Knowledge

The published law reports in ICLR’s main subscription series are proof-read by at least three people, before being sent for approval by the judges on whose judgments they are based. So you can rest assured that our reports are as accurate, as a record of what the court considered and decided, as is humanly possible.… Continue reading about The burden of proofs: why accuracy matters

Any law reports, whether of the full text or summary type, needs to contain certain fundamental pieces of information in order to justify its being cited in support of a proposition of law. First of all, it must have a title, usually based on the names of the parties. It must identify the court giving… Continue reading about Anatomy of a law report

What’s the difference between a “law report” and a “transcript”? This is one of those questions where the answer is as obvious to some as it is inconspicuous to others. It is also a question that may, quite reasonably, strike some as a bit pedantic. However, there is a distinction and it doesn’t hurt to… Continue reading about What’s the difference between a “law report” and a “transcript”?

A law report is a record of a judicial decision on a point of law which sets a precedent. Not all decisions taken in a court of law set a precedent, however interesting they may be in terms of the facts of the case or its consequences. A decision is only reportable if lays down… Continue reading about What is a Law Report?

Case law is the law created by the courts Although most laws are enacted by Parliament in the form of legislation, in a common law system such as ours the courts can also develop the law. By deciding a disputed point of law a senior court (known as a court of record) can change or… Continue reading about What is case law?

A subscription to ICLR.4 provides access to the full text case reports and PDFs from ICLR’s published law report series. Other content on the site, such as unreported judgment transcripts, citator information (“index cards”) and WLR Daily case summaries, together with our intuitive and powerful case search, is free. For more information, see our Products… Continue reading about What does a subscription to ICLR.4 include?

In a common law system such as that of England and Wales, decisions of the senior courts have the potential to make new law. Those decisions should therefore be freely available to the public, who are bound by the law, in the same way as legislation. For this reason, ICLR makes judgment transcripts available free… Continue reading about Why aren’t ICLR law reports free?

Yes, but it is rare. The doctrine of precedent depends entirely on the court being made aware of the earlier decision by which it is bound. That in turn depends on the earlier case having been in some way published or otherwise publicised. Before the advent of printed law reports, it was not unusual for… Continue reading about Can a case be a precedent if it hasn’t been published?

The European Case Law Identifier or ECLI number is a pan-European publisher-neutral system of case citation. It was established by the European Commission in 2010 following the recommendations of the Working Party on Legal Data Processing (e-Law) (12907/1/09) in order to ensure improved cross-border access to national case law, as well as standardising the citation… Continue reading about ECLI number

A neutral citation is a unique court-assigned reference number for a judgment in a common law jurisdiction. Sometimes described as “medium neutral” (meaning they can be published in print or online using the same reference) or “vendor neutral” / “publisher neutral” (meaning they are not dependent, like traditional law reports, on the selection and editing… Continue reading about Neutral Citation