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Legal research guide: Torts: Cases

Locate resources, including case law, legislation, journal articles and commentary relevant to the study of the law of tort.

Find Australian and international torts cases. 

Australian Torts Cases

The Australian Torts Reports is a subject law report series that brings important cases on tort law together. You will find these cases online in the various Torts practice areas in CCH iKnowConnect. Commentary about the case may also be provided by CCH editors.

This is useful but remember to view the case using a case citator KeyCite in Westlaw AU or CaseBase in Lexis advance, to find out:

  • if and where the case has been reported 

  • the authorised reported version - top tip: this is the version you need to cite in an essay!

  • any other parallel citations of reported versions - i.e., unauthorised reports

  • if the case has been judicially considered

  • if there are any journal articles that discuss the case

Top Tip when looking for Australian Case Law: you may need to look in all 3 databases! If you can't find the full text of a case in one database, try the other ones! 

Activity: Can you find The 'Snail in the bottle' case?

Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562 is often referred to as the "Paisley snail" or the "snail in the bottle" case, and is one of the most famous decisions in British legal history. Can you find it?

  1.  Use either ICLR Online to find the full text of this UK case. How did you go?

  2.  Use Westlaw UK to look for a Case analysis and to also Commentary References such as journal articles that discuss the case and judicial consideration - key cases cited and key cases citing.

Top Tip when looking for UK Case Law: you may need to look in both ICLR online and Westlaw UK! If you can't find the full text of a case in one database, try the other one! 

Finish up by watching Tongue In Cheek Productions funny take on the Police's Message In A Bottle, involving a wacky snail and a bottle of ginger beer!

 

International Torts Cases

To find UK, US and Canadian cases use Thomson Reuters Westlaw.

For more information on searching for cases in Thomson Reuters Westlaw and Lexis Advance go to the UWA Case Law Guide.

 

Banner image source: Images 1, 3, 4, 5 licensed under a CC0 Public Domain license. Image 2 by Jürgen Schoner, licensed under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license.

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