Law reports: How they work in practice

[Citizen X]

1. Case law(Stare decisis) is one of the authoritative sources of South African Law;
2. Case law can be found in many publications, I will include the most common publications and how to interpret the acronyms;
3. You will have noticed that all these case references essentially contain: the name of the case, the year and volume of the case report, the type/publication of law reports in which the case was published, the page where the case starts and the court where the case was heard
4. BCLR Butterworths Constitutional Law Reports: 1994-Current.This publication contains judgments dealing with all constitutional matters: Example: S v Makwanyane and another 1995 (6) BCLR 665 (CC)

This cases name is : S(state) versus Makwanyane; year and volume of the court case: This case can be found in the 6^th volume of 1996(6); series of law reports: This case can be found in the Butterworths Constitutional law Reports; This case starts on page 665 in the BCLR; court where case was heard: This case was heard in the Constitutional Court(CC);
5. The same principal will apply to all these other reports;
6. BLLR Butterworths Labour Law Reports: 1994-. Current. Report judgments of the Labour Appeal Court and the Industrial Court.Example: Roberts and Another v OK Bazaars Ltd t/a Hyperama [1994] 7 BLLR 1(LAC)
7. SA South African Law Reports 1947-Current. Initially published in four volumes per year, it now includes six volumes a year, two monthly issues making a volume. It covers decisions of the South African Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court of Appeal, the High Courts, the Labour Court, the Labour Appeal Court, the Competition Appeal Court, the Land Claims Court; the superior courts of Namibia, Zimbabwe and their predecessors; and the previously independent states of Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Ciskei and Venda. The reference to the court is in the letter or letters in the last parenthesis of the citation. Example: S v Soci 1986 (2) SA 14 (A)
8. SACR South African Criminal Law Reports: 1990-. Current. Report judgments on criminal law and criminal procedure. No duplication with the SA Law Reports. Example: S v Maseko 1990 (1) SACR 107 (A)