This page aims to offer a guide on where you can locate sources of United Kingdom cases with various categories of resources, including:
House of Parliament
In common law countries the law is developed and expounded by the judges in the Courts. It can only be changed by legislation passed by Parliament, but even this must be interpreted and applied by the Courts. The higher tine Court, the more authority its decisions have, up to the House of Lords whose decisions bind all lower courts.
As a general rule each Court must follow the decisions of every court above it - this is the doctrine of judicial precedence. For this reason, lawyers and judges look to the case law to decide which decision to follow. This is often not easy to establish, and many cases may be referred to before a decision is reached.
Please be reminded that cases or judgments are not indexed in FIND@HKUL. To look for full text cases, you will have to search in relevant legal databases, or search by the full title of a law report in FIND@HKUL with "Books+" search scope.
Alternatively, you may change to Advance Search and enter the following search term for all available law reports within the HKUL Collection:
At the beginning of first semester of each academic year, the Law Library will invite specialist trainers from LexisNexis and Thomson Reuters to conduct trainings for all law students to re-visit and familiarize the resources available from Lexis Advance Hong Kong and Westlaw Asia, and how to use them. Reserve a seat to master the skills in using these databases!
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Westlaw Edge UK is a dynamic, ever-growing and easily searchable database that contains many full text versions of law reports and official transcripts in addition to 'case analysis' documents.
To search for law reports, please use the cases dropdown menu as shown below:
Under the HKU Libraries subscription, UK’s case law is available via this platform. Fundamental law reports, such as those published by ICLR, can be found here.
To search for law reports, please use the search bar on the homepage as demonstrated below. Selecting both the jurisdiction as United Kingdom and the content type as UK cases via their respective dropdown menus: 
Rich amount of law reports with a wide range of coverage is available under the HKU Libraries subscription. Other than catchwords and additional information regarding the case, abbreviations of each law report are shown at the main page for a handy identification.
To browse different law reports, follow the below steps after entering the platform:
i-law.com offers fruitful resources on various areas of law, with maritime and commercial law in particular. A total of 14 law report titles can be found on this platform, for instance, the Lloyd’s Law Report.
To view full-text of content, please refer to the login reminder stated in the FIND@HKUL record.
Offered by Wolter Kluwer, PrimeLaw offers comprehensive collection of cases in different categories. This platform also includes extensive inclusion of company law cases. To browse these cases, follow these steps below:
Published by the Incorporated Council for Law Reporting (ICLR) since 1865, the Law Reports have been the semi-official law reports series, and is the largest and most authoritative set. Its arrangement has always reflected the court structure of the day, originally with eleven separate series containing reports from different courts. It is now divided into four series, representing four major divisions of the High Courts:
*Series previously divided based on court division of the day (e.g. Probate Division, Equity Cases), or of previous years, can be located with call number range PR KF55, or search directly in Lexis Advance Hong Kong/ Westlaw Asia (search steps please refer to Key Databases tab).
Weekly Law Reports [WLR]
Also published by ICLR, the Weekly Law Reports contain many cases which later appear in The Law Reports. Since the issues appear weekly, this makes it a useful source in locating more recent cases.
All England Law Reports [All ER]
Published by LexisNexis Butterworths, the All England Law Reports is another highly recognised and reputable publication.
Other than its main volume, series on a specific area of law are also divided. For instance, the All England Law Reports (Commercial Cases) [All ER. (Comm)]. You may either locate these materials with call number range PR KF60, or search directly in Lexis Advance Hong Kong (search steps please refer to Key Databases tab)
These other sets of law reports will select cases relevant to a specialised area of law. Below are some examples:
Lloyd’s Law Reports [Lloyd’s Rep]
This title is a reputable publication focusing on maritime and commercial law.
Similar to other law report series, sub-divisions on specific subjects are available for Lloyd’s Law Reports. They include Banking [Lloyd’s Rep. Bank], Medical [Lloyd’s Rep. Med.] and etc. You may locate these materials by searching directly in I-law.com (search steps please refer to Key Databases tab)
Banking Law Reports [Bank LR]
Published by Business & Medical Publications Ltd., this title is supported by Lloyd's Law Reports: banking.
The Criminal Appeal Reports [CAppR]
This title is published by Court of Appeal, Great Britain.
Industrial Court Reports [ICR]
From 1972 to 1974 the series was titled: Industrial court reports. From 1975 onwards, the series was entitled: Industrial cases reports [ICLR].
Simon's Tax Cases [STC]
Because of the doctrine of precedent, older cases are still relevant and significant in English law today. Other than looking into older divisions of the Law Reports, below are some alternative resources that are useful for locating older English cases:
English Reports [ER]
This historical material consists of reprints of the decisions of the English Courts prior to 1866. The English reports reproduce over 74 reports series covering court decisions from 1220 to 1865.
All England Law Reports (Reprint) [All ER Rep]
Reproducing a selection of cases from 1558 to 1935, this title is being continued by the All England Law Reports.
The Revised Law Reports [Rev LR]
Cases which do not appear in the English Reports may appear in The Revised Reports, coverage 1785/90-1865-66.
Courts and Tribunals Judiciary (click to visit)
A wide range of information and materials are available from this source, including detailed explanations on the justice system in the UK. Judgments are updated on a daily basis, containing selected cases from County Court, Court of Appeal, Court of Protection, Crown Court, Family Court, High Court, Magistrates, Military Court and Tribunals starting from 30rh November 2007. Searches can be done by entering keywords, or by adding more filters such as the court, jurisdiction concerned, area of law and the time period as a means to narrow down the search results.
The Supreme Court (click to visit)
Replaced the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords to be the UK’s highest court in October 2009, the Supreme Court maintains as the final court of appeal among England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The abbreviated form of the court is noted as UKSC.
Coverage of judgements: 30th July 2009 to the present.
House of Lords Judgments Archive (click to visit)
To find judgments prior to 30th July 2009, as stated under the Supreme Court, you may visit the House of Lords Judgments Archive for more information. The abbreviated form of the court is noted as UKHL.
Coverage of judgments: 14 November 1996 – 30 July 2009.
UK Parliamentary Archive (click to visit)
To search for judgments prior to 1996, you may visit the UK Parliamentary Archive for more details. However, electronic versions of documents are not available via this website and access to physical copies has to be consulted via the Parliamentary Archives search room in London. Alternatively, BAILII would be a useful tool in searching for older cases.
British and Irish Legal Information Institute (BAILII) (click to visit)
Supporting the free access of legal information, BAILII offers an extensive collection of materials. In particular, selected House of Lords judgments starting from 1709. You may either conduct the search by entering the case citation or party name, or use the advance search which keywords to formulate your search.
Law Reports and the Doctrine of Precedent (Faculty of Law, University of Oxford) (click to visit)
This page explains the UK law reports and its structure in a detailed manner. You will obtain beneficial information to enrich your understanding of UK law reports from this source.
