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The United States Reports, the official reporter of the Supreme Court of the United States
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The United States Reports, the official reporter of the Supreme Court of the United States

Law reports or reporters are series of books which contain judicial opinions from a selection of cases that have been decided by the courts.

The term reporter was originally used to refer to the individual persons who actually compile, edit, and publish such opinions. It still carries that meaning in all English dialects, but in the U.S. today, reporter additionally denotes the books themselves. In the Commonwealth, 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 countries, court opinions are legally binding under the rule of stare decisis. Thus, the regular publication of such opinions is important so that everyone—lawyers, judges, and laymen—can all find out what the law is, as declared by judges.

For more information on authorised and unauthorised reports, see Authorised and unauthorised law reports
Contents

History (by country)

United Kingdom

In England, beginning with the reports of cases contained in the Year Books (Edward II to Henry VIII) there is a complete series of reports of cases decided in the higher English courts down to the present time.

In 1865, the nonprofit Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England & Wales was founded, and it has gradually become the dominant publisher of reporters in the UK. It has compiled most of the best available copies of pre-1866 cases into the English Reports. Post-1866 cases are contained in the ICLR's own Law Reports. Even today, the U.K. government does not publish an official reporter, but its courts have promulgated rules stating that the ICLR reporters should be cited whenever possible.

Publications

United States

In each state of the United States, there are published reports of all cases decided by the courts having appellate jurisdiction going back to the date of their organization. There are also complete reports of the cases decided in the United States Supreme Court and the inferior federal courts having appellate jurisdiction since their creation under the United States Constitution. The early reporters were unofficial as they were published solely by private entrepreneurs, but in the middle of the 19th century, the U.S. Supreme Court and many state supreme courts began publishing their own official reporters.

In the 1880s, the West Publishing Company started its National Reporter System, which is a family of regional reporters, each of which covers all federal and state opinions in a specific group of states. The NRS is now the dominant unofficial reporter system in the U.S., and some smaller states have discontinued their own official reporters and certified the appropriate West regional reporter as their official reporter. West and its rival, LexisNexis, both publish unofficial reporters of U.S. Supreme Court opinions. West also publishes the West American Digest System to help lawyers find cases in its reporters. West digests and reporters have always featured a "Key Numbering System" with a unique number for every conceivable legal topic. It is now available online as the KeyCite feature on Westlaw.

Oddly, the U.S. federal government does not publish an official reporter for the federal courts at the circuit and district levels. However, just as the U.K. government uses the ICLR reporters by default, the U.S. courts use the unofficial West federal reporters, which are the Federal Reporter (for courts of appeals) and the Federal Supplement (for district courts). West also publishes several unofficial state-specific reporters for large states like California.

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.

Publications

Australia

The Commonwealth Law Reports are the authorised reports of the High Court of Australia. The Australian Law Reports are the unauthorised reports. Each state has an authorised report, such as the Victorian Reports or the New South Wales Law Reports. There are reports produced by private companies that deal with particular areas of law. For example, the Australian Torts Reports may publish decisions from any state or federal court.

New Zealand

The New Zealand Law Reports (NZLR) are the authorised reports of the New Zealand Council for Law Reporting and have been published continuously since 1883. The reports publish cases of significance from the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court of New Zealand. The reports, which were initially sorted by volume, are sorted by year. Three volumes per year are now published, with the number of volumes having increased over time from one, to two and now to three. The reports do not focus on any particular area of law, with subject specific reports filling this niche. There are approximately 20 privately published report series foucssing on specialist areas of law. Some areas are covered by more than one report series - such as employment, tax and family law. For a full list of current and historical report series, see the directory of [decisions] on the University of Waikato web site.

Free publication

The development of the World Wide Web brought with it the opportunity for courts to publish their decisions on Web sites. The relatively low cost of this publication method, and the importance of making court decisions freely available to the public — particularly in common law countries where much of the law can only be found in the decisions of courts — has resulted in many courts now publishing the majority of their decisions on the Web. Decisions of courts from all over the world can now be found through the Web site of [WorldLII] and those of its member institutes. These projects have been strongly encouraged by the Free Access to Law Movement.

Design and cultural references

Reporters 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). The volume number is usually printed in large type to make it easy to spot. Gold leaf is traditionally used on the spine for the name of the reporter and for some decorative lines and bars.

In lawyer portraits and advertisements, the rows of books visible behind the lawyer are usually reporters.

See also

 

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