What is a legal case book
Legal case books are compilations of judicial opinions that have been organized into book format for ease of use. These books have faced some criticism as their value has decreased with the advent of electronic research, but they remain a staple in most law libraries. Legal case books are most often used as students texts because in law school it is imperative to be familiar with landmark cases in your area of study. Students textbooks normally are collected on a class basis so that instructors know everyone in the class has read the same assigned book and can confidently give tests and quizzes based on the material.
The casebook style has grown to be widely adopted in American law school courses, particularly in first year law classes and in courses such as torts, contracts, and civil procedure, among others. Casebooks are often published as single-volume soft cover books , but can also appear as multi-volume hard cover works. Though casebooks do not usually seek to provide a textbook-style analysis of a particular subject, many law professors and book purchasers see the differences between casebooks and textbooks as being on a continuum rather than as an absolute negation. Several publishers specialize in legal casebooks, targeting the instructional market. While the best selling law school textbook, "The Bluebook", would appear to be a legal casebook by its name and by nature of its content, it is actually primarily a style guide, addressing citation and other conventions of the law. For US law school courses without casebooks, course materials are often supplemented by a syllabus and any necessary materials will be made available in class or online. In these courses, a textbook or "casebook" may be used, but it is not essential.
Brief history of legal case books
Originally designated for the preservation of legal opinions by the Supreme Court, casebooks soon evolved to include lower court cases as well as other supplemental material. Along with their emergence in the 17th century courts, casebooks flourished as the printing trade spread to America. The 18th century saw the creation of the first academic casebooks; prominent colonial legal scholars like Samuel Freeman, James Wilson, William Rawle, and James Kent created cases and commentary for the instruction of 18th century lawyers in America. While casebooks have evolved over the centuries, the necessity of developing legal cases in a single-volume, easy-to-apply arrangement is still a significant issue today. Mastery of casebooks is generally viewed as essential to becoming a proficient practitioner of the law. As such, there has been a long-standing debate over what makes a quality casebook. Recent years have seen an academic resurgence of scholarly attention to casebook writing as a potential for pedagogical scholarship.
Categories of legal case books
Most case books are available in three forms: annotated, digital, and traditional, with each form offering different features and levels of accessibility.
Annotated case books contain the original text of the case as well as jurisdictional notes. These notes can provide context for a case when the student has not yet had other related classes providing the relevant background, such as a class in torts when they have taken no other classes. Notes on the cases can range from several sentences to several paragraphs on areas where the student may want more detail or insight. This option provides the students with greater context on each case they read. In many cases, a simple edition of a case is sometimes offered, containing only the text of the case, but not the annotations. These editions are often the same as the annotated editions, but without all of the extra notes. A student who has previously taken courses which provide some of the necessary information on these cases may like the annotated edition over the annotated edition, but the larger casebook volume is often more convenient.
Digital casebooks are another option for students. Many of the major law textbooks have been digitized, sometimes through a subscription service, and sometimes for free. Some of these are free to the student, but not all of the free services offer some of the more common features of the traditional casebooks such as electronic highlighting or note taking. Some of these electronic editions are offered with regular online regular print editions included. Both courses of action allow the students to avoid spending physical space on the case books while attending law school.
Criminal law and evidence are some of the more popular classes which have been digitized. The case books can be searched electronically, but often contractor often different features. For example, Westlaw offers e-books which include the ability to add notes and highlights online. There is also an option to include groups of study aids on a particular subject, allowing the users to choose their favorite styles for the casebook on a particular class of subject. This is similar to how many legal research tools offer the ability to create groups for the various legal research materials they offer. Similarly, many of the non-commercial companies offering digital case books offer the ability to share notes on the cases, similar to blogs. These options, however, are not available to those students who do not already subscribe to one of these research services through the law school.
However, these types of text also come at a cost. If you want to take the e-books with you, you are required to make sure you have a compatible device. In the mobile era, this does not mean a laptop. With prominent smartphone applications now allowing case books to be read and annotated on their screens, including some in the form of web pages, this can mean many different devices, up to and including a smartphone.
Many companies also offer free web applications for law school review. This could even include online video compatibility. Many companies also offer audiobooks covering the cases in the covered area. These may be covered in greater depth than a normal casebook, and give the students more options to further absorb what they are learning in class.
While the newest casebook options appear to go primarily towards online materials now, the more traditional options of printed case books are still very popular for many students. These printed materials come with the security of being able to be reviewed offline in the event you may try to integrate them into a digital study aid which may require an internet connection.
Significance in legal studies
Legal casebooks are essential for law students because they are often the foundation upon which the theoretical learning of the law is constructed. Theoretically, casebooks are referenced as a means to understand the nuance and breadth of the judicial record. It is through carefully selected cases in casebooks that a student will build their understanding of various areas of law across their professional career. Without legal casebooks and the selective information they present, the entire body of law could be studied like encyclopedias, which would be inefficient. With casebooks and the information they convey to students, a student of large or small stature can begin to understand the legal landscape piece by piece, without error of omission or mischaracterization. Legal casebooks are fundamental to the quality training provided in law school, whereas the Internet is not always seen as the most trusted source.
How to choose the right one
As I’ve mentioned before, there are a number of different publishers of legal case books. This can be confusing to legal students and new lawyers that are first confronted with all the choices available to them in law school. If you are an educator, this is still a concern because most casebook publishers expect you’re going to use their casebook every semester, replacing 100% of the old copies versus less than 100% as may happen when older editions won’t be used. The first point to note is that there are really three categories of casebooks. The first category consists of those casebooks associated with a particular professor or any co-authors with whom they’ve collaborated (and usually reserved for courses taught by the named author). The second category consists of general texts much like introductory level survey courses. The third category consists of what I call more specialized texts that have a smaller audience and devote more space and time to some specific area of the subject. This is all important from the perspective of the casebook publisher who must decide how best to maximize the casebook’s market . This is also important to students in understanding casebook development and what goes in to building a casebook and the choices that must be made as to what cases and materials will be included in the book along with what gets left out. For students and lawyers in particular, it’s important to understand that most of the time casebooks target a particular audience. These audiences can be general practitioners in the process of educating those practitioners on a subject or an advocate for law reform. Either way, generally speaking, the casebooks that are used in classrooms are appropriate for law students or new lawyers who need generalists in the law. Finally, casebooks like some of those published by West Academic and Carolina Academic Press are labeled as "practice books." These books are designed to take you through the process of drafting a brief in that area of the law. You’ll find the practice books to be up to date in areas like immigration law, trial practice, and wills, trusts and estates.
The advent of technology
The transformation of a printed book of cases into an electronic version changes almost every aspect of how the volumes are stored and handled. Much of the technology has been around for the last 20 years but organizations that have traditionally supplied services to the legal community have focused primarily on printed formats. When electronic books arrived on the market they were often comprised of PDF files with some kind of indexing built into them. But as technology has evolved PDF has now been replaced with HTML5 which is now the dominant format of digital information. This is seen by many as the gold standard as it is not proprietary to any vendor and can be used across any operating system and device. It supports hyperlinks and can be searched for terms. This now provides the ability to search all words in the text and not just a known list of keywords and phrases. Recent digitization projects have provided a much more comprehensive product than was previously available. All terminology including case annotations and notes, practice directions and even the detailed table of contents can be searched. As most of these data sources are indexed in their own way it has become possible to search across all of them so that everything can be retrieved and compared. In addition, there are also the changes to the legislation which are linked and directly accessible from within the judgments. With over 20 million words and statistics it is a great example of how information is now available and usable. The key drivers for a great represented and searchable digital platform are: These are all benefits that were available when the printed books were published and so should be incorporated into digital products. In fact, the HTML display is so stable that documents can be opened anywhere and will be exactly the same wherever accessed, be it on a computer screen, tablet or mobile phone. If any changes are required at any time after publication it is easy for the publisher to correct things without having to physically reprint a book. The result is that the content is always accurate and up to date and users are always accessing the most current content. The other obvious major benefit is that of storage space. While print versions take up shelf space it is possible to put so much more onto a single CD. By using distributed computing the workload can be shared and even large data stores can be handled using the cloud. The overhead in managing the servers that store the materials is low and it is fast to add a new titles once created. The other major benefit is ease of access, where everything can now be accessed from any location at any time and the ability to use multiple devices means that reading patterns are more flexible. So while the print version of a book is fixed, a digital version will always be as it needs to be.
Famous legal case books
Recently, and as a by-product of the significant expansion and diversification of the legal sector in the past several years, there has been a marked increase in legal practitioners branching out to launch their own annual or bi-annual legal case books. These books which provide in-depth legal analysis of cases from the previous year are becoming ever more popular among the profession and are fast becoming essential reading.
One of the most notable legal case books ever produced is Macdonnel & Hart: Law of Finance – A Casebook which is published as a joint effort by Gerard Macdonnel, John Hart and John F. Buckley. This publication is in the same tradition as an American style case book and includes a selection of cases from Irish and EU jurisprudence with insightful commentary and legal analysis.
Another relatively recent case book is Patrick O’Connor and Eileen O’Neill: Law of Principal and Agent by Thomson Round Hall. This revised edition contains a wide range of caselaw and is organised along topical lines.
Thomas B. Courtney: Landmark Irish Law Cases is a significant contribution to public knowledge of cases which have been important not only to the complex development of the Irish law but in framing the manner in which Irish society has evolved . The reader will appreciate that Irish law has in most cases followed the English law but in a number of instances diverged from it. The author has been in an ideal position to view first hand the development of the law in this jurisdiction having had a distinguished career as a lawyer in the Irish legal system.
Two recent noteworthy legal case books are also produced by Thomson Round Hall – Criminal Law in Ireland by Brian McMahon SC and Susan Martin BL and Understanding Constitutional Law in Ireland by Paul Gallagher SC and Julie Ward BL. These law books contain a comprehensive collection of key constitutional cases and commentary on recent decisions and legislation affecting freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, privacy, persons in custody, and equality of citizenship.
A more interesting list of eminent case law publications can be found on the website of a private Australian law school – the Leo Cussen Centre of Legal Education. The website contains a number of law casebooks compiled by lecturers and practitioners in Australia and are noted for their high standard and quality of production.