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Legal research guide: Criminal Law: Judicially considered cases

A Guide to help you look for Primary and Secondary resources in relation to Criminal Law.

Cases judicially considered

Use Case citators to find out if

  • a Case that interests you has been considered by later Cases, or
  • to check which earlier Cases have been considered by your Case

Citators

Example: you would like to know if any subsequent cases have referred to the Andrew Mallard appeal case of 2005.
Mallard v R (2005) 224 CLR 125
  1. In CaseBase, search for the Mallard case either by citation or case name and select the record of interest.
  2. By clicking on the link to the record, you display the citator record for this case.
  3. Click on the link to Cases referring to this case to see later cases considering the Mallard case.

This will list cases that have considered it. To help you decipher the symbols (green circle), click on the CaseBase Signal Help to the right (green box): 

 

 

4. Click on Cases considered by this case to see earlier cases used to support the legal position taken in the Mallard appeal case.

 

PLEASE NOTE: Foreign cases listed here are not available in Casebase. Please search in Westlaw or Lexis+ to read the judgment if it is available.

 

Example: you would like to know if any subsequent cases have referred to the Mallard v The Queen case.

Mallard v The Queen (2005) 224 CLR 125.

1. In Westlaw AU search either by citation or party names and select the record of interest to display the citator record for this case.

2. Click the little chevron to the right of the Citing References section to see later (subsequent) cases considering the Mallard case. After you click on the chevron, you will need to select the Cases link:

3. You can then use various filters on the page, to refine your search (Jurisdiction, Date, Depth of Treatment). If you mouse-over the symbols that appear to the right of the treatment, a definition is displayed. These definitions should be approached with caution as they are general in nature and may not represent specific aspects of the case.

4. To check the cases that were considered by the case you are investigating, you will need to select the Table of Authorities link. This link will reveal a list of case authorities and the manner in which each case authority was treated. 

For more information, check out this KeyCite guide. 

PLEASE NOTE: Any foreign cases listed here are not available using KeyCite. Please search in Westlaw or Lexis+ to read the judgment if it is available.

Banner image source:  Image 1 licensed under a CC BY 2.0 license.  Images 2, 3, 4, 5 licensed under a CC0 Public Domain license.

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