1.
DIVISIONS OF LAW AND CITATION OF COURTS
Law Portal Zimbabwe is divided into two main divisions, being
Civil Law and Criminal Law.
(i) CC=Constitutional Court.
(ii) SC=Supreme Court.
(iii) HH=High Court Harare.
(iv) HB=High Court Bulawayo.
(v) HMA=High Court Masvingo.
(vi) HMT=High Court Mutare.
2.
CATEGORIES AND SUB-CATEGORIES
There is, under each main division of law, a “table of contents”
of the various categories eg. Family Law under the main division of Civil Law.
A category may have sub-categories eg. the sub-category of “Custody”
under Family Law. To access the sub-categories proceed as follows;
(a) Click on the main category i.e Family Law (on the top left
hand corner of your screen the website will show you which category you have
selected and beneath that the number of sub-categories that fall under that
category eg. 16 in the case of Family Law).
(b) Scroll down the categories on your right until you reach the
category you have selected. There you will find the category marked in black
and the sub-categories marked in blue.
(c) Select the sub-category of your choice (on the top left hand
corner of your screen the website will show you which sub-category you have
selected and beneath that the relevant case law relating to that sub-category).
All categories and sub-categories are arranged in alphabetical order.
(d) Multiple Categorization - In this regard, where a particular
issue of law ventilated in a judgment cuts across various, differing subjects
of law, users will find that relevant portions of this content is replicated
accordingly.
3.
SET UP OF CASE LAW
Each case is set up as follows –
Judgment Number: The Parties
Ruled By: Name of Judge/(s)
For example:
HH35-10: Ruth Musonza (nee Mtanaukwa) vs
Eshmael Musonza
Ruled By: Guvava J
(a) By clicking anywhere along the line with
the judgment number and the parties, the following will appear –
(i) The Judgment Number and the parties at the top of the screen,
and beneath that the following captions;
“View Judgment By Categories”; and “View Full Judgment”.
(b) View Judgment By Categories - Beneath this caption will appear
the following:-
(i) The headnotes of the case in a nutshell.
(ii) The various categories and sub-categories to which the case
relates (these are underlined and coloured in blue). By clicking on any
category or sub-category, the user accesses the information as stated in Clause
2 above.
(c) View Full Judgment - By clicking on this caption the user will
view the full judgment of the case they have selected.
A user can interchangeably click the “View Judgment By
Categories”; and “View Full Judgment” captions to access the information therein
as they wish.
(d) By clicking on “Ruled By...,.” the user will view all the
judgments by that particular judge or group of judges comprising the bench, as
the case may be.
4.
APPEALS
Cases appealed to the Supreme Court or Constitutional Court will have
one of the following tags, either above the judgment number or below the
“View Judgment By Categories” caption. The tags are as follows:
(i) “[SC]/APP” or "View Appeal" (coloured in brown); and
(ii) “Appealed” (coloured in blue).
By clicking the above tags, the user will be
able to simultaneously view the High Court Judgment and the Supreme Court or Constitutional Court Appeal Judgment eg. HH46-09 and its corresponding Supreme Court appeal SC13-11
(Matthew Mbundire vs Tyrone Sim Buttress).
5.
NUMBERING FORMAT
Law Portal has a standard numbering format of
all case law, being:
The Court: the judgment number: and the year of
the judgment.
For example HH35-10.
When searching the portal for a case please use
the above format only. By using the above standard format
one will also have access to all other case law on the website where that
particular judgment was cited.
NB: Due to the demonetization of the Zimbabwe
Dollar, and in order for comparison of quantification of damages, Law Portal
Zimbabwe case law commence from 2009 for High Court Judgments and 2012 for
Supreme Court Judgments.
6.
SEARCHING THE PORTAL
6.1 (i) A user can alternatively search the
portal by the use of key words. In this respect it is advisable to keep the
search terms as short as possible, the reason being that one is more likely to
find more search results but more importantly is that one is most likely to get
a search result that has an identifiable category or sub-category, hence
speedily connecting the user to the relevant topic of research and case law.
For example if one were searching for case law
relating to the audi alteram partem rule, by simply typing audi alteram in the
portal one is connected to various categories and sub-categories relating to
this search term (see the bottom of the screen on “Search Results”) and by
clicking on any of the categories and sub-categories the user accesses the
information as stated in Clause 2 above.
(ii) By clicking anywhere along the line with
the judgment number and the parties of the case that appears relevant to a
search, the user accesses the information as stated in Clause 3 above.
(iii) A user is further able to access case law
wherein a previously decided case, whether local or foreign, would have been
cited, by tying in either of the following in the portal –
(a) Any part of the judgment number – eg. 3 ALL
ER (in reference to the case of Macfoy v United Africa Co. Ltd [1961] 3 ALL ER
1169 (PC)).
(b) Any one of the parties – eg. Macfoy (in
reference to the case of Macfoy v United Africa Co. Ltd [1961] 3 ALL ER 1169
(PC)).
6.2 Each case law on the website is divided into three (3)
separate, identifiable engines, namely; the headnotes; the summaries; and the
categories and sub-categories.
When a user enters a key term on searching the portal, it will
search the three (3) engines of all the case law on the website for the inquiry
in the following order (i) the headnotes, (ii) the summaries, and (iii) the
categories and sub-categories. In this regard a user will find search results
grouped as follows:
(a) “Cases that Match Your Search Query” (these pertain to
the portal's search of all the headnotes on the website).
(b) “Summaries that Match Your Search Query” (these pertain
to the portal's search of all the summaries on the website).
(c) “Categories that Match Your Search Query” (these
pertain to the portal's search of all the categories and sub-categories on the
website).
In view of the above it is not uncommon to find a case referenced
more than once eg. in all the three (3) engines or in only one engine or two.
This was deliberate on our part as it is our wish that a user of Law Portal
Zimbabwe should not be limited to information contained in only a single
engine, and, therefore, this approach broadens a user's search base.
Please note that the above engine searches are confined to the division of law selected by the user i.e. Civil Law or Criminal Law.
6.3 Statutory Instruments
In order to view case law where a particular
statutory instrument has been cited and/or interpreted please type in S.I. or SI followed by the statutory instrument number:
For Example - S.I.109 or SI109
6.4 Rules of Court
In order to view case law where a particular
Rule of Court has been cited and/or interpreted please type in Rule followed by
the number:
For Example – Rule 449
6.5 Legislation
In order to view case law where a particular
statutory provision has been cited and/or interpreted please type in the
legislation as follows:
(a) For Example – Section 7 of the Matrimonial
Causes Act; or
(b) Type in section 7 to view all legislation
where a section 7 has been cited and/or interpreted and select case law
relating to the particular Act of Parliament or subsidiary legislation the
subject of your research; or
(c) Type in the name of the particular statute,
eg. Administrative Justice Act, to view all case law where provisions of that
statute have been cited and/or interpreted.
6.6 Pending Categorization Case Law
As a result of the inclusion in the portal of
pending categorization case law (detailed under Note 7 below) it is recommended
that users who access case law of a subject matter by way of selection of a
category or sub-category also type in the subject matter in "search the
portal" in order to access case law categorized under Note 7 below.
eg. if one accesses summary judgment case law
by going to the sub-category "Summary Judgment" under the category
"Civil Procedure"; it is advisable that they also search for the term
"summary judgment" or "summary" in order to access case law
classified under pending categorization.
7.
NON-CATEGORIZED CASE LAW
This case law will appear on the website with
the notation: “Pending Categorization. Please refer to Note 7 of
'Help?'” In addition, please note the following –
(a) This case law will have a brief summary relevant to the
subject matter for determination by the court. Further sub-categorizations and
summaries will be undertaken when the case reaches its turn as per our current
process.
(b) Where the case law is an appeal from the High Court, the
information contained in Note 4 above and this Note
7 will apply mutatis mutandis.
(c) By typing in the search term "pending categorization"
all case law falling under this Note 7 will appear on screen for ease of
reference.
8.
OVER-ARCHING
JUDGMENTS
These are judgments
which have legal relevance in both Civil Law and Criminal Law. The over-arching
judgments are identifiable by an extra prefix of the Court from which they
emanated, eg. HB01-11 (High Court Bulawayo) is the original criminal judgment under Criminal Law
whilst the over-arching judgment is HHB01-11 found under Civil Law. Hence,
over-arching Supreme Court judgments will be referenced SSC and Constitutional Court judgments CCC.
9.
CONTENT QUALITY AND
APPEARANCE
Please note that the quality and appearance of the platform content varies. The reason for the disparity is a result of the content and technical developers undertaking a continual process of troubleshooting, resolving, testing and implementing the following:
(a) The most appropriate format to
present content.
(b) Stress testing the website with
regards to content capacity.
(c) Configuring imported content to complement platform settings.
We thank you for bearing with us in
this regard.
10. CONTENT UPDATES
(a) Scheduled Updates - these will be run on a quarterly basis in order to incorporate a broad base of content.
(b) Unscheduled Updates - these will be run as and when landmark and/or public interest rulings are available on the platform.
11. CASE LAW WITHOUT JUDGMENT NUMBER
There is case law on the platform without judgment number references as specified in Clause 3 above. This is due to the content developers receiving the case law without a judgement number indicated. Such cases are identifiable by a shortened platform reference number: for example SC00 (Art Corporation vs Moyana).
12.
CONCLUSION
We hope you will find Law Portal Zimbabwe to be an
efficient, user-friendly, and value-adding research tool.