The Digest in United Kingdom

The Digest (formerly the English and Empire Digest) is a digest of the case law of England to date. It also includes cases from the courts of Scotland, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, South Africa, and the West Indies. The arrangement of titles used by Halsbury’s Laws of England is generally followed, and each section of cases is keyed to the fourth edition of Halsbury’s Law of England or Halsbury’s Statutes of England .

How to use the Digest

Given the name of a case:

For cases decided during the period covered by the Consolidated Table of Cases, locate the case in this Table, which will refer you to the appropriate volume and title of the main work. Go to the volume and title indicated, and look up the case in the “Table of Cases” at the front of the volume to determine the paragraph number at which your case is listed. Look up your case by paragraph number.

For cases reported after the period covered by the Consolidated Table of Cases, consult the “Table of Cases” at the front of the Supplement. This will refer you to the volume, subject and paragraph number of your case.

Given the subject matter:

• Turn to the most appropriate title. Each title begins with its own “Table of Contents” divided into subject headings and subheadings, which will lead you to the appropriate section of the title you have chosen.
• Or consult the Digest Consolidated Index , which indicates the appropriate volume, title, and case number of specific topics.
• And then check the Supplement to see whether the case has been annotated.

Note : As the Digest is updated, old volumes are replaced by reissued volumes. Cross-references are made throughout the Digest to case numbers in the replaced volumes. New case numbers can be found by using the Reference Adaptors at the end of the volumes. The Reference Adaptors list the replaced case numbers and the reissued case numbers side by side.