Casebook

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A volume recording detailed accounts of legal cases and their rulings ; a compilation of documented examples and case studies within a particular discipline
2. A book setting out the particulars of past court cases for study or reference ; an anthology of recorded case histories gathered from a specialized field
3. A reference volume of legal proceedings and judgments ; a published collection of detailed case studies from a given area of expertise

Etymology: "Casebook" is a plain compound, built from "case" and "book" and first recorded in English around 1675. Its appeal lies in the literal sense of each part: a book in which cases are written down. In law, a case was a particular dispute brought before a court, and a casebook gathered such disputes, usually with their judgments, so that students and practitioners could study how earlier decisions had been reasoned. The word later spread beyond the courtroom. Anyone who keeps a collection of recorded instances, whether a doctor noting patients' symptoms or a detective recording unsolved crimes, can be said to keep a casebook. The sense of "book" as a written record stays the same throughout, while "case" has widened from a legal dispute to any individual example under study.

Synonyms: record, dossier, file