rathinam Nagbhushan Patnaik v. Union of India 1994 SCC (Cri) 740, which refers to the SCC Criminal Reports, and Delhi Transport Corporation v. Mazdoor Congress 1991 SCC (L&S) 1213, which refers to the SCC Labour & Services Reports.

There are other subject-specific reports such as Arbitration Law Reports, Patents & Trademark Cases, consumer forum cases and so on.

Pakistan

Pakistan inherited a common law system upon independence from Great Britain in 1947, and thus its legal system relies heavily on law reports. The leading law journals of Pakistan are published by PLD Publishers from Lahore, namely PLD, SCMR, CLC, PCrLJ, PTD, PLC, CLD, YLR The most comprehensive law book is the "Pakistan Law Decisions" (PLD), which contains judgments from the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the various provincial High Courts, the Service, Professional and Election Tribunals as well as the superior courts of territories such as Azad Kashmir. PLD is augmented by other books, most notably the "Yearly Law Reports" (YLR), and the "Monthly Law Digest" (MLD).
The Supreme Court also has its own law book, the "Supreme Court Monthly Review" (SCMR), which lists more recent cases that the appex court heard.

In addition, there are books dealing with specific areas of law, such as the "Civil Law Cases" (CLC), which as the name suggests deals with Civil cases; the "Pakistan Criminal Law Journal" (PCrLJ), which reports Criminal Cases; and the "Pakistan Tax Decisions" (PTD), on the Income Tax tribunal cases and their appeals.

All the journals of PLD Publishers are available on www.pakistanlawsite.com a subscription based website which in addition to these houses all the Federal and Provincial Statutes in Pakistan.

Some Pakistani as well as international laws are available on http://nasirlaw.007sites.com

There are also two Pakistan's Tax Law Library Software which includes Reported Cases About Direct Tax (Income Tax and Wealth Tax) and Sales Tax Law on http://www.rahmat.com

Kenya

Kenya's first output of law reports was in the form of volumes under the citation E.A.L.R (East African Law Reports). They were first published between 1897 and 1905. Seven of these volumes were compiled by the Hon Mr Justice R. W. Hamilton, who was then the Chief Justice of the Protectorate and the reports covered all courts of different jurisdictions.

The 1922-1956 period saw the emergence of some twenty-one volumes of the Kenya Law Reports
Kenya Law Reports
The Kenya Law Reports are the official law reports of the Republic of Kenya which may be cited in proceedings in all courts of Kenya...

 (under the citation K.L.R). These reports included the decisions of the High Court only and were collated, compiled and edited by different puisne judges and magistrates.

Then came the period covering 1934 to 1956 which saw the birth of the famous Court of Appeal for Eastern Africa Law Reports (E.A.L.R). These reports comprised twenty-three volumes altogether which were also compiled by puisne judges and magistrates, a Registrar of the High Court and a Registrar of the Court of Appeal for Eastern Africa. These volumes reported the decisions of the then Court of Appeal for Eastern Africa and of the Privy Council. They covered only those appeals filed from the territories.

The East Africa Law Reports (cited as E.A.) were introduced in 1957 and were published in nineteen consecutive volumes until 1975. These reports covered decisions of the Court of Appeal for East Africa and the superior courts of the constituent territories, namely, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Aden, Seychelles and Somaliland. They were published under an editorial board consisting of the Chief Justices of the Territories and the presiding judge of the Court of Appeal for Eastern Africa. Following the collapse of the East African Community, under whose auspices the reports were published, the reports went out of publication.

The period before the resumption of the East Africa Law Reports saw sporadic and transitory attempts at law reporting. Firstly, with the authority of the then Attorney-General, six volumes named the New Kenya Law Reports covering the period between and including the years 1976 to 1980 were published by the East African Publishing House Ltd. These reports included the decisions of the High Court and Court of Appeal of Kenya and were compiled by the Late Hon Mr Justice S. K. Sachdeva and were edited by Mr Paul H Niekirk and the Hon Mr Justice Richard Kuloba, a judge of the High Court of Kenya. The publication of these reports ceased when the publishing house folded them up ostensibly on account of lack of funds.

Later, two volumes of what were known as the Kenya Appeal Reports were published for the period 1982-1992 by Butterworths, a private entity, under the editorship of The Hon Chief Justice A.R.W. Hancox (hence the pseudonym “Hancox Reports”) who had the assistance of an editorial board of seven persons. These reports, as their name suggested, included only the decisions of the Court of Appeal of Kenya selected over that period.

Law reports relating to special topics have also been published. Ten volumes of the Court of Review Law Reports covering the period 1953 to 1962 and including the decisions on customary law by the African Court of Review were published by the Government Printer. There was no editorial board and it is not known who the compilers of these reports were. Their apocryphal origin notwithstanding, they were commonly cited by legal practitioners and scholars.

In 1994, the Kenyan Parliament passed the National Council for Law Reporting Act, 1994 and gave the Council the exclusive mandate of:
“publication of the reports to be known as the Kenya Law Reports which shall contain judgments, rulings and opinions of the superior courts of record and also undertake such other publications as in the opinion of the Council are reasonably related to or connected with the preparation and publication of the Kenya Law Reports” (section 3 of the Act).

The Kenya Law Reports are the official law reports of the Republic of Kenya which may be cited in proceedings in all courts of Kenya (section 21 of the Act).

See also

  • Case citation
    Case citation
    Case citation is the system used in many countries to identify the decisions in past court cases, either in special series of books called reporters or law reports, or in a 'neutral' form which will identify a decision wherever it was reported...

  • Case law
    Case law
    In law, case law is the set of reported judicial decisions of selected appellate courts and other courts of first instance which make new interpretations of the law and, therefore, can be cited as precedents in a process known as stare decisis...

  • Legal opinion
    Legal opinion
    In law, an opinion is usually a written explanation by a judge or group of judges that accompanies an order or ruling in a case, laying out the rationale and legal principles for the ruling....

  • Atlantic Reporter
    Atlantic Reporter
    The Atlantic Reporter is a United States regional case law reporter. It is part of the National Reporter System created by John B. West for West Publishing Company, which is now part of Thomson West....

  • European Patent Office Reports
    European Patent Office Reports
    The European Patent Office Reports are a series of law reports, with decisions of the Boards of Appeal of the European Patent Office. The series has been published since 1979, and since at least 1989 by Sweet & Maxwell. - List of editions :...

     (EPOR)
  • NSW Law Reports
    NSW Law Reports
    The NSW Law Reports are the official reports of the courts of New South Wales, Australia.The reports are published by The Council of Law Reporting for New South Wales....

  • North Eastern Reporter
    North Eastern Reporter
    The North Eastern Reporter and North Eastern Reporter Second are United States regional case law reporters. It is part of the National Reporter System created by John B. West for West Publishing Company, which is now part of Thomson West....

  • North Western Reporter
    North Western Reporter
    The North Western Reporter and North Western Reporter, Second Series are United States regional case law reporters. It is part of the National Reporter System created by John B...

  • Pacific Reporter
    Pacific Reporter
    The Pacific Reporter, Pacific Reporter Second and Pacific Reporter Third are United States regional case law reporters. It is part of the National Reporter System created by John B...

  • South Eastern Reporter
    South Eastern Reporter
    The South Eastern Reporter and South Eastern Reporter Second are United States regional case law reporters. It is part of the National Reporter System created by John B...

  • Southern Reporter
    Southern Reporter
    The Southern Reporter, the Southern Reporter Second and the Southern Reporter Third are United States regional case law reporters. It is part of the National Reporter System created by John B...

  • South Western Reporter
    South Western Reporter
    The South Western Reporter, South Western Reporter Second and South Western Reporter Third are United States regional case law reporters. It is part of the National Reporter System created by John B...

  • United States Patents Quarterly
    United States Patents Quarterly
    The United States Patents Quarterly is a United States legal reporter published by the Bureau of National Affairs in Washington, D.C. The USPQ covers intellectual property cases including patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets, from 1913 to the present.The USPQ reports case law from...

  • All England Law Reports
    All England Law Reports
    The All England Law Reports are a long-running series of law reports covering cases from the court system in England and Wales....

  • Incorporated Council of Law Reporting
    Incorporated Council of Law Reporting
    The Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England & Wales, more commonly known as the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting is a registered charity based in London, England that publishes law reports of English law...

  • Kenya Law Reports
    Kenya Law Reports
    The Kenya Law Reports are the official law reports of the Republic of Kenya which may be cited in proceedings in all courts of Kenya...


External links

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