Case Law - LAW 200, 220, 250, 260 | Common Law in England

What is Case Law?

Case law is the law as established by the outcome of former cases.

Retrieving UK case law will involve deciphering the law citation. Law citations typically look something like this:

A v Hoare [2008] UKHL 6
Rihan v Ernst & Young Global Ltd & Ors [2020] EWHC 901 (QB)

The capitalized letters appearing after the year will help you determine where you need to search.

In the cases above, search for just the letters in Cardiff: UKHL or EWHC QB. The Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations will tell you what those letters mean--in these two examples, United Kingdom House of Lords (UKHL) and England & Wales High Court Queen's Bench (EWHC QB).

Knowing this information will help you determine where to find the court's opinion.

Find Case Law

UK Courts & Tribunals
The Courts and Tribunals website selectively publishes recent judgments rendered in civil and criminal cases in England and Wales. Both trial and appellate court judgments are included. Most are available for download in PDF format. Coverage is limited to higher profile cases decided within the last three to four years.
UK Supreme Court
The final court of appeal in the UK for civil cases, and for criminal cases from England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Supreme Court hears cases of the greatest public or constitutional importance affecting the whole population. Includes judgements from 2009 to the present. Download the PDF by clicking on the Decided Cases tab. Prior to 2009, the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords (the "Law Lords") rendered judgements.
Proceedings of Old Bailey
1674-1913. Contains 197,745 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court--Old Bailey.
BAILII
BAILII maintains a free online database of UK case law. Although the interface is not as sleek and user-friendly as that of ICLR Online, the coverage is broader and includes case law from Scotland and Northern Ireland, as well as the Irish Republic, the Court of Justice of the European Union, and the European Court of Human Rights. The search template supports both keyword and Boolean searching and enables users to restrict searchers to a particular court or date range. Users also have the option of searching by citation and by party name (title).
Appellate Committee of the House of Lords | Law Lords | 1996-2009
All judgments of the Law Lords since 14 November 1996 to 30 July 2009 are available on the Parliament website. They are available in browsable html and print-friendly PDF formats.
Appellate Committee of the House of Lords | Law Lords | 1621-1996
Access to judgments prior to 1996 can be arranged through the Parliamentary Archives. The Archives holds appeal cases and other records of the House of Lords acting in its judicial capacity, dating from 1621.
LawCite
LawCite is something you use to locate judgments and to see how these have been subsequently dealt with and commented upon or to see where journal articles have been cited. LawCite, like other case citators, is essentially useful in the context of a particular legal decision or law journal article. It will help you to locate and find a copy of a decision, see how a decision has been subsequently dealt with and find other materials such as journal articles about a decision. It will also help you to see how journal articles have been cited by other journal articles and cases. Take care when searching it: use only the last piece of the citation: [1963] 2 All ER 575.