Law report
[1] These reports serve as published records of judicial decisions that are cited by lawyers and judges for their use as precedent in subsequent cases.
[1] Historically, the term "reporter" was used to refer to the individuals responsible for compiling, editing, and publishing these opinions.
[3] In Commonwealth English, these are described by the plural term "law reports", the title that usually appears on the covers of the periodical parts and the individual volumes.
In common law jurisdictions, such as the United States, the doctrine of stare decisis ("to stand by things decided") requires courts to follow precedent by applying legal principles established in prior decisions by higher courts within the same jurisdiction.
[4] The system of precedent relies heavily on written opinions issued by appellate and supreme courts, and occasionally by trial courts, as these opinions enable judges and lawyers to reference and compare reasoning in cases involving similar factual circumstances.
Official case law publishing may be carried out by a government agency, or by a commercial entity.
Unofficial law reports, on the other hand, are not officially sanctioned and are published as a commercial enterprise.
The development of the Internet created the opportunity for courts to publish their decisions on Web sites.
This is a relatively low cost publication method compared to paper and makes court decisions more easily available to the public (particularly important in common law countries where court decisions are major sources of law).
Because a court can post a decision on a Web site as soon as it is rendered, the need for a quickly printed case in an unofficial, commercial report becomes less crucial.
Many law librarians and academics have commented on the changing system of legal information delivery brought about by the rapid growth of the World Wide Web.
Professor Bob Berring writes that the "primacy of the old paper sets [print law reports] is fading, and a vortex of conflicting claims and products is spinning into place".
Questions remain, however, on the need for a uniform and practical citation format for cases posted on the Web (versus the standard volume and page number used for print law reports).
[8] Furthermore, turning away from the traditional "official-commercial" print report model raises questions about the accuracy, authority, and reliability of case law found on the Web.
Reports usually come in the form of sturdy hardcover books with most of the design elements on the spine (the part that a lawyer would be most interested in when searching for a case).
Gold leaf is traditionally used on the spine for the name of the report and for some decorative lines and bars.
These reports included the decisions of the High Court only and were collated, compiled and edited by different puisne judges and magistrates.
Then came the period covering 1934 to 1956 which saw the birth of the famous Court of Appeal for Eastern Africa Law Reports (E.A.L.R).
They were published under an editorial board consisting of the Chief Justices of the Territories and the presiding judge of the Court of Appeal for Eastern Africa.
The publication of these reports ceased when the publishing house folded them up ostensibly on account of lack of funds.
Later, two volumes of what were known as the Kenya Appeal Reports were published for the period 1982–1992 by Butterworths, a private entity, under the editorship of The Hon Chief Justice A.R.W.
These reports, as their name suggested, included only the decisions of the Court of Appeal of Kenya selected over that period.
Published monthly, the MLR provides timely treatment of significant developments in law through articles contributed by judges, leading scholars and practitioners.
Chinese-language judgments are published in the Hong Kong Chinese Law Reports and Translation (HKCLRT).
Such reports are now largely of academic interest, having been overtaken by statutes and later developments, but binding precedents can still be found, often most cogently expressed.
[25] West's NRS also includes several unofficial state-specific reporters for large states like California.
[22] The NRS now numbers well over 10,000 volumes;[19] therefore, only the largest law libraries maintain a full hard copy set in their on-site collections.
[26][27] Today, both Westlaw and LexisNexis also publish a variety of official and unofficial reporters covering the decisions of many federal and state administrative agencies which possess quasi-judicial powers.
A recent trend in American states is for bar associations to join a consortium called Casemaker.
There are approximately 20 privately published report series focusing on specialist areas of law.
