|
Law reporting.
|
|
Citation |
|
In courts of Criminal Jurisdiction |
|
Prosecutor |
Pronounced "Against" |
Defendant |
Proceedings
|
|
R
"The Crown" |
v |
Howe |
Typical |
|
R
"The Crown" |
v |
R
|
E.g. child defendant, or rape etc, parties are anonymous until conviction
(identity is revealed of some children convicted) |
|
Smith |
v
|
Jones |
Proceedings started by summons and not by arrest, or privately. |
|
Civil Actions |
|
Claimant |
Pronounced "And" |
Defendant
|
|
|
R |
v |
Z |
Divorce or child involved, parties remain anonymous |
|
Smith |
v
|
Jones |
Typical |
|
Re: Tempest |
Probably a deceased person so technically no defendant |
"In the matter of" |
|
The Wagon Mound |
A
shipping case is always known by the name of the defendant ship. |
|
|
|
Letters in case name |
Case heard in |
Notes |
|
ECJ |
European Court of Justice |
|
|
ECHR |
European Court of Human Rights |
|
|
HL |
House of Lords |
Apellate Committee of |
|
PC |
Privy Council |
Judicial Committee of |
|
CA |
Court of Appeal |
Criminal or Civil Division |
|
QBD |
Queen's Bench Division of the High Court |
|
|
ChDiv |
Chancery Division of the High Court |
|
|
Fam |
Family Division of the High Court |
|
|
DC |
Divisional Court of the High Court |
So we know it is an appeal |
|
Crown Ct |
A
Crown Court judgment |
Usually when a High Court judge is sitting |
|
n.b. "Judgement" is spelt "judgment"
by lawyers. |
|
Effectiveness depends on the availability of
full and accurate reports |
The effectiveness of a doctrine of precedent
based on stare decisis depends in large measure on the availability
of full and accurate reports of decided cases. There has never been in
England any official or systematic attempt at compiling law reports. The
law reporting that exists today has simply evolved by private enterprise
through three periods of development.
|
|
Precedent |
Means the process of following earlier
cases, also the report of the case itself is called a precedent. |
|
Year Books (about 1275 to 1535) |
The Yearbooks are anonymous reports,
compiled annually, and written by hand in French. Some were later printed
but most remained in manuscript. The Yearbooks are rarely cited in court
now, as they are of no practical use in modern times. They are, however,
useful in the study of the medieval common law.
|
|
Private (or named) reports (1535 to 1665) |
Individuals, for commercial publication. compiled the private reports.
Most of the private reports are referred to by the name of the reporter.
They are cited by recognised abbreviations. Thus, the reports compiled by
Sir Edward Coke between 1572 and 1616 are known as Coke's Reports,
abbreviated to Co Rep.
Holt CJ (1704) exemplifies the judicial frustration with bad
private reporting:
"See the inconveniences of these
scrambling reports, they will make us appear to posterity for a parcel
of blockheads".
|
|
Modern reports (1865 to the present) |
The private reports were often criticised. They were expensive to buy.
Some of them were never printed and had to be cited in manuscript form.
There was too much overlapping in that the same case might be reported in
two or more series. Their usefulness to the legal profession was reduced
by the inordinate length of time taken to report some important decisions.
They were, for the most part, unreliable.
|
|
Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for
England and Wales. |
Because of dissatisfaction with the private reports, a council was
established comprising representatives of the four Inns of Court and the
Law Society with the Attorney-General and Solicitor-General as ex officio
members.
The council's reports called The Law Reports, were first published in 1865
and eventually absorbed the private reports.
In 1870 the Council was incorporated as a company and became known as the
Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales.
http://www.lawreports.co.uk/indexdln.htm
Since 1953, the Incorporated Council of Law
In the High Court and Court of Appeal if the Incorporated Council of Law
Reporting for England and Wales has published a Law Report that counsel
which to quote, then they must use that report and only if the Council has
not reported it may they use another source.
Practice Direction
here |
|
The Weekly Law Reports (WLR) |
Since 1953, the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England and
Wales has published The Weekly Law Reports (WLR).
|
|
All England Law Reports |
(All ER) published since 1936 by Butterworths. |
|
Specialist series of law reports |
Tal Cases (TC or Tax Cas) published by the Inland Revenue and Reports of
Patent, Design and TradeMark Cases (RPC) published by the Patent Office.
Lloyds Law Reports (Lloyd's Rep).
|
|
Stanley v International Harvester co. of
Great Britain Ltd (1983) CA |
Sir John Donaldson MR complained about the indiscriminate citing of
computer-recorded cases, which contains no new law.
|
|
[ ] –v- ( ) |
Since 1891, the year of publication of a volume of The Law Reports has
appeared in square brackets and is part of the reference to that volume
without which a case cannot be traced. Round brackets indicate the year of
the hearing.
|
|
Smith Bernal |
Internet reporting of cases. All courts.
CaseTrack. |
|
House of Lords website |
House of Lords judgments available on the internet.
House of Lords. |
|
Her Majesty’s Courts Service website |
Cases the Court Service Website are chosen by the judge for publication.
The Court
Service. |
|
Paid for by lawyers |
Comprehensive searchable linked cases.
BAILI.
|
|
The Times |
Citable cases found at
The Times.
|
|
Butterworths legal publishers |
Useful recent case summaries
Butterworth. |
