Systems of reporting judicial decision making

Abstract

Law reports, publications containing reports of cases heard in the courts, are one of the major sources of English law. However, the historical development and present day characteristics of this conmiunication of information system have never been comprehensively studied. Interleaved with the appraisal of contemporary comment on the system are the results of a bibliometric analysis of law reports published between 1511 and 1985, covering external influences acting on the system, the characteristics of reporters and publishing firms, reasons stated for publishing new titles, variations in format,
frequency, delay, indexing standards, subject content and court coverage, with, in addition, detailed analysis of variations in the format of individual case reports. Comparison is made with investigations in the United States and Canada and two English enquiries into the law reporting system; unpublished evidence submitted to and transcripts of meetings of the Lord Chancellor's Law Reporting Committee, 19381940, are presented and evaluated for the first time. The law reports published in 1985 are subjected to very detailed analysis to determine coverage of cases by jurisdiction, courts and subjects, the extent of additional material provided by reporters (such as catchwords and headnotes), the length of judgements, delay in publication and duplication of coverage. The results of a citation analysis of all materials cited in law reports published in 1985 are presented to ascertain variations in the citation of sources from different jurisdictions, citation patterns by
different courts and in different subject areas, and determine the use of unreported cases and the ageing of authority. Based on the results of all the analyses recommendations are made for the improvement of the information system with suggestions as to how they might be implemented; areas for further research are also highlighted.