In legal circles, literature is the works of layers/ attorneys and legal practitioners which handle legal matters in such a way that goes beyond mere laws, codes, and formulae. Broadly, legal literature comes in many forms including legislation, cases, institutional writings, parliamentary material, law research and publications, etc. For example, present-day legal systems relies substantially on the so-called case law which constitutes a systematic mechanism of making the decisions/ issuing verdicts by the courts – collectively known as law reporting. This type of legal literature (reports of cases) is usually available in a printed format as well as online.

An example of the use of the term “literature” in English is: “the complaint, regardless of its merits as literature, fails as a legal pleading”.