In this series we bring you perspectives from law librarians in different countries on simple legal questions. We hope to give you insights into jurisdictions which may be less well-known to you and, who knows, to spark new ideas for research or teaching! Our heartfelt thanks to contributors from the IALL community and beyond. If you have ideas for topics we could cover or would like to contribute to the series, please get in touch with the blog editor, Rebecca Bergstrøm
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom
By Sarah Hammond, Legal Research Librarian – Foreign, International and Comparative Law,Squire Law Library, Cambridge University Libraries
The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom operates as the final court of appeal for civil and criminal cases in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as civil cases from Scotland. It also makes decisions relating to the devolution of Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland, per the relative devolution acts. The Court has 12 Justices, who are appointed by the reigning monarch upon recommendation from the Prime Minister and who usually have previously held high judicial office. The Court was established in 2009, when it took over the judicial functions of the House of Lords following the Constitutional Reform Act 2005. The Court building is situated in London, directly opposite, but separate to, the Houses of Parliament.
Supreme Court decisions from after 2009 are available online from the official website. Usually provided are a case summary, a PDF of the judgment, a PDF of the press summary (if issued), and video links to the hearings when available. A neutral citation is also provided.
Supreme Court-equivalent decisions from 1996-2009 are usually available from the UK Parliament Publications website. Earlier cases can usually be found on the freely available BAILII (British and Irish Legal Information Institute) in their ‘House of Lords’ Decisions database.
Video summaries of some cases and matters of procedure are made available on the Supreme Court YouTube channel.
Court decisions are published and available in English only.
Access to Decisions of the United States Supreme Court
By Amy Flick, Foreign and International Law Librarian, Emory University Hugh F. MacMillan Law Library
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the country’s highest court. The U.S. Constitution, Article III, §1, states “[t]he judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish.” Since 1869, the court consists of nine justices – one Chief Justice and eight Associate Justices. Justices are appointed by the President subject to approval by the Senate. Article III, §1 provides that justices “shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour,” giving them lifetime appointments. The Term of the Court begins on the first Monday in October and lasts until the first Monday in October of the next year.
The Supreme Court’s decisions are binding on all federal courts. Under Article III, §2, SCOTUS has original jurisdiction, allowing a party to commence litigation in the Supreme Court in the first instance rather than on appeal, “in all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be party….” Most SCOTUS cases reach the Court through its appellate jurisdiction, with appeals from lower federal courts and review of decisions of state courts. SCOTUS also has jurisdiction, along with lower federal courts, over admiralty and maritime cases, controversies in which the United States is a party, and controversies between two or more states or between a state and citizens of another state. Through Article III, §2, and the Judiciary Act of 1789, federal courts have diversity jurisdiction over controversies between citizens of different states.
SCOTUS publishes all its decisions, order, and rulings, although many are only published now in electronic form. All are published in English; no U.S. Supreme Court decisions are officially or routinely translated into other languages. SCOTUS opinions are first made available as individual slip opinions. They are later compiled, assigned a volume number, and published as preliminary prints. The official United States Reports volumes are approved and published several years later.
The Supreme Court website at https://www.supremecourt.gov/ makes opinions and orders of the court available in PDF form. The U.S. Reports volumes are available for free download, as complete volumes, on the court’s website, beginning with the 1991 term. Preliminary prints are also posted to the website as PDFs as they become available. Individual slip opinions are posted on the court’s website on the day they are issued. They are later replaced with opinions edited in the publication style of the United States Reports, including final pagination.
Earlier volumes of the U.S. Reports, from 1754 to 2012, are available in the online digital collection of the Library of Congress at https://www.loc.gov/collections/united-states-reports/about-this-collection/ . They are arranged by volume, authoring justice, or major case topic.
Other free sources for opinions of the United States Supreme Court include Google Scholar https://scholar.google.com/ , Cornell LII https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text, Court Listener https://www.courtlistener.com, and Findlaw https://caselaw.findlaw.com/court/us-supreme-court. Justia https://supreme.justia.com/ also has SCOTUS opinions from 1791 to the latest opinions. Scotusblog https://www.scotusblog.com/ is a great site for keeping track of the U.S. Supreme Court, with summaries of opinions with links to the Supreme Court’s docket, as well as news, analysis, petitions, and statistics.