Finding Case Law
Introduction
Case law (sometimes called common law) refers to the body of law
created by judges when deciding cases. It serves two important functions:
- It provides interpretation of statute law
- It states the law in areas where no statute law exists.
Interwoven with case law is the doctrine of precedent.
This states that the decision made in one case may provide the basis
for deciding a later case.
Significant judgments handed down in Australian courts are published
in law reports and are known as "reported judgements".
These publications are designed to provide a comprehensive system
of reporting and provide judges with written precedents. Cases that
do not fulfil the necessary criteria for publication in a law report
belong to a large body of material collectively known as "unreported
judgments".
There are two broad categories of law report series:
Types of Law Report Series
Authorised report series
These are reports authorised by official law reporting councils.
Prior to publication the reports are checked by the courts
involved in the relevant cases. Because of this review process,
authorised reports may take several months to be published.
Examples of authorised report series include Commonwealth
Law Reports and Federal Court Reports.
Unauthorised report series
These are reports that do not go through the lengthy review
process by the courts. Because of this they appear in print
much more quickly. An example of an unauthorised report
series is the Federal Law Reports. Report series in this
category are generally published more quickly than authorised
report series.
Wherever possible an authorised series should
be cited in preference to an unauthorised series.
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What is the procedure for finding a judgment in the Library?
This will depend on several factors:
-
Has the judgment been published in a law report series and
do you know the relevant case citation?
-
Has the judgment been made available in electronic format?
(eg. AustLII or the court's web pages.)
-
Is the judgment unreported?
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