Case law is the second most important source of law (after legislation) in Scotland. The technicalities of precedent (identifying stare decisis, hierarchy of courts etc) will feel familiar to students of English law.
The Law Bod has a good collection of Scottish law reports, both historic and current, on Floor 2 with shelfmarks starting Cw UK Scotl 100
The series called Sessions Cases, which runs from 1821onwards, publishes the reports of highest authority. (Earlier periods of SC you will sometimes find cited just by the intitial of the surname of their editor.)
Holdings include:
| D | Dunlop's Session Cases 1838 to 1861 | Cw UK Scotl 100 S50 |
| FamLR | [Green's] Family Law Reports | Cw UK Scotl 100 G50 |
| F | Fraser's Session Cases 1898 to 1905 | Cw UK Scotl 100 S50 |
| HousLR | [Green's] Housing Law Reports | Cw UK Scotl 100 G55 |
| JC | Justiciary Cases | Cw UK Scotl 100 J50-51 |
| M | Macpherson's Session Cases | Cw UK Scotl 100 S50 |
| RepLR | [Green's] Reparation Law Reports | Cw UK Scotl 100 G60 |
| R | Rettie's Session Cases 1873 to 1897 | Cw UK Scotl 100 S50 |
| S | Shaw's Session Cases 1821 to 1837 | Cw UK Scotl 100 S50 |
| SC | Session Cases | Cw UK Scotl 100 S50 |
| SCCR | Scottish Criminal Case Reports | Cw UK Scotl 100 S26 |
| SCLR | Scottish Civil Law Reports | Cw UK Scotl 100 S27 |
| SLCR | Scottish Land Court Reports | Cw UK Scotl 100 S30 |
| SLR | Scottish Law Reporter | Cw UK Scotl 100 S40 |
| SLT | Scots Law Times | Cw UK Scotl 300 S20 |
The above list is not exhaustive!
| GWD | Green's Weekly Digest | Cw UK Scotl 150 G798 |
In principle familiar for those used to English ways, in practice it does throw up differences.
Session Cases SC report series are those of highest authority.
Thus a leading House of Lords decision Donoghue v Stevenson in Scotland is cited as 1932 SC (HL) 31; while in England it is [1932] AC 562
Since their introduction in 2006, higher court cases will have a neutral citation following the party names.
Neutral Citations (case identifiers) of Scottish courts
Court of Session Inner House CSIH
Court of Session Outer House CSOH
High Court Judiciary Appeal Court HCJAC
The Supreme Court of UK UKSC may hear (just as the UKHL heard) appeals in matters of Scottish civil law
The Scottish practice does not use the ( )[ ] distinction in citing cases in law reports.
Most modern Scottish law report volumes are distinguished by year - in which case no brackets are used eg 1981 SLT 161
Where the individual volumes of a report series are distinguished by volume numbers, the date can be inserted in ( ) before the volume number eg Moore v Gledden (1869) 7 M 1296
An indication of the court which heard the case can be included in the citation before the start page eg 1980 SLT (Sh Ct) 56. Mostly as with this Sheriff Court abbreviation not hard to work out.