Case law is the collection of past legal decisions decided by the courts. Past cases are often used in the course of deciding current litigation. These past decisions are called "case law", or precedent.
Case are tried in state, federal and special courts. Their decisions are collected in sets usually called Reporters. The Library subscribes to Illinois Decisions which reports the cases of the The Illinois Supreme and appellate courts.
These same decisions can appear in other reporters as well for example Illinois Supreme Court Cases appear in the Northeastern Reporter The library has the the Northeastern Reporter through the year 1965.
All Federal and state case law is available online in Westlaw. Current credit students and employees may access Westlaw through the Library website.
Additionally Most state and federal courts post their opinions online now. Findlaw.com is one place that collects decisions and is freely available.
Illinois decisions