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• Introduction
  
  
• 1.1 What is Jurisprudence
  
  
• 1.2 How is Case Law Compiled
  
  
• 1.3 Finding Case Law
  
  
• 1.4 Secondary Sources
  
  
• 1.5 Case Law Indexes
  
  
• 1.6 Case Digests
  
  
• 1.7 Commercial and Legal Information Institute Databases
  
  
• 1.8 The Canadian Abridgement
  
  
• 1.9 What Can I Find by Using the Canadian Abridgment?
  
  
• 1.10 Updating and Noting-Up Cases
  
  
• 1.11 Updating and Noting-Up Using the Canadian Abridgment
  
  
• 1.12 Noting-Up Electronically
  
  
• 1.13 Noting-Up Electronically with QuickCITE
  
  
• 1.14 Noting-Up Electronically with KeyCite Canada
  
  
• Review and Conclusion
  
  

Case Law and the Canadian Abridgement – What is Jurisprudence?

Jurisprudence is the body of case law on a particular topic.
A case is a decision rendered by a judge or justice of the peace after hearing all of the sides to a dispute.
The structure of modern judicial decisions follows a standard format:

• The style of cause containing the names of the parties (e.g. R v Sparrow).
• The preliminary information providing the names the court and of the judge or judges present at the hearing, the date or dates of the hearing, the date the decision was rendered, and so on.
• The keywords or catch-phrasessection including a list of descriptive key words and phrases that identify the subject and basic principles of law, as well as the basic facts of the case.
• The headnote summarizing the facts, principles of law and reasons given by the judge.

NOTE: While very useful summaries, headnotes are not written by the judges themselves but by the editors of law reporters. Therefore never quote them directly! For more information on headnotes, read: The Anatomy of a Headnote.

• The authorities cited section providing a list of cases, laws, regulations and secondary sources referred to by the judge (or judges), upon which the decision is based.
• The history including any previous history of the case, such as a brief summary of the judge's decision at first instance, a list of previous related appeals, etc.
• The opinion(s) section containing the actual written or oral reasons of the judge(s).

NOTE: Judicial opinions handed down by a panel of judges (i.e. more than one judge) used to be organized according to seniority; that is, the opinion of the judge with the most experience on the bench would appear first, followed by the opinions of the other judges according to the amount of experience they had. Today, opinions tend to list the majority first, with any dissents second. Be sure to always properly identify which opinion is the majority opinion!

NOTE: Judicial decisions often include a lot of factual details about the case but do not generally include a transcript of the actual testimony given at trial.