''The Digest'', formerly published as ''The English and Empire Digest'', is a digest of
case law
Case law, also used interchangeably with common law, is law that is based on precedents, that is the judicial decisions from previous cases, rather than law based on constitutions, statutes, or regulations. Case law uses the detailed facts of a ...
. It is the "major modern work" of this kind. Its coverage is "wide" but incomplete, and it can be "complicated to use" if the user does not understand how the editions overlap. In 1994, it included cases from England and Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and other parts of the Commonwealth, and from the European Communities. More than half a million cases from more than a thousand series of law reports were summarised. The work also serves as a
citator In legal research, a citator is a citation index of legal resources, one of the best-known of which in the United States is Shepard's Citations. Given a reference of a legal decision, a citator allows the researcher to find newer documents which c ...
and is "valuable" because of this.
[ Partington, Martin. "The English legal system" in R G Logan (editor). ''Information Sources in Law''. Butterworths. 1986. p 59.]
Editions
First Edition
''The English and Empire Digest'' was published in 49 volumes from 1919 to 1932. This was directed by the
Earl of Halsbury
Earl of Halsbury, in the County of Devon, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. Halsbury is a historic manor in the parish of Parkham, near Bideford, Devon, long the seat of the Giffard family and sold by them in the 18th. century ...
and
Sir Thomas Willes Chitty.
"Blue Band" Replacement Edition
This edition was published in 56 volumes from 1950 to 1970.
"Green Band" Reissue Edition
Publication of the third edition, or "Green Band" Reissue Edition, began in 1971. In 1981, its name was changed to The Digest.
It contains the fullest listing of the case law of the United Kingdom, including almost all reported decisions from the sixteenth century.
[Hines, William Donald. ''English Legal History: A Bibliography and Guide to the Literature''. Garland Publishing Inc. New York and London. 1990. . Page 121.]
References
*Bedwell, C E A. "An Imperial Digest of Case Law". ''
Journal of Comparative Legislation and International Law
The ''International & Comparative Law Quarterly'' is a law review published quarterly by thBritish Institute of International and Comparative Law It was established in 1952 and covers comparative law as well as public and private international l ...
''. 1920. Third Series, vol 2, no 3. Pages 365 to 366
JSTOR
{{DEFAULTSORT:Digest, The
Law books