LibGuides: English Legal Materials: Current Case Law

Case-Finding Tools

The Digest: Annotated British, Commonwealth and European Cases (1981-)
This is a comprehensive digest of English cases from the earliest reported cases to the present. Scottish, Irish, and Commonwealth cases are included. Annual cumulative supplements update annotations and summarize new cases. Multi-year Continuation volumes accompany the cumulative supplements. Also arranged topically, with cases appearing chronologically within each topic.
Library: KD 296 E52
Halsbury's Laws of England, 5th ed.
Halsbury's is an encyclopedia of English law. Each entry contains a statement of law and citations to cases, statutes, and statutory instruments. The set includes a Consolidated Table of Cases, a Consolidated Table of Statutes, and an index. Updated by annual cumulative supplements and Current Service looseleaf volumes. In the Current Service, the Monthly Review summarizes current developments and Noter-up updates specific sections of the encyclopedia. See the Key in Current Service to make the transition from the encyclopedia to the update entries. In addition, the Annual Abridgement provides a summary of English legal developments each year.
Library: KD 310 H34 2008

Current Case Law - Print

1, Law Reports (1865-) (preferred cite for cases after 1864)

Appeal Cases
Appeal Cases contains the House of Lords and Judicial Committee of the Privy Council cases. It does not, however, contain Court of Appeal Cases, which appear in the other three series.
Library: KD 275.4
Chancery Division
Queen's/King's Bench Division
Family Division
(Formerly Probate, Divorce and Admiralty Division) Advance sheets for the Family Division are combined with Chancery; they are called Chancery and Family and are shelved with the Chancery series.
Library: KD 279.4
Consolidated Index
Three decennial volumes cover 1951-1980 and are supplemented by annual cumulative volumes and pamphlets published every few months. Both subject indexes and tables of cases are included.
Library: KD 285
Weekly Law Reports
Bound volumes of the Law Reports are updated by advance sheets and the Weekly Law Reports.
Library: KD 282

2, All England Law Reports

All England Law Reports
This is a commercial series, and some cases are only published here. The Consolidated Tables and Index covers 1936-86. To update, look at the case tables for the annual bound volumes or refer to the Weekly Law Reports described above.
Library: KD 288 A64

Current Case Law - Online

WestlawNext

WestlawNext has an United Kingdom case law database; coverage begins in 1865, with a few cases going back as far 1220. To get to this database, from the home page-->International Materials-->United Kingdom-->United Kingdom Cases. There may be analysis, but not full text, for some cases. For those cases, use ICLR.

The Incorporated Council of Law Reporting, ICLR is a legal charity, set up in 1865. We publish law reports of the judicial decisions of the Superior and Appellate Courts in England and Wales. Following Lord Woolf's Practice Direction 2001: “For the avoidance of doubt, the ICLR official Law Reports should be cited in preference to any other series. Other series of reports may only be used when a case is not reported in the Law Reports.”

ICLR
The Incorporated Council of Law Reporting, ICLR is a legal charity, set up in 1865. We publish law reports of the judicial decisions of the Superior and Appellate Courts in England and Wales. Following Lord Woolf's Practice Direction 2001: “For the avoidance of doubt, the ICLR official Law Reports should be cited in preference to any other series. Other series of reports may only be used when a case is not reported in the Law Reports.”
The British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII)
BAILII publishes many databases of low and high court decisions for England and Wales, Ireland, Scotland and the UK as a whole, including all House of Lords decisions from 1838-present in a free, online database.