Canadian Legal Research Manual

There are many sources to consult for English case law. This is because English case law reporting has gone through two major eras: pre-1865 and post-1865.

Law reports are publications that print judicial decisions selected by editors. Before 1865, English judgments were published in private law reports referred to as nominate reports.

In 1865, the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting (ICLR) was founded. As a result, judgments were published in the Law Reports, a series of official law reports. However, there continued to be other law reports from various publishers.

Today, many English judgments receive neutral citations and can generally be found online (see the list of English Case Law Databases on this page for access points). But a Canadian researcher often needs to locate older English cases, so it is helpful to know how to decode these reporter citations and where to find them.

This page provides some basic information on finding and noting up English case law in various reporters.

Prior to 1865, all cases handed down from the courts were reported by private court reporters who sat in on case proceedings and made notes. They then published their reports in series under their individual names, hence the term "nominate." Some examples are Keen, Manson, and Barnewall and Adolphus. 

In 1865, the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting began to produce an official series of reports called the Law Reports, and the nominate reports came to an end.

For convenience, these nominate reports have been collected and reprinted in three different series:

1. The English Reports (ER): Considered the most authoritative source. 
2. The Revised Reports (RR): Only include cases from certain nominate reporters from 1785-1866.
3. All England Law Reports Reprint (All ER Rep): Select cases.

If you are trying to track down a case from the nominate reports, you may have a citation to a nominate reporter or to one of these three reprint collections. 

When the Law Reports (LR) started in 1865, there were 11 reports—one for each court in the English legal system. When the Supreme Court of Judicature Act (1873) reduced the number of courts to six, the number of LR series also dropped. A further reduction in 1881 brought the number to four, where it currently remains today. The Law Reports are divided into 4 main series:

1. Appeal Cases
2. Queen's/King's Bench
3. Chancery
4. Family Division

The Law Reports are available in ICLR (see English Case Law Databases for links).

Case citations to the Law Reports do not follow a consistent format due to changes over the years. For example, older citations include the letters "LR" in the citation (from 1865-75), and cases reported before 1890 do not have the year in the citation. 

Here are a few sample case citations from the Law Reports:

• LR 3 HL 100
• 5 Ex D 319
• [1947] KB 842

There are many other English case law reporters beyond the nominate reports and the Law Reports. They operate much much like Canadian case law reporters; they can be organized by jurisdiction, topic, or court and often contain case comments or annotations. Some examples include the Times Law Reports and Lloyd's Law Reports.

When searching for these law reports using a citation, you would follow much of the same steps as for other law reporters.

In addition to judicial history, noting up an English case for a Canadian researcher may include finding judicial consideration in both English and Canadian courts. This means you may need to use multiple tools, since citators do not often include case law from multiple jurisdictions. 

►Reminder: See How to Access UK Content on Westlaw and Lexis for help navigating those platforms.  

If you don't find many (or any!) cases using the the built-in noting up functionality in a database, another method for finding subsequent judicial treatment is to do a full-text search using the case name or citation using Lexis, Westlaw, or ICLR. However, be mindful that the cases returned will depend on the database you select.

For instance, if you search in Westlaw or Lexis's Canadian case databases, you will only receive Canadian citations. Be sure to navigate to Westlaw or Lexis's UK content if you are looking for judicial consideration from UK courts. Follow these steps:

1. Navigate to the appropriate database the aligns with your research needs (e.g. Lexis UK or Canadian cases, Westlaw UK or Canadian content, ICLR).
2. Enter the case citation or name in the federated search bar with quotation marks surrounding it to search as a phrase (e.g. "Woffington v Sparks" or "28 ER 363"). If you are using a citation, consider including multiple parallel citations to capture all references to the case (e.g. "[1982] QB 1004" OR "[1982] 2 WLR 503" OR [1982] 1 All ER 834").
3. Run the search. Be sure to read through the cases to confirm they are citing your target case.

Lastly, there are several resources available in the Law Library for finding Canadian cases that cite English cases: