The Journal of Information, Law and Technology

The Journal of Information, Law and Technology

The Law Reports CD-ROM - A Case Study

Robin Williamson

Managing Director, Context Limited

Grand Union House

Kentish Town Road

London NW1 9NR

Date of publication on-line : 30 September 1996

Citation: Williamson R (1996) 'The Law Reports CD-ROM - A Case Study', BILETA '96 Conference Proceedings, 3 The Journal of Information, Law and Technology (JILT). <

Keywords: Case law databases - CD-ROM - Full text retrieval - Data capture - Tagging - Hypertext.

Abstract: The Law Reports, published since 1865 by the Council of Law Reporting provides the common law and interpretation of statute law for England and Wales. This paper describes the development by the Council and Context of the electronic Law Reports (eLR), a CD-ROM database of the series. 1.5 gigabytes of data are being captured in the Far East using a tagged ASCII structure developed by Context. A new version of Context’s JUSTIS software incorporating hypertext linking of case references and a rich text display has been designed with the participation of all branches of the legal profession.

1.Introduction

1.1Background

The Law Reports contain the reports of decisions of the superior courts of England and Wales which constitute binding precedents in English law, published continuously since 1865 by the Council of Law Reporting. This paper describes the development of the electronic Law Reports, a CD-ROM version of the series being developed jointly by the Council and Context Limited.

1.2The Council of Law Reporting

The Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales, a registered charity, was established by the legal profession in 1865 to provide authoritative reporting of case law. Council members are drawn from all branches of the legal profession. The Council publish case law in three series: The Law Reports, the Weekly Law Reports and the Industrial Cases Reports. The Council of Law Reporting also publish The Law Reports Index (the Red Book), a comprehensive Index to cases published by the Council and other sources.

1.3Context Limited

Context, a British company, is the leading electronic publisher of United Kingdom and European Union law and regulatory databases on CD-ROM. Context launched the first CD-ROM of European Community law in 1989 with JUSTIS CELEX. In 1990 Context produced the first CD-ROM of UK legislation, the Statutory Instruments database co-published with HMSO. In a cooperative venture with the Council of Law Reporting, the first CD-ROM of English case law, the Weekly Law Reports, was launched in 1991, with the Council’s Industrial Cases Reports following in 1994. Other case law series published by Context include Jordans Family Law.

2.Case Law Databases

2.1Case Reporting

The English legal system, based on the principles of common law, relies as much on precedent as on statute to interpret and apply the law. The accurate and authoritative reporting of cases is thus fundamental to the proper functioning of the law.

The founding of the Council of Law Reporting in 1865 established new standards of quality and authority in the reporting of case law. The selection of cases to be reported, and the standards to be applied, are entrusted to the Editor, always a distinguished and experienced lawyer. Reports of cases have to be prepared by a qualified member of the bar. The format, typographical layout and quality of the printed law reports conform to rigorous standards. The Law Reports use a formal method of referring to and quoting from other cases and statutory materials.

2.2Case Structure

A typical case report includes the following elements:

Title: the names of the parties, court and judges and dates of the hearing and judgment

Catchwords: subject matter headings on which is based The Law Reports Index, with sub- and sub-sub- headings, followed by a few phrases to describe the nature of the case, and any relevant statutory provisions

Headnote: a summary of the case, setting out essential facts on which the decision is based and the reason for the decision, with references to relevant authorities

Citation: tables of cases referred to in the judgments and cited in argument

Facts: an introduction to the case

Counsel: names of the advocates appearing in the case

Judgment: the text of the judgment as delivered

Order : the decision of the court

Solicitors: names of the solicitors instructed in the case

Footnotes: references raised in the report

Reporter: name or initials of barrister reporting the case.

A database designer will immediately recognise that a text source that has a consistent formal structure, including keywords (catchwords), an abstract (headnote) and cross references (citation), is ready-made for delivery as a structured full text database. In setting the conventions for case reporting in 1865 the founding fathers of the Council of Law Reporting had little idea that they were designing a full-text database, but they produced a format that has stood the test of time and has all the best elements of database structure.

2.3Case Research

The nature of legal research lends itself to database usage. The researcher is typically looking for a case that deals with a particular point of law, or involves a particular judge, lawyer, named party, or relates to another case. Database search tools such as full text searching, applying Boolean logic to fielded data, and the use of hypertext links are all eminently suitable for satisfying the type of query the user will wish to make. And CD-ROM is the ideal medium for database delivery. Searching itself often needs experiment with search strategies, and the end result of a search is frequently a lengthy full text document. Browsing is a way of life for the legal researcher. All these factors add up to an advantage for off-line usage, where the inhibiting ‘virtual ticking’ of the clock accumulating time-based charges is eliminated. And lawyers frequently do their research away from their office or chambers - on the train, at home, in court. A case law CD-ROM and a laptop is a powerful alternative to looking through dozens of books in the library.

2.4Case Law Databases

Context at present publishes CD-ROM versions of two case law series from the Council of Law Reporting, the Weekly Law Reports and Industrial Cases Reports.

Weekly Law Reports (WLR) is a weekly series published in three volumes which report all Superior Court decisions of importance to the development of the law. Volume 1 covers the ‘starred’ cases of lesser importance; Volumes 2 and 3 consist of those cases that are eventually published with the addition of legal argument in The Law Reports. WLR covers judgments of English courts including the House of Lords, Privy Council, Court of Appeal, High Court, Ecclesiastical Courts, Restrictive Practices Court. The JUSTIS Weekly Law Reports database contains all three volumes from 1971 to the present, as well as a database version of The Law Reports Index (the Red Book), comprising some 300 megabytes growing by around 12 megabytes per year.

Industrial Cases Reports (ICR) date back to the inauguration of the National Industrial Relations Court in 1972, and incorporate the Council of Law Reporting’s Restrictive Practices Reports. The name was changed from Industrial Courts Reports to Industrial Cases Reports with the establishment of the Employment Appeal Tribunal in 1975. The reports cover cases from the Employment Appeal Tribunal, the High Court, the Court of Appeal and the House of Lords as well as the Restrictive Practices Court, published monthly. The JUSTIS Industrial Cases CD-ROM contains the complete text of the Industrial Cases Reports from the commencement of the series in 1972, comprising 90 megabytes, growing by 4 megabytes per year.

Electronic text originated by the printers of the reports is used to maintain the two databases, but the bulk of the archival material exists in print form only. In total some 36 years of reports from the two series had to be captured from the printed versions. This work was undertaken by Context, using a data capture source in the Far East for the basic text conversion task

The case law databases are accessed with the JUSTIS full text retrieval system, consisting of a user interface developed by Context running under DOS or Windows, using the Ful/Text retrieval engine from Fulcrum Technologies Inc. JUSTIS is used for all Context’s CD-ROM and online databases, and features a seamless link between CD-ROM and online. This allows the CD-ROM user to move to Context’s online service by a single function key or click of the mouse. The online service contains updates to the CD-ROM data, so the CD-ROM user can access the latest information alongside archival data on the CD-ROM without changing interface or leaving the current search session. This ability to switch easily between different databases also applies to switching between other JUSTIS CD-ROMs.

3.The Law Reports

3.1The Printed Series

The Law Reports contain the reports of decisions of the superior courts of England and Wales which constitute binding precedent in English law and have been published continuously since 1865. Judicial precedents are “judge-made laws” and when acted upon become of equal force with statute law in establishing the law of the land in a court of law. Where a case is reported in The Law Reports that report must be cited in preference to any other series of reports. The Law Reports provide the common law and the interpretation of statute law. Cases reported in The Law Reports contain the elements published in the Weekly Law Reports, with the addition of argument. The Law Reports are published in monthly parts. The series now comprises some 750 volumes in total, amounting to some 480,000 pages, 200,000,000 words or 1.5 gigabytes of data.

The Law Reports are written by law reporters, who must be barristers, and who select the cases according to principles established in 1865. The reporters sit in court and take notes of legal argument. They check the references and citations in the transcript of the judgment, write the headnote (which must contain the salient facts of the case and the court’s reasoning for its judgment), add the catchwords and prepare case lists and names of counsel and solicitors. Proofs are sent to judges and counsel for approval and are then seen by the Editor to ensure they comply with the standards set by The Law Reports.

A set of The Law Reports will be found in almost every barrister’s and judge’s chambers and in the library of the larger law firms. Every law school has a set, and reference to The Law Reports is an essential part of legal training. A new reprint of a complete set of The Law Reports from the present back to 1865 costs over £18,000, with a good second hand set selling for around £10,000 to £12,000.

A key feature of the printed version of The Law Reports is the typographical layout of the printed page. The content of the report to a great extent determines the typography. Figure 1 is a page from an early law report. It illustrates the following typographical features:

Case Name

Catchwords

Headnote

Figure 2 is a page from a more recent law report. The similarity of layout and typographical convention will be immediately evident. Of course, over time there have been many changes of detail. However, a law report from 1865 has the look and feel of a law report from 1995, and both are instantly recognisable as law reports by the professional reader.

3.2CD-ROM Tender

The acceptance of the CD-ROM versions of its other series by the profession encouraged the Council of Law Reporting to consider the publication of the complete set of The Law Reports on CD-ROM. Because of the size of the project and its importance to the profession, the Editor drew up a formal set of requirements for the product, and in July 1994 the Council of Law Reporting invited a short list of electronic publishers to make proposals for developing the product in accordance with these requirements.

The Council of Law Reporting was concerned to maintain the look and feel of the printed page in any on-screen display, since this is an integral part of the way information concerning the content of the report is conveyed to the reader. Other key requirements included the following:

The database to comprise the complete series of The Law Reports from 1865 to the present

Search software to be based on the formal structure of a law report, and to incorporate links between case authorities referred to in the headnotes, both preceding cases as well as succeeding cases

Links for statutory provisions referred to in the catchwords or headnote to the full text as set out in the Judgment

Ability to select date ranges, case name, division, case reference, page number etc; also provision for full text index and Boolean searching

Appropriate document navigation, annotation, saving and printing functions.

Data capture of the complete printed archive of The Law Reports.

3.3The Project

Context’s proposals were accepted, and the decision to proceed with the development was made by the Council in December 1994.

Under the agreement with the Council of Law Reporting Context is responsible for the design, implementation and project management of all technical aspects of the project including the management of the data capture contract. The Council of Law Reporting sets the quality standards required for the on-screen presentation of the text, and for the conformation of the user interface to the requirements of the legal profession.

The investment required to build the product and bring it to market is shared equally between Context and the Council of Law Reporting. Context is responsible for marketing the product and providing technical support and training. The Council and Context share the revenue.

4.Data

4.1Options

An important element in the proposed electronic Law Reports product is the ability of the front end software to display the documents in a rich format. Although screen displays are not expected to be facsimile images of the printed copy, they must be presented using typefaces and styles as close to the original as possible.

In preparing its submission to the Council of Law Reporting Context considered the options available for encoding The Law Reports data, summarised as follows:

ASCII: The ASCII format represents the text only, and does not interpret the structure of the work.

Tagged: ‘Tags’, or codes added to the ASCII format to indicate the presence of specific types of text, for example the start of the headnotes or catchwords fields in a law report. The set of tags added to the ASCII text are the minimum required by the design of the electronic product for which the data is to be used.

Generic: The full structure of a printed work captured electronically by using a standard generic form of tagging, such as SGML (Standard Generalised Markup Language) or RTF (Rich Text Format). Generic coding gives a richer set of structure tags than tagged ASCII, since it is the full structure of the printed work that is encoded rather than the subset needed solely for a particular electronic product. A generic format can be converted through appropriate software into any other format that has the same or lesser structural representation.

Hypertext: Cross references embedded in the text are identified and marked electronically to be exploited by the search software to give the user the ability to go directly to the referenced text. The hypertext links are identified by a combination of automatic processing and editorial input. Hypertext links can be added to a file that is in tagged ASCII or generic format. The automatic identification of hypertext links is sometimes made easier if a generic format is used, but automatic hypertext link identification can be equally effective where the tags in a tagged ASCII format are carefully chosen.

4.2Data Format

In their submission to the Council of Law Reporting, Context recognised the case for holding the complete text of The Law Reports in a generic format such as SGML. However, the large volumes of text involved proved a key factor in influencing Context’s ultimate decision. Conversion from print to SGML needs the services of a dedicated SGML supplier. Alternatively a less specialised facility can be used. This choice involves providing the supplier with detailed instructions, training operators and establishing validation procedures to ensure a high level of quality. This is time consuming and very difficult to achieve. Either SGML option proved to be uneconomic for the volumes involved.

After analysis of the requirements of the project it became clear that the level of detail and structure offered by SGML or similar generic languages was excessive for the requirements defined for The Law Reports. A further important consideration was the fact that the chosen search engine did not support structured tagging languages.