leading case

leading case (plural leading cases)

1. (chiefly UK, Australia, Canada, Commonwealth, law) A reported decision which has come to be regarded as settling the law of the question involved.

   Synonym: (chiefly US) landmark case

   • 1857, Austin Abbott, Reports of Practice Cases:

     It is remarkable , that in the leading case cited as the foundation of the whole doctrine

• precedent

• “leading”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.