Business Law

What is Case Law?

Case law is the reported decisions of courts which make new interpretations of the law.  These interpretations may be cited as precedents.

Case Citators are used:

• To find the correct citation for a case
• If the case is reported in more than one series of reports
• To find out whether it is reported in an authorised law report series
• To find any earlier or later cases where the case has been considered
• To find journal articles and legislation considering the case

Case citators may link to the full text of the judgement and provide annotations on the case history.  Annotations serve as a summary of the facts of the case and demonstrate how the law is enacted in legislation.

When searching for a case the case citator will search across the case summary including party names, jurisdiction, court and judge. The full text of the case is not searched.

Search for the meaning of legal abbreviations:

• Cardiff Abbreviations
• Legal Abbreviations  (Monash University)