Decisions and final resolutions of the Supreme Court (SC) can now be accessed for free on a new digital platform.
SC launched the platform called “The Philippine Reports E-Books” on July 3. It is the online version of a compendium called “The Philippine Reports” where court decisions and resolutions were compiled in books.
The High Court’s Twitter account uploaded a video clip showcasing its features to the public.
Online Philippine Reports Now Available on the Supreme Court E-Library
READ: https://t.co/t8zUCcEBBX pic.twitter.com/uqS2aubion
— Philippine Supreme Court Public Information Office (@SCPh_PIO) July 3, 2023
As stated in the video, “The Philippine Reports” serves as an authorized resource for legal citations. Each volume is used by members of the legal community.
Copies of these books, however, are not accessible to everyone. They are only available at the SC headquarters in Manila. Each volume also costs P600 for printing.
The Philippine Reports E-Book was therefore launched to make them accessible to the general public and other law practitioners in remote areas of the Philippines.
The new e-books can be found in SC’s E-Library at this link: The Book Shelf – Supreme Court E-Library (judiciary.gov.ph).
Each volume can be downloaded for free and without the need for a subscription.
It is also available in three formats—the PDF, the epub and the flip book.
As of writing, only a limited number of volumes are available there.
“Currently, volumes 823 up to 867 are now available as Phil Report E-Books, while decisions promulgated from 2008 to 2019 now include the individual case citation feature. Additional E-Books and individual case citations will be uploaded every week to the SC E-Library,” SC said in a statement.
Aside from the digitized version of the reports, individual case citations were also digitized at the SC E-Library.
This project was the brainchild of Associate Chief Justice Marvic Leonen and Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo.
It was also made possible in collaboration between the SC Library and the SC Office of the Reporter.
“The Office of the Reporter converted the printed Philippine Reports to soft copies in pdf, while the SC E-Library technical team converted the said pdfs to epub format. The SC Management Information Systems Office also helped in converting the online material into flipbooks,” the SC said.
On its website, it was stated that this initiative fulfills the target outcomes of the SC’s overall Strategic Plan for Judicial Innovations 2022-2027 (SPJI) of Efficiency, Innovation, and Access.