The Doctrine of Judicial Precedent (Case Law)
P.21-39 J.Martin In what part of the syllabus does this topic fit?
Judge made law via the cases upon which they decide is one of the oldest sources of law. There are now at least 400,000 reported cases and some areas of law, such as the law of torts, are found mainly in cases.
What is a precedent?
At the end of a case the judge makes a judgement, which is made up of two things:
- Ratio decided:
- Obiter dicta:
Another phrase for the doctrine is stare decisis, which is Latin for "let the decision stand". The doctrine is quite rigidly applied by judges and is dependent upon a strict hierarchy of courts.
Annotate the triangle to represent the way in which the hierarchy of the courts works:
The House of Lords is binding on all courts below it and is bound by no other court (other than by the European Court of Justice on matters of European Community Law only).
The Court of Appeal is bound by the House of Lords but is binding on all courts below it. Below the Court of Appeal, only the Divisional Courts and the High Court create precedent. Inferior courts, ie............................................................ ...................................... and tribunals do not create precedent, but have to abide by the precedents set in higher courts.
