Chapter 5 · Educational

Cases as a Web of Answers

One opinion rarely answers just one question. It settles the question you brought and, in the same breath, points you to the cases it relied on for the rest. This module follows those threads — color-coded by question, the same colors you met in the Question Method.

How to move: use the case tabs or the graph nodes to open a case. Inside a case, the colored citation chips are live — click one to jump to the case that opinion relied on for that answer.

Part 1

One case, more than one answer

Start with Marsh, the foundational case below. Notice it answers two different research questions — in two different colors. A single opinion is often a node with several answers hanging off it.

Part 2

Follow the thread that answers your question

Now open Okafor. It answers its own question (damages), but its reasoning cites other cases for the duty and the remedy. Click the chip for the question you care about to land on the case that answers it — and see that case answer questions of its own.

Part 3

The whole web

Zoom out. Each node is a case; each edge is one citation, colored by the question it answers and labeled with the answer it supplies (A1 is the answer to Q1). Where one case cites another for two answers, you’ll see two separate lines.