In law, an opinion (also consilia) is usually a written explanation by a judge or group of judges that accompanies an order or ruling in a case, laying out the rationale and legal principles for the ruling.

Opinions are usually published at the direction of the court, and to the extent they contain pronouncements about what the law is and how it should be interpreted, they reinforce, change, establish, or overturn legal precedent. If a court decides that an opinion should be published, the opinion is included in a volume from a series of books called law reports (or reporters in the United States). Published opinions of courts are also collectively referred to as case law, which is one of the major sources of law in common law legal systems.

Not every case decided by a higher court results in the publication of an opinion; in fact most cases do not, since an opinion is usually only published when the law is being interpreted in a novel way, or the case is a high-profile matter of general public interest and the court wishes to make the details of its ruling public.^{[citation needed]} In the majority^{[citation needed]} of American cases, the judges issue what is called a memorandum decision that indicates how state or federal law applies to the case and affirms or reverses the decision of the lower court. A memorandum decision does not establish legal precedent or re-interpret the law, and cannot be invoked in subsequent cases to justify a ruling. Opinions, on the other hand, always establish a particular legal interpretation.

The Ishrat Jahan encounter case refers to the encounter killing of four people claimed to be Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) operatives by the Ahmedabad Police Crime Branch in 2004. The victims included Ishrat Jahan Raza, a 19-year old college girl from Mumbai, and three men: Pranesh Pillai (alias Javed Gulam Sheikh), Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar. Multiple judicial inquiries by Indian authorities, in 2009 and 2011, concluded that the encounter was fake, and the victims were killed in police custody.

The encounter was carried out by a team led by DIG D.G. Vanjara, who was later jailed for his involvement in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter. The police alleged that Ishrat and her associates were LeT operatives involved in a plot to assassinate the then Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi. Later, an investigation was launched into the allegations that Ishrat was killed in a fake encounter. In 2004, a Lahore-based publication affiliated with LeT claimed that Ishrat and her companions were operatives, but in 2007, Jamaat-ud-Dawa, the political wing of the LeT retracted the statement as a "journalistic mistake", offering apology to Ishrat's family. After a long investigation, in 2009, an Ahmedabad Metropolitan court ruled that the encounter was staged. The decision was challenged by the Gujarat State government, and taken to the High Court. In 2010, some media outlets reported that the convicted terrorist David Headley had implicated Ishrat in terrorist activities in a statement given to the National Investigation Agency (NIA). However, the NIA called these reports as "baseless". After further investigation, in 2011, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) told the Gujarat High Court that the encounter was not genuine, and the victims were killed prior to the date of the staged encounter.

Amanda Marie Knox (born July 9, 1987) is an American woman who was accused of the murder of Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Umbria, Italy. She served four years of a 26-year sentence before the murder conviction was overturned on October 3, 2011. Raffaele Sollecito, Knox's boyfriend at the time of the murder, was also accused of the murder and had his conviction overturned on appeal. The jury upheld Knox's calunnia conviction for falsely implicating bar owner Patrick Lumumba. For this Knox was sentenced to three years in prison, which she had already served, and was ordered to pay Lumumba's court costs of about 22,000 euros.

Knox was born in Seattle, Washington, to Edda Mellas, a math teacher, and Curt Knox, a vice president of finance at Macy's. The couple divorced when Knox was a toddler. Knox attended Seattle Preparatory School, from which she graduated in 2005. In 2005 she began studies at the University of Washington.

In 2007 Knox moved to Perugia, Italy, to study Italian, German, and creative writing at the University for Foreigners for one year. She shared a house with Meredith Kercher, a student from England, as well as two Italian women. In mid-October 2007 she began a romantic relationship with an Italian engineering student, Raffaele Sollecito, from Bari, Apulia.

Salman Khurshid (born 1 January 1953) is an Indian politician belonging to the Indian National Congress, a lawyer, and a writer who has been elected from Farrukhabad Lok Sabha constituency in the General Election of 2009. He belongs to the Farrukhabad area. He is presently the Cabinet Minister of the Ministry of Law and Justice and Ministry of Minority Affairs. Prior to this he was elected to the 10th Lok Sabha (1991–1996) from the Farrukhabad Lok Sabha constituency. He became the Union Deputy Minister of Commerce in June 1991, and later became the Union Minister of State of External Affairs (Jan. 1993-June 1996). Before that he had started his political career in 1981 as an Officer on Special Duty in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) under the prime ministership of Mrs. Indira Gandhi.

Born in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, he is the son of Khurshed Alam Khan, the former Union Minister of External affairs, Government of India, and maternal grandson of Dr. Zakir Hussain, the third President of India.

Subramanian Swamy (born 15 September 1939 in Chennai, India sometimes spelt Subramaniam Swamy) is an Indian politician, academician and an economist. He is the President of the Janata Party of India. He also presently serves as chairman of the SCMS Board of Governors of the SCMS Group of Educational Institutions in Kerala.

Swamy has previously served as member of the Planning Commission of India and Cabinet Minister of India. He has written extensively on foreign affairs dealing largely with India-China, India-Pakistan and Indo-Israel relation and is also a published author.

In November 1978, Swamy was member of the Group of Eminent persons called to Geneva to prepare a report of the United Nations (UNCTAD) on Economic Co-operation between Developing countries (ECDC).Swamy simplified trade procedures and formulated a new export strategy which became the forerunner of trade reform adopted subsequently. In 1994, Swamy was appointed as Chairman of the Commission on Labour Standards and International Trade by then Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao. This was perhaps for the first time that an Opposition Party member was given a Cabinet rank post by the ruling party.