DIGEST

digest,n.1.  An index of legal propositions showing which  cases support  each proposition; a

collection of summaries of reported cases, arranged by subject and subdivided by jurisdiction and

court. • The chief purpose of a digest is to make the contents of reports available and to separate,

from the great mass of caselaw, those cases bearing on some specific point. The American Digest

System covers the decisions of all American courts of last resort, state and federal, from 1658 to

present. — Abbr. D.; Dig.

“An  important and  numerous  class  of  books included  in  the  general division  designated  as

books of  secondary  authority  is the  group  known  by  the  generic  name  of  ‘Digests.’  A  Digest is essentially  an  index  to  Cases.  But  it  is  much  more  than  an  ordinary  index,  for  it  indicates  the

holdings and (in some, though not all, publications) the facts of each case. Any particular digest is

a  summary  of  the  case  law  coming  within  its  scope,  and  its  units  are  summaries  of  particular

points of particular cases. What the syllabi of a reported case are to that case, a digest is to many

cases. Were a digest simply a collection of citations to cases, arranged logically according to the

contents of such cases, it would be a search book; but, being a summary  of  the  case law, it is a

book of secondary authority.” William M. Lile et al., Brief Making and the Use of Law Books 68

(3d ed. 1914).

2.Civil law. (cap.) A compilation and systematic statement of the various areas of law; chiefly,

the Pandects of Justinian in 50 books, known as the Digest. — Also termed digesta; digests. See

PANDECT(2). [Blacks Law 8th]