Precedent is based on stare decisis, stand by what is decided. Every court is bound to follow any decisions made by a court above it in the hierarchy and appeal courts are generally bound by their own decisions, if the facts are similar. In addition, most appeal courts are generally bound by their own previous decisions. For example, both the Court of Appeal and the Divisional Court of the High Court are usually bound by their own previous decisions.
Judges must follow the ratio decidendi of the case i.e. the legal reason for the decision. This is known as binding precedent. Anything else said in the judgement is known as obiter dicta and is merely persuasive precedent i.e. may be followed e.g. sometimes courts will use decisions of
…show more content…
They had to follow their own previous decisions even if they thought the law was wrong. Prior to 1966 the law could only be changed by Parliament. As a result the law was rigid and could not develop. Bad or inappropriate law would remain until changed by Parliament. A good example would be the law on marital rape. In 1736 the House of Lords stated that a man could not be guilty of raping his wife. This remained law until 1991 when the House of Lords used the Practice Direction and the 1736 decision was overruled by the 1991 decision. In R v R (1991) the court stated that rape within marriage is now a …show more content…
However, the House of Lords will not always use the Practice Direction to overrule a previous decision. In C v DPP (1995) concerning criminal liability for children and R v Clegg (1995) concerning self-defence, they refused to change the law. In both of these cases they that if a change was required it was best left to parliament as wider issues were involved.
In R V Simpson (2003) Lord Woolf summed up the House of Lords view of precedent:
“The rules of precedent reflect the practice of the courts and have to be applied bearing in mind that their objective is to assist in the administration of justice. They are of considerable importance because of their role in achieving the appropriate degree of certainty as to the law. This is an important requirement of any system of justice. The principles should not however, be regarded as so rigid that they cannot develop in order to meet contemporary needs.”
3. The Practice Direction refers to the major advantages and disadvantages of judicial precedent. Identify and explain
It was, therefore, seen as a breach of judicial independence. However following the creation of the Supreme Court in 2009, senior judges no longer sit in the House of Lords which means are free of political influence and decision making – and in effect – from the legislature as they can speak out against the government.
In addition, Case Law Reasoning was used to determine the outcome. Case Law Reasoning is when courts take prior cases, also known as precedents, and apply these cases to guide in the decision making processes. This application of taking prior cases to assist in the conclusion of current cases is known as stare decisis. Because case facts often vary, several cases are usually brought up to expand and make it possible to have a factual determination. In addition, several cases are brought up because moral ideas and the acceptance of such will change over time. Having
xiii) Influence of EU ensures that altering UK constitution is hard – cannot be incompatible
Stare decisis “to let the decision stand” operates in a pyramid-type fashion and is the doctrine that judicial decisions stand as precedent for cases arising in the future. It is a fundamental policy of our law that, except in unusual circumstances, a court’s determination on a point of law will be followed by courts of the same or lower rank in later cases presenting the same legal issue, even though different parties are involved and any years have elapsed.
27). By following this doctrine of precedent, stare decisis, judges are bound to follow the ratio decidendi, the reasons given, for the rulings in previous cases from higher up in their jurisdictional hierarchy. Rulings from other jurisdictions can also be used as persuasive force and argument, as can the obiter dicta, the judges’ comments other than those given as the reason for the ruling. In this way Judge made law resolves conflict and injustice by ruling consistently with rulings made in previous, characteristically similar cases. An inconsistent approach to similar situations cannot equate to being fair, just or equitable. In this way the ALS is not biased or prejudice, is applied equally to all, and ensures that the law is based on fairness and justice.
D. Explain how each of the following influences decisions made by individual justices when deciding cases heard by the courts.
Court decision rules and help make the outcome of case law. The important of case law is it can be interprets with statues, regulation, constitutional provisions and other case law. (Miller, 2017). Judges decisions which are made in previous cases can make a case law. Case laws decisions can come from civil lawsuit, state court, local court and federal court. For example, if I had file a civil lawsuit against someone about an incident and win the case. A few years later, somebody else has a similar incident, but loses their case. The court the court must use the previous court’s decision in applying the law.
Judicial precedent refers to the sources of law where past decisions made by judges create law for future judges to follow. An example would be the Donoghue vs Stevenson case, where Stevenson had bought ginger beer, and Donoghue had drank it after their been a decomposed snail in it, however their was no charge because she was not in a contract with
Although these issues were not disputed, the significance of the House of Lords' judgment corresponds elegantly with the rising willingness of some judges to see their role, where essential, as a constitutional court.
The most influential definition of the rule of law is that of the A.V. Dicey. In his work he defines the rule of law to be composed of three central elements. The first element states that “no man is punishable or can be made to suffer in body or goods except for a distinct breach of law established in the ordinary legal manner before the ordinary courts”. This element is designed to deny to governments any rights to make secret or arbitrary laws, or retrospective penal laws, and to limit the discretionary powers of government” . In order to comply with the requirement, it is stated that the rule must be open, clear, accessible and certain. This is supported by Lord Bingham as he argued that the law must be accessible, clear and predictable as wide discretionary powers would lead to arbitrariness which is against the rule of law. This principle is further illustrated by
The doctrine of Judicial precedent applies the principles of stare decisis which ‘lets the decision stand’. ‘Whenever a new problem arises in law the final decision forms a rule to be followed in all similar cases, making the law more predictable’ making it easier for people to live within the law.
It is often believed that the relationship between certainty and flexibility in judicial precedent has struck a fine line between being necessary and being precarious. The problem is that these two concepts of judicial precedent are seen as working against each other and not in tandem. There is proof, however, that as contrasting as they are on the surface they are actually working together to achieve one common goal.
It would be impractical for judges to not make law in some situations as both parties in the case would not want the judge to refuse to deal with the case and they would want the matter decided. ‘Judicial decisions are important as a source of law on matters where the government is
Time-saving. Where principles have been established, cases with familiar facts are unlikely to go through a lengthy process of litigation. The main disadvantages of the doctrine of judicial precedent are; -
in criminal law and Beckett Ltd v. Lyons [1967] 1 All ER 833 the law