Law: Case Law

Case Law is the body of Law set out in judicial decisions. Case Law means court decisions and judicial decisions or judgements in cases. Case Law is a primary source of legal research. 

                 Law Reports.

Law Reports publish the judgements in cases. A law Report citation provides the information you need to find the case judgement.

Key Law Reports include;

• Irish Law Reports Monthly via Westlaw IE
• Law Reports (UK)
• Weekly Law Reports  - via Justis and Westlaw UK

There are specific Law reports for subdisciplines in Law;

• Environmental Law Reports
• Industrial Relations Law Reports

Some judgements are not reported and are know as unreported judgements

• Family law cases

The Courts Service of Ireland provides information on Irish cases, a high court search facility, judgements and determinations as well as a legal diary.

The following tutorial introduces you to CaseLaw searching in the new Westlaw UK platform.

You can search for cases in a number of key Law databases

To find a case, click on the case tab in one of the databases below and then search by party name or keyword.

• Westlaw IE - Search this database for Irish Cases
• Westlaw UK - Search this database for UK Cases
• Lexis Library - Search for All England and Northern Ireland Reports
• JustisOne - Search for older Irish and English cases

Some databases will give you the case information, others will also provide links to further information related to that case;

• Key cases cited in the case
• Key cases considered during the case
• Future cases that referred back to the case
• Articles about the case

The database JustisOne provides a really good visual map called a citation map which displays case connections. Not all cases have the citation map feature.

These can help to lead you to other relevant cases and research on a legal topic you are investigating.