Reading the case for the first time
Since you cannot realistically hope to absorb all the details on your first reading of a case, at this stage you should read the text fairly quickly in order to acquire an overview of what the case is about and how the court approached its decision.
However, you should not, at this stage, slow yourself down by reading the text boxes. On your second and subsequent readings, when you know roughly what the case is about, you will be in a better position to understand both the text and the text boxes. Even on your first reading, however, there is one detail you should make a point of noticing. It is only from the point (on p. 30 of the report) where you find ‘1892. March 26. LORD HERSCHELL’, that you are reading the actual words of the judgment (all the previous text having been provided by the law reporter). This is significant because it is only the judgment which contains the definitive version of the facts and the authoritative statement of the law.
More on the topic Reading the case for the first time:
- Reading statutes
- Reading Law Reports
- 8 Reading Law Reports and Statutes
- Chapter 2 Why Read the Jurists? Aulus Gellius on Reading Across Disciplines
- Conventions in case names
- TIME OF ESTIMATE
- Other remedies available in case of theft
- I. Case Studies
- Time and place of performance
- A Case-Study of Sovereignty and Autonomy in Italy