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Questions tagged [case-law]

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3 votes
2 answers
2k views

The 4th Amendment and case law relevant to police power for arrests without a warrant

The 4th Amendment states that The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no ...
user6726's user avatar
  • 215k
2 votes
1 answer
136 views

How to find case law for a particular subject

How can I find case law for a particular subject in my state (Massachusetts)? I have access to Lexis/Nexis, but my experience is that subject searches rarely work. For example, one topic I need to ...
Cicero's user avatar
  • 6,998
8 votes
2 answers
3k views

How do I interpret a court judgement? What does it mean?

So I've figured out how to read a case citation and find the text of the judgement - maybe using some of the online resources. As a novice, I'm trying to decide when the judgement actually applies. ...
jimsug's user avatar
  • 12.2k
5 votes
1 answer
358 views

Do courts in a common law system ever make decisions about law without a presented case?

In the United States, the Supreme Court does not make a decision about the validity of a law without a specific case presented to them. Are there any examples of common law systems in which a court is ...
Daniel Goldman's user avatar
4 votes
3 answers
748 views

Can a judge make it case law that 2×2=5?

The following quote from Malcolm Turnbull is actually not what this question is about, but nevertheless it is a good-fit epigraph: The laws of mathematics are very commendable, but the only law that ...
Greendrake's user avatar
  • 27.8k
3 votes
1 answer
795 views

How do I read an Australian case citation and find the text of the judgement?

I want to know more about a particular case. I've seen it referred to a couple of different ways: Tame v New South Wales [2002] HCA 35 Tame v New South Wales (2002) 211 CLR 317 How can I access ...
jimsug's user avatar
  • 12.2k
3 votes
1 answer
254 views

Rights and licensing of joint works in Canada

In researching copyright laws relating to works of joint authorship, I came across this McMillan article. While the situation is clearer in the US and UK, the article discusses how in Canada, absent ...
DPenner1's user avatar
  • 4,951
1 vote
2 answers
123 views

Must a work be "essential" for fair use to apply?

In comments on this answer (now moved to chat) user supercat wrote: While there seems to be a belief that use of short clips is automatically fair use, a key requirement of fair use is that the ...
David Siegel's user avatar