1. latrobe.edu.au CRICOS Provider 00115M LSA 101 Session: How to Write a Great Case Summary? 12pm to 1pm 11 March 2015 Marc Trabsky Lecturer La Trobe Law School

2. 2La Trobe University How to Read a Case? 1.Parties 2.Citation 3.Court 4.Material Facts 5.Procedural History 6.Issues Questions of Fact Questions of Law 7.Reasoning Ratio Decidendi 8.Additional Comments Obiter Dictum 9.Decision 10.Orders

3. 3La Trobe University Example 1.Parties: Doodeward (Appellant) and Spence (Respondent) 2.Citation: Doodeward v Spence [1908] HCA 45 3.Court: High Court of Australia 4.Material Facts: In New Zealand in 1868 a mother gave birth to a two- headed stillborn baby. The attending doctor preserved the baby in a container with spirits. When the doctor passed away in 1870, the ‘curiosity’ was sold by auction to Doodeward. Sometime in the 1900s Doodeward exhibited the two-headed baby in public. The police arrested him and confiscated his curiosity. 5.Procedural History: The Supreme Court of New South Wales found that there was no right of property in a human body, however in terms of “[a]n unburied corpse awaiting burial … certain persons have duties, and perhaps rights with respect to it”. They dismissed his appeal from the District Court.

4. 4La Trobe University Example 1.Issues Question of Law: Does a right of property in the dead body of a human being exist under common law? Question of Fact: Was Doodeward unlawfully deprived of possession of the curiosity? 2.Reasoning Ratio Decidendi: “[if] a person has by the lawful exercise of work or skill so dealt with a human body or part of a human body in his lawful possession [such] that it has acquired some attributes differentiating it from a mere corpse awaiting burial, he acquires a right to retain possession of it” (Griffith CJ) 3.Additional Comments Obiter Dictum: When a person dies, no one has property in an unburied body, though certain people will have a duty of custody and a right of possession to that body up until its burial. 4.Decision: Appeal allowed 5.Orders: The curiosity was returned to Doodeward