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Cases, in turn, interpret those statutes and regulations. Cases may be the sole source of the law when the doctrine is strictly a common law doctrine. Even when law is based on a statute, cases interpreting the terms and intent of the statute are invaluable tools for legal writers. Some methods for using cases, discussed in detail below ...
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- Overview
- Summarizing the Facts
- Identifying the Issue and Decision
- Understanding the Reasoning
When you hear the word "law," you may assume the word refers to statutes passed by Congress and state legislatures. But a major portion of American law actually is case law – the rules appellate judges distill from their interpretation of statutes and other sources. Accordingly, much of law school is spent learning how to analyze case law. However,...
You should read the case through at least once from beginning to end until you attempt to figure out which facts are most important or analyze the court's holding. It's difficult to correctly determine what was central to the court's reasoning until you've read it all the way through.
The first time you read through a case, don't worry about trying to understand it. Just read for a sense of what's happening, who the major parties are, and what they want the court to do.
Keep in mind that legal opinions aren't written for laypeople, or even for law students or attorneys – they are written for other judges. If you don't understand something (assuming you're not an appellate court judge), there's nothing wrong with that.
You may have to go outside the opinion itself and look at other articles about the case, and then come back to it. For example, if you're reading a case that caused quite a stir in the media when it was decided, there will no doubt be newspaper and magazine articles about it. Reading those can help you better understand the court opinion.
Determine the legal issue raised by the facts.
The core of case law analysis is figuring out the exact issue or issues the court is being asked to resolve, and the process by which the court resolved it.
Essentially, you're looking for what the person who appealed the lower court's ruling wanted to happen, that didn't. To find the issue, you must figure out what that person thought the lower court did wrong, and why.
This usually isn't about something as simple as one person believing he should have been awarded more money, or a criminal defendant not wanting to go to jail. That might be part of an appellant's personal motivation, but to have a legitimate appeal you must be able to point to some way that the lower court made a legal error.
Identify the legal rules used by the court.
The rules used by the court to apply the law to a case's facts typically are precedents established by previous court decisions in similar cases.
Make note of the case from which the rule came, although typically it's not necessary for you to go back and read the case itself to understand the rule.
However, if a significant portion of the opinion discusses the previous case, you may want to go back and read it as well so you have a better understanding of what the court is talking about.
In some opinions (especially those penned by judges with straightforward writing styles), the rule used by the court will follow trigger phrases such as "the rule we apply is" or "we decide this case by applying the rule from" – phrases that alert you the court is about to tell you exactly what rule they used.
Most opinions won't be this direct, and require a closer analysis of the language to ascertain the rule the court used. Sometimes you can figure this out by working backwards. Read the court's decision, and then follow the court's train of logic in reverse until you reach the rule.
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May 24, 2024 · Introduction. Every law student and practicing attorney must be able to find, read, analyze, and interpret case law. Under the common law principles of stare decisis, a court must follow the decisions in previous cases on the same legal topic. Therefore, finding cases is essential to finding out what the law is on a particular issue.
- Cattleya Concepcion
- 2015
Sep 21, 2021 · Checking the status of case law is essential in legal research. Rely on Bloomberg Law’s proprietary citator, BCITE. This time-saving tool lets you know if a case is still good law. Under each court opinion, simply look to the right rail. There, you will see a thumbnail icon for “BCITE Analysis.”.
Jun 20, 2023 · The following chapter attempts to change that by discussing the relevance of cases, presenting tools to research cases, and introducing methods to use cases in international law. In doing so, this chapter aims to guide students through exams, term papers and moot courts in which case law analysis is key.
Sep 6, 2023 · This section will provide an overview of case law analysis, its importance in legal research, and the methods used to effectively comprehend and utilize it. To illustrate the significance of case law analysis, let us consider a hypothetical scenario involving a dispute over copyright infringement between two software companies.
Mar 29, 2023 · Introduction. Each branch of government produces a different type of law. Case law is the body of law developed from judicial opinions or decisions over time (whereas statutory law comes from legislative bodies and administrative law comes from executive bodies). This guide introduces beginner legal researchers to resources for finding judicial ...
