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Law vocabulary · Legal Systems & Sources of Law

Landmark case

Meaning in law, with examples

nounCommon term

In law, landmark case means: A court case whose decision is especially important because it establishes a new legal principle or significantly changes the law.

In Turkish: dönüm noktası niteliğindeki dava, çığır açan karar, emsal niteliğinde dava

How it is used

Used in textbooks, lectures and the news: 'a landmark case', 'a landmark ruling', 'a landmark decision on privacy'. Students are expected to know the landmark cases in each subject by name and to explain the principle each one established.

Example sentences

  1. In a landmark case, the court recognised for the first time that employers can be liable for workplace stress.

  2. Our first seminar covers the landmark cases on freedom of expression.

Common collocations

  • landmark case
  • landmark ruling
  • landmark decision
  • landmark judgment
  • precedentAn earlier court decision that judges use as an example or a rule when they decide later cases with similar facts or legal questions.
  • case lawLaw that comes from the decisions of courts rather than from statutes; the body of earlier judgments that judges and lawyers rely on.
  • supreme courtThe highest court in a country or state, whose decisions on legal questions usually bind lower courts and cannot be appealed any further.
  • ratio decidendiThe legal reasoning that is necessary for a court's decision and that binds later courts; Latin for 'the reason for deciding'.
  • overruleTo reject an objection made during a hearing, or, for a higher court, to declare that a precedent set in an earlier case was wrong and should no longer be followed.

More terms: Legal Systems & Sources of Law

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This page explains English vocabulary for learners. It is not legal advice.