There are over 9,000 IAT determinations and Higher Court judgements in the EIN database, most but not all since 1997. New IAT determinations are generally added within a week of promulgation. Not all IAT cases are added, however. Those that have no useful precedent in them (e.g. agreed remittals) are sieved out. If having searched you cannot find a case please get in touch with support@ein.org.uk and we will look at adding it to the database. Also in general the older a case is, pre-1997, the less chance that a full text version will be in the database (many older cases are covered by summaries). Again please contact us if you feel a case is missing and we will do our best to add them.

The case law entry page displays two columns, one showing 'recent case law', the other showing cases recently added, headed 'What's new', which may or may not be recent cases. For example older decisions from overseas jurisdictions such as the ECJ and overseas refugee appeal courts may be added later into the database.

'Recent case law' is listed according to the most recently promulgated decisions (i.e. in descending order) and for an extensive list, with more instant detail of the case such as the decision and the index-terms attached, just click the link for 'more'! Again there is some selectivity in trying to show more important cases in 'recent case law', so not every case that has been entered will be displayed here.

NB Index search terms are added later, so the absence of index terms can mean either that they have not yet been added or that the case does not warrant any particular keyword highlight.

· The Case Law Search Menu

By clicking on the link in the top right of the page ('Search the Caselaw database') you will be taken to the bespoke EIN case law search menu. Although this resembles the structure of Internet search menus in general, it also has specific search parameters pertaining to the immigration judiciary. It allows for multiple search criteria in order to execute very specific searches of the database.

At the very top is a box marked 'search for' - to search for 'words' in the text of cases (not just case names or appeal numbers). On the right of this is a box for 'Key Cases only'. If you tick this box the search will be limited to cases that have been designated as key ones by EIN. This will dramatically narrow the range of results, and is useful if your search is returning many results.

Below the 'Search for' box is a list of court types to search in. The default is set to "Caselaw of UK, ECJ, ECtHR (except the Asylum Support Adjudications)". However, you can alter this to the "entire case law database" or specific court types (e.g. Immigration Appeal Tribunal Starred Appeals or Federal Court of Australia). The court type "international jurisdictions" covers the ECJ and EctHR, and "All Overseas National courts" will return results for Federal Court of Australia, Federal Court of Canada, New Zealand RSAA and any other miscellaneous national courts.

Next you can choose to search by index terms (the full explanation for using this feature is covered in General Searching Tips). You can also restrict the dates you are looking for using the judgement/promulgation boxes. Then lower down the menu, there are specific search boxes for appellant and respondent names and case numbers, e.g. in the appeal number box, enter UKIAT04870 (without the [2002] prefix) and you will retrieve the starred appeal decision of GURUNG. The reason you do not use the prefix '[2002]' with any search is because the square bracket has a special meaning as an algorithmic symbol in the search engine. If you need to use square brackets you can substitute them with question marks - so if you really needed to, you would search for '?2002?UKIAT04870' or just '2002?UKIAT04870'.

TIP: Where an appellant has been anonomised e.g. the appellant is given as 'A', then it will be difficult to search by the appellant name (as it will find every instance of 'a' in the database). In order to assist searching EIN enter it as 'AppellantA' (all one word) & this is what you should search for

Search results may also be restricted by the name of the Judge or Adjudicator (in the 'before' box), and/or according to the decision in the case (allowed/dismissed etc). When you are ready you can use the 'search!' button at either the top or bottom of the caselaw search menu page. If you are altering the terms of your search (refining the results) please remember to use the 'reset' button to clear your old search terms. See General Searching Tips for more information on how to use site search engines.

Search results will be listed by court type first, starting with the higher courts and finishing with case summaries. Within the court type they will be ordered by promulgation/judgment date (with the most recent appearing first). You can read the full text of the case by clicking on the case name (as this acts as a link to the full text).

When looking at the full text of a case you'll note that above the case there are buttons to turn the bundle-maker on & off, and excerpting mode on & off (for a full explanation of this see the Bundle Maker section below). You will also be informed if the case is an EIN designated key case. At the bottom of the text there is a section for footnotes, which also reiterate the decision and any index terms associated with the case, and if excerpting is turned on the excerpt box. None of these items will show up if you save the case to your bundle & print it from there (see the Bundle Maker help section).