Definition
"S Case" as it appears in the historical legal dictionary tradition is an artifact of printing convention rather than a standalone legal term. Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) Supplemental contains what is formatted as an "S Case" entry but is, in fact, a truncated or corrupted rendering of **Somerset's Case** (also spelled Somersett's Case), the landmark 1772 English King's Bench decision reported at 20 How. St. Tr. 1. The leading "So" or fuller name was dropped, leaving only the entry stub. The substance of the entry — a celebrated English decision holding that slavery could not exist on English soil and that no person brought to England as a slave could be removed except by legal means applicable to any free-born person — belongs entirely to Somerset's Case, not to any independent legal concept called an "S Case."
Somerset's Case (1772): The decision of Lord Mansfield in the Court of King's Bench holding that the state of slavery was so odious that nothing could support it but positive law, and that no such positive law existed in England. The case arose from a habeas corpus petition on behalf of James Somerset, an enslaved man brought to England from the American colonies. The ruling effectively ended legally enforceable chattel slavery within England and Wales, though it did not reach the broader British Empire or abolish the slave trade.
---
Common Confusion
The truncated dictionary entry should not be read as defining a generic procedural or taxonomic category called "S Cases." Researchers encountering this entry in Black's 2nd Ed. Supplemental should treat it as a corrupted heading for Somerset's Case. Separately, the letter "S" appears as a meaningful designator in several unrelated modern legal and regulatory contexts — most notably S Corporations (a federal tax election under Subchapter S of the Internal Revenue Code) and Regulation S (an SEC safe harbor for securities offerings made outside the United States) — but neither of those uses has any relationship to this historical dictionary entry.
---
Why It Matters in Research
The corrupted heading is a navigational trap. A researcher scanning Black's 2nd Ed. Supplemental alphabetically may encounter "S Case" and fail to recognize it as Somerset's Case, leading either to confusion about what doctrine is being referenced or to an erroneous belief that "S Case" is a term of art. The entry is useless without understanding that the full case name was lost in transcription or typesetting.
For researchers working on the history of slavery, habeas corpus, or English common law development: Somerset's Case is the correct search target. It appears in full in 20 How. St. Tr. 1 (Howell's State Trials, volume 20) and is extensively treated in historical and modern scholarship.
For researchers who arrived at this entry while looking for S Corporation law or Regulation S securities doctrine: those are entirely separate bodies of law with no connection to this historical entry. See the encyclopedia cross-references below.
The broader lesson for Law Mind corpus researchers: abbreviated or truncated entries in the supplemental sections of early editions of Black's are not uncommon. When an entry consists only of a letter or partial word followed by descriptive text, always check whether the heading is a fragment of a longer case name or term.
---
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) Supplemental provides only the corrupted entry described above. The substance it conveys — the 1771/1772 King's Bench ruling, the citation to 20 How. St. Tr. 1, and the holding that slavery could not exist on English soil — is accurate as a description of Somerset's Case, though Black's dates the decision to 1771 while most modern sources date the final judgment to June 1772. This minor discrepancy likely reflects the difference between when proceedings commenced and when Lord Mansfield issued his ruling.
No other historical dictionary sources were provided for this entry. Somerset's Case itself is well-documented in primary sources and requires no further dictionary mediation once the corrupted heading is identified.
---
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
For S Corporation tax election and Subchapter S requirements: The Law Mind Business Organizations & Corporate Law Encyclopedia — *Corporate Formation: S Corporations (Tax Election and Requirements)*; The Law Mind Tax Encyclopedia — *Gross Income: Income from S Corporations*.
For Regulation S securities doctrine: The Law Mind Business Organizations & Corporate Law Encyclopedia — *International: International Securities Regulation (Regulation S, ADRs)*.
Note: No Law Mind Encyclopedia entry directly addresses Somerset's Case or English slavery law. Researchers pursuing that topic should work from primary sources.
---