Case Law research - Shonee Kapoor

Case Law Research is a major aspect of the Indian Legal System and involves the study and analysis of judicial decisions taken by the higher courts mainly the Supreme Court of India and various high courts. Examining past court judgements help determine their relevance and applicability to a legal issue of the same type of nature.

Indian Legal System follows a common law tradition which implies that court decisions play a vital role in development and interpretation of the law. The decisions that the higher courts made, become binding precedents which lower courts are obliged to follow. And these precedents combining statutory law & constitutional provisions are responsible for forming the basis of the Indian Legal System.

To conduct case law research in India, these days, legal professionals or aspirants typically refer to legal databases, law reports and majorly online portals are they compile and organize judgements that can be easily accessed through a digital device (i.e. mobile phone and laptops). The best thing about online portals is that you can access to a vast collection of cases using specific keywords, case names or legal principles to find relevant judgements. Along with, legal professionals may also take reference of commentaries, and scholarly articles providing thorough analysis and commentary on important cases.

Traditional Way of Case Law Research

If we look at the traditional way of Case Law Research, it involves scanning Indian court judgements through hard-bound A.I.Rs, Criminal Law Journals and such other materials which were published time to time and the lawyers received the copies of the latest edition who had subscribed them. Such journals and other publishing matters used to be identity of every law library and also marked presence in the chambers of reputed lawyers. The method of Case Law was so time consuming and was a daunting task. Further, it replaced by the Internet due to emergence of digitization in India!