ABSTRACT
Case law, or common law, refers to the creation and refinement of law in the course of judicial decisions. The doctrine of binding precedent, or stare decisis, lies at the heart of the English legal system. The doctrine refers to the fact that, within the hierarchical structure of the English courts, a decision of a higher court will be binding on court lower than it in that hierarchy. As in most other fields, the growth of information technology has revolutionised law reporting and law finding. Many of the law reports mentioned above are available both on CD-ROM and on the internet. In civil cases, the Court of Appeal is generally bound by previous decisions of House of Lords. Although the Court of Appeal, notably under the aegis of Lord Denning, attempted on a number of occasions to escape from the constraints of stare decisis, the House of Lords repeatedly reasserted the binding nature of its decisions on Court of Appeal.
