Case law

Case law (or judicial precedent) is law which is made by the courts and decided by judges. Judicial precedent operates under the principle of stare decisis which literally means “to stand by decisions”. This principle means that a court must follow and apply the law as set out in the decisions of higher courts in previous cases.

In order for the principle of stare decisis to operate, a judge must know what the previous decisions of courts are. Case reports, or “law reports”, make this possible. Although earlier collections of cases exist, it was in the 19^th century that a formalised system of law reporting was established in Scotland and England. There are currently many different series of law reports published, which reproduce judgments and add supplementary information by an editor. It may take some time between a judgment being handed down and its being published as a report. Similar systems of law reporting operate in other common law jurisdictions.

The main sources of cases are law reports, digests and official transcripts.

Case law, like legislation, can change over time. Just because a decision was good law once does not mean it remains so today. A lawyer needs to be able not only to find and read case law, but also to be able to check whether it has been subject to subsequent judicial consideration and whether it remains good law.

For more information about finding and using case law, take a look at our case law guide: