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Case law on BAILII


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URL: http://www.bailii.org/bailii/summary-cases.html

BAILII receives a regular feed of cases from the Courts of the four jurisdictions of the United Kingdom and from the Courts of Ireland. The table below shows the numbers of cases decided since 1 January 1996 which are held in the database.

In April and May of 2003 arrangements were made for all the substantive judgments of the Civil Division of the Court of Appeal and the Administrative Court to be posted on the BAILII website. Judgments on permission applications, and other preliminary applications, will only be published there if a judge so requests. This arrangement was backdated to 1st January 2003. All these judgments are now on BAILII. The number of judgments from the Criminal Division of the Court of Appeal and the other Divisions of the High Court have been steadily increasing, and it is hoped that even more progress will be achieved during 2005.

There is still a restriction on the number of English cases from Divisions of the High Court which can be added to the BAILII database which arises from the fact that the shorthand-writers who transcribe judgments which have been given verbally (as opposed to judgments handed down on paper) own the copyright in the transcribed version of the judgment. This prevents the judgment being added to the BAILII database without the consent of the shorthand-writer. BAILII, being a free web site, has no funds with which to acquire a licence to copy and display the transcript. (Enquiries for copies of unreported English judgments which are not available on BAILII should be directed to the Mechanical Recording Department of the High Court (RCJ Room WB14; tel: 020 7947 6154; fax: 020 7947 6662; email: HighCourt.NeutralCitation@courtservice.gsi.gov.uk)

BAILII continues to press for the system to be changed so that all judgments may be freely available. A large number of transcribed judgments of the Court of Appeal and the Administrative Court for the period July 1996 - August 1999 were kindly provided by the official shorthand writers Smith Bernal. All handed down English Court of Appeal cases decided since July 1996 should be on BAILII.

Handed down first-instance decisions of the England and Wales and Northern Ireland High Courts are generally only provided to BAILII where the Judge giving the judgment indicates that they are of sufficient interest to be made available for publication on the Internet.

The official version of English judgments of the Court of Appeal and High Court are the Approved Judgments in .rtf format. In most cases the .rtf version is also available on BAILII. When the .rtf version is not available the BAILII web version is not to be taken as official.

Decisions of the Irish Supreme Court and High Court are reasonably comprehensive since February 2001. The official version of Irish judgments is the hard copy version.

BAILII has few Northern Ireland cases decided prior to 2000.

BAILII has few Scottish cases decided prior to 1999.

Full coverage of House of Lords and Privy Council cases commmenced during 1996.

Users of BAILII are reminded that the judgments of any court below the highest level may have been the subject of an appeal, and that they should satisfy themselves that the judgment has not been the subject of an appeal before relying on it as an authority. The Court of Appeal has recently adopted this practice, although it is not yet being universally followed in the judgments of that court. This should facilitate an automated noter-up function to display an indication that a judgment has been the subject of an appeal.

Database 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

England and Wales
England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division) Decisions 819 2333 1969 1608 428 2034 1755 754 758 778 788 817 291
England and Wales Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) Decisions 1795 3418 3529 2257 112 121 136 136 205 252 270 248 65
England and Wales Care Standards Tribunal             14 34 53 57 47 66 28
England and Wales High Court (Administrative Court) Decisions 397 1175 1139 827 175 207 209 613 499 518 480 492 192
England and Wales High Court (Admiralty Division) Decisions           2 6 4 2 2 1 2 1
Court of Common Pleas                          
England and Wales High Court (Chancery Division) Decisions 1 4 11 28 27 75 79 141 197 234 276 301 89
England and Wales High Court (Commercial Court) Decisions   2 2 14 34 36 61 108 99 97 113 117 32
England and Wales High Court (Supreme Court Cost Office) Decisions         13 18 36 46 42 18 19 27 5
England and Wales High Court (Exchequer Court) Decisions                          
England and Wales High Court (Family Division) Decisions     1 4 1 10 6 32 32 29 48 59 13
England and Wales High Court (King's Bench Division) Decisions                          
Mercantile Court                         1
England and Wales High Court (Patents Court) Decisions   8 28 14 16 5 11 15 15 14 27 33 11
England and Wales High Court (Queen's Bench Division) Decisions 1 6 4 7 19 23 40 59 71 135 156 177 52
England and Wales High Court (Technology and Construction Court) Decisions   11 23 27 41 11 32 38 65 81 90 92 27
England and Wales Lands Tribunal       2 71 65 29 60 45 66 66 62 36
England and Wales Patents County Court                     2   1
English and Welsh Courts - Miscellaneous       1         2     6 3

Scotland
Scottish Court of Session Decisions   7 116 307 333 297 213 333 273 240 239 271 86
Scottish High Court of Justiciary Decisons   2 29 256 115 124 120 66 69 127 97 64 21
Scottish Sheriff Court Decisions     3 27 35 24 27 60 91 90 101 76 11

Northern Ireland
Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland Decisions     2 13 36 56 52 59 49 60 49 55 19
Crown Court for Northern Ireland Decisions         2   8 15 10 19 35 48 11
Fair Employment Tribunal Northern Ireland Decisions     1     1 37 32 24 55 51 42 16
High Court of Justice in Northern Ireland Chancery Division Decisions     5 4 7 15 14 8 6 4 4 7 9
High Court of Justice in Northern Ireland Family Division Decisions         9 23 26 16 12 16 19 11 9
High Court of Justice in Northern Ireland Queen's Bench Division Decisions 2 2 2 12 44 50 19 78 89 85 97 118 45
Industrial Tribunals Northern Ireland Decisions             333 139 210 147 152 322 67
Northern Ireland - Social Security and Child Support Commissioners' Decisions 84 66 70 73 39 31 61 99 88 52 57 46 13

Ireland
Irish Competition Authority Decisions 19 13 47 40 8 10              
Irish Competition Authority Decisions (Notice Division)             6            
Irish Court of Criminal Appeal                 39 33 33 28 12
High Court of Ireland Decisions 61 234 232 252 213 230 179 184 300 451 380 414 89
Irish Information Commissioner's Decisions     20 23 27 30 19 23 18 16 14 14  
Supreme Court of Ireland Decisions 9 12 68 95 81 121 79 74 73 71 69 70 35

United Kingdom
United Kingdom Competition Appeals Tribunal             1 1 6 40 35 36 5
Nominet UK Dispute Resolution Service           8 110 106 114 146 174 162 44
Special Immigrations Appeals Commission               11 17 6 14 11  
United Kingdom Employment Appeal Tribunal 784 991 1058 1329 1245 1336 965 778 455 377 310 347 95
United Kingdom Financial Services and Markets Tribunals Decisions             2 5 3 13 18 11 3
United Kingdom House of Lords Decisions 17 58 52 52 70 70 50 71 56 75 59 58 27
United Kingdom Asylum and Immigration Tribunal 2   2 2 10 23 239 216 341 180 95 98 35
United Kingdom Information Tribunal including the National Security Appeals Panel     1 1 1 1 1 2   7 28 76 16
Privy Council Decisions 54 67 51 57 52 64 72 87 61 51 60 68 29
United Kingdom Special Commissioners of Income Tax Decisions       5 17 25 25 35 57 62 57 83 22
UK Social Security and Child Support Commissioners' Decisions 73 109 85 47 107 168 285 252 251 207 182 189 68
United Kingdom VAT & Duties Tribunals Decisions           1 11 283 446 500 554 537 137
United Kingdom VAT & Duties Tribunals (Customs) Decisions         1 1 8 10 5 18 20 19 6
United Kingdom VAT & Duties Tribunals (Excise) Decisions           1 32 200 239 100 69 70 29
United Kingdom VAT & Duties Tribunals (Insurance Premium Tax) Decisions       2 1       1 2      
United Kingdom VAT & Duties Tribunals (Landfill Tax) Decisions       1   1   2 2 1 2 1 1

Europe
European Court of Human Rights 75 109 108 183 700 890 848 703 721 925 1161 1140 373
Court of Justice of the European Communities (including Court of First Instance Decisions) 351 403 477 353 529 494 534 546 585 613 651 504 184
Updated 12 May 2008


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