DECISIONS (CASELAW): Court & Agency Opinions

Editor's Note: When lawyers and judges talk about a "case," they usually mean the written opinion of a court or agency explaining its action or decision in a legal proceeding brought before it. Because most antitrust prohibitions have been written in very broad terms (e.g., "attempt to monopolize," "contract . . . in restraint of trade," "unfair methods of competition") the "cases" or caselaw explaining the meaning of the statutes and applying them to specific factual situations are especially important to understanding antitrust law.

Below are links both to sources containing the complete text of judicial decisions and to summaries and excerpts from Supreme Court antitrust decisions.

Guernsey's Antitrust Cases by Topic - This is a very useful collection of information on antitrust cases (giving full case name and citation, and linking to the text of Supreme Court cases and some lower court cases). Although it was originally constructed for use in the utility-deregulation context, the leading cases under each topic are listed, followed by relevant utility industry cases. The page is oranganized by statutory sections and the related types of conduct: Sherman 1 (conspiracy -- territorial allocation, price-fixing, tying, group boycott, restraint of trade); Sherman 2 (monopolization, attempted monopoly; essential facility; predation; price squeeze; tie to monopolize; exclusive dealing, leveraging); Clayton 2 (price discrimination); Clayton 3 (tying contracts, exclusing dealing; price fixing); Clayton 7 (illegal merger; illegal leasing). In addition, leading cases are collected involving the antitrust issues of Standing, State Action, Noerr-Pennington, and Keogh.

Guide to Law Online: U.S. Judiciary - Sponsored by the U.S. Law Library of Congress for the Global Legal Information Network (GLIN), this site has links to databases containing the full opinions of the Supreme Court, and recent opinions from each Circuit Courts of Appeal (usually from 1995, but earlier for some Circuits). There are also links to each federal District Court, most of which have recent opinions online. In addition, the site gathers much information about the federal judicial system, and the Rule of Practice at the various courts within the system.

Finding Court Opinions On The Web - Presented by the National Law Journal, this resource is adapted from "The Best and Worst Legal Sites on the Web," by Robert J. Ambrogi. The site offers a one-stop gateway to cases available from the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as each Circuit and District court, and from each State. Several significant private resources are included, as are the official websites of each court.

Supreme Court Opinions: FindLaw - FindLaw offers several ways to find any Supreme Court case since 1893 (U.S. Supreme Court Decisions: U.S. Reports 150-, 1893-). Their database is browsable by year and US Reports volume number and searchable by citation, case title and full text. FindLaw states "this is a free service that will remain free."

Decisions and Orders of the FTC - Links to formal actions of the Com'n, including its adjudicatory decisions and orders (going back to 1996) can be found at this Page. Unfortunately, you need to know the year and month to find a decision quickly. Another method for locating an FTC opinion is to use the Search function at the FTC website, entering the name of the particular company involved.

Recent Antitrust Decisions of the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals: Cornell Law Library - This link will take you to the results of a search query for recent antitrust cases in the U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeal, from Cornell's Legal Information Institute. The cases from most Circuit Courts are available back to 1995, from others as far back as 1987. Of course, the search box will let you further refine your search or look for a particular case.

Syllabi of Recent Supreme Court Cases: Cornell Law Library - This searchable database contains syllabi (brief summaries prepared by the Court's reporter of decisions) of the opinions of the Supreme Court from 1990 to the present. Narrowing your request for information to "antitrust" will yield all antitrust syllabi since 1990, along with a box offering to further narrow the topic (e.g., Sherman Act, or treble damages).

The Antitrust Case Browser - This site, produced by econcomics Prof. Anthony D. Becker, Ph.D., of St. Olaf College, contains summaries (syllabi) of U.S. Supreme Court antitrust cases since 1895; cases can be located by name, date, and product area. The site has links to other antitrust resources.

SCAD: Supreme Court Antitrust/Economics Debates - Compiled by Prof. John Bowen at Ripon College, SCAD is a collection of excerpts from 72 of the Court's antitrust opinions (dating from 1895 through 1993), in which a divided Court has "debated" significant issues in antitrust economics. You can access SCAD's cases in any of several ways -- by economic issue/topic, by justice, by case name, by product etc.

If you are unfamiliar with doing legal research (and haven't got time for law school right now), we suggest you try:

Nolo's Guide to Legal Research - Nolo.com specializes in self-help tools for the non-lawyer. Its online Research Guide offers a plain-English introduction to the basics of legal research, including such topics as:

The Role of Court Cases in Understanding Statutes - This discussion includes a section on Finding a U.S. Supreme Court Case

Finding Federal Statutes, Regulations, and Bills

Finding and Understanding State Statutes

ASIL Introduction to Researching International Law Online - Sponsored by The American Society of International Law, and aimed at international law researchers, several sections of this Guide are quite helpful for all newcomers to legal and net research. It includes links to Research Guides on the websites of a number of law schools.

The Virtual Chase Sponsored by the law firm Ballard Spahr Andrews & Ingersoll, LLP, this virtual mecca for internet researchers is overseen by web-guru Genie Tyburski. The user-friendly site "offers more than 600 pages of information pertaining to [internet] resources and research strategies." Although designed for lawyers and other experienced legal researchers, there is much here for others seeking guidance on the best ways to find information on the internet, including numerous how-to articles and tips in plain English.

Zimmerman's Legal Research Guide - Hosted by LLRX.com, this "Online Encyclopedia for Legal Researchers" by Andrew Zimmerman covers a wide array of substantive subject areas, and also includes links and tips related to such legal-research tasks as Case Pulls (finding court decisions), Legal Citation, and Shepardizing.