HELP PAGE FOR THE COMMONWEALTH 
HUMAN RIGHTS CASE LAW DATABASE

1) Simple Searches on the Introductory Page
2) Combined Search Page
3) Search Results Page
4) Case Summary Page


1) Simple Searches on the Introductory Page 
The SIMPLE SEARCHES on the INTRODUCTORY PAGE allow you to do a quick word search of the Database, to check recent additions or to search cases by country. To move to the COMBINED SEARCH PAGE for a more refined search click at the bottom of the page.

QUICK WORD SEARCH - Use this search when you know what term you want to search the Database for. 
1- Type in a term (one or more words) 
2- Refine your search by deciding whether the database should look for 'all words', 'any word', 'exact phrase', 'free text' and 'boolean' when looking for the term you have added (see below). For instance if you choose 'any word' the Database will bring up all cases containing any of the words typed in. 
3- Click on the blue arrow to activate the search


WHAT�S NEW - Use this search to look for cases added recently to the Database.
1- Select the time scale of your search by clicking on the small black arrow next to the term 'select'.
2- Click on the blue arrow to activate the search


COUNTRY - Use this search when you are looking for all cases from a specific jurisdiction.
1- Select the country by clicking on the small black arrow next to the term 'select'.
2- Click on the blue arrow to activate the search

2) Combined Search Page (top)
The COMBINED SEARCH PAGE allows you to search the Database by combining different terms and/or searching specific areas of the Database, such as region, judges, lawyers, decision date, etc. 

For instance, if a term is entered into the word search and one region is selected the Database will only return cases that match both criteria. If you are having problems searching the Database try a search with less criteria or with more general terms. For instance instead of say 'religious rituals', which is a specific term and may not appear on the Database, try 'religious practice' or just 'religion'. 
Click on the blue arrow at the bottom of the page to activate the search once you have chosen your search criteria. Click on at the bottom of the page to return to the simple searches/introductory page.

WORD SEARCH
Use this to search the whole Database for particular words or phrases. It can be used in conjunction with any combination of specific area searches (such as region or country) to refine your search. Three separate word searches are available on the Database. If you fill more than one of the word searches the Database will look for cases that contain both terms. So if you want to search for different terms and want the database to return cases containing any of the terms then only fill one of the word searches and select 'any word'. After you have entered your term or terms choose an option to the right of the term such as 'all words', 'any word', 'exact phrase', 'free text' and 'boolean' in order to select how close a match you wish the results to be to your chosen term


SEARCHING SPECIFIC AREAS 
There are also options to search specific areas of the Database to narrow your search. For instance, you can search for cases from one country, or you can search for all cases from a particular region such as Africa or Asia. If you select a specific area to search such as a region or lawyers acting in a case, the Database does not search all the text but only that specified area for matches. Most of the options are straightforward, except for the following:

1 Keywords - You can select one or more keywords or keywords with specific sub-headings. In the illustration below you can see single keywords such as WORK and WOMEN and then keywords with sub-headings such as ADMINISTRATIVE JUSTICE - bias. In order to select more than one press ctrl as you click on each keyword or keyword with sub-heading. If you select more than one the Database will only return cases that contains all those selected. 


2 Decision date - Select the earliest and latest date on which the case(s) you are looking for could have been handed down. You can leave either date option free to search for all cases either before or after a certain date. For instance to search for all cases decided after the 2nd October 1999 fill the option out as follows:


DISPLAY ORDER
Select how you wish your results to be displayed: by case name (alphabetically), by rank (in order of relevance to your search), by date (in chronological order)


RESULTS PER PAGE
Select how many results you wish to see displayed at once, the maximum is 100 per page. 

3) Search Results Page (top)
This page lists cases relevant to your search along with the following information for each case: country, court, date, keywords, sub-headings and one-line summary. At the top of the page the search you carried out is noted, for instance, in the example below you can see that the search undertaken was from the country search option, searching for United Kingdom cases. 


The following options are available on this page:

Click on the case name to access the summary of the case you want.

Click on to go back to your original search.

Click on to search anew.

In order to move around the search result pages use the numbers at the top of the page. Click on 1 for the first page, 2 for the second page and so forth:


4) Case Summary Page (top)
This page displays the following information: case name, region, country, date, keywords, judges, one-line summary, full summary, dissents, lawyers, key cases cited, legal provisions and notes. 

There are two easy methods to search for cases that match a term or area you are interested in from the case summary page. Firstly, click on any text that is blue in order to find all cases that match that term. For instance to search for all the cases from Zimbabwe on the Database click on the term Zimbabwe at the top right of the text (see the illustration below). Using this facility, the following options are available on this page: 
Click on any of the keywords or sub-keywords to search for all cases sharing this same keyword 
Click on the name of a judge to search for all the cases in which this judge appears
Click on the region to search for all cases from that region on the Database
Click on the country to search for all cases from that country on the Database


Secondly, click on to activate a word search of the Database from the case summary page. Alternatively, by clicking on any word a search box will pop up on the screen with the word clicked already in the search engine. To change the term selected delete and type in a new term. To select how close you wish the result to be to the term chosen click on the black arrow and select one of the options. Click on the blue arrow to activate the search


Popup searches the whole Database for the same term and produces cases results accordingly. In order to have the matching term highlighted in the results click Unfortunately some computers won't have the software to use this facility.

MOVING FROM THE CASE SUMMARY PAGE

Click on (top of page) to go back to your original search

Click on (top of page) to search anew

Click on (bottom of page) to return to the search results list.

(top)