Law Reports (1983) - PDF

3.3 LAW REPORTS  LAW REPORTS After a case is decided, a written ‘law report’ is published, setting out what the case was about and what the judge decided. The reports of individual cases are published in collections called ‘law reports series’. Each of these collections...

3.3 LAW REPORTS  LAW REPORTS After a case is decided, a written ‘law report’ is published, setting out what the case was about and what the judge decided. The reports of individual cases are published in collections called ‘law reports series’. Each of these collections has its own name, eg the Commonwealth Law Reports (CLR). Each case has its own citation, consisting of a name; a year; a volume number, the abbreviation of the law report series in which the law report is published; and a page number, eg: Taylor v Johnson (1983) 151 CLR 422.  EXAMPLE OF A LAW REPORT 3 judges sat on this appeal. The most senior judge, in this case the Chief Justice (‘CJ’), is listed first Last date is date judgment was handed down Catchwords Headnote  Informatio n on the trial (original Barristers hearing) is with the suffix here ‘KC’, ‘QC’ or ‘SC’ are senior counsel The most senior judge’s reasons are published first, but they do not automatically have a ‘casting’ vote  HOW TO FIND PREVIOUS DECISIONS  You can find cases: In a textbook (in edited or summarized form) In the law reports section of a library On Austlii  As an exercise, find the report of Taylor v Johnson (1983) 151 CLR 422 www.austlii.edu.au http://www.austlii.edu.au/cgi-bin/viewdoc/au/cases/cth/HCA/1983/5.html  SUMMARIES OF LAW REPORTS (IN YOUR TEXTBOOK) Law reports are often very long and detailed. For the purposes of study, it is often helpful to read summaries of law reports, rather then the full report. The FPBL materials provide summaries of the reports of many decided cases. You will find these in the tutorials and in the FPBL textook. Always remember that summaries are not as reliable as the full report. On the next slide is a typical case summary in the textbook..... CASE SUMMARIES: AN EXAMPLE