Judicial Precedent Case Study

Explain the application of judicial precedent in the court (P1)

Judicial precedent is where past decisions of judges create law for future judges to follow. The judicial precedent runs through the court hierarchy that anything that the Supreme Court says on a case is binding to the lower courts that have similarities to a case.

The courts follow cases from law reporting. Law reports have been around since the 13th century written on paper however and issue with is that the cases aren’t accurate. Since the internet has evolved law reporting has been made much easier as cases have been published on the internet and therefore made much easier to find. This therefore makes a certainty in the law and allows judicial precedent to be followed.

Binding precedent is precedent that is from an earlier case that must be followed even if the judge doesn’t agree with the outcome of the case. The facts of the case in

The judge then sets the precedent for cases that are similar to the case that then bind the courts below it therefore this breaks the separation of power because courts are following what a person decided on the case rather than the actual wording of the law. Law making by statute ensures that if a case follows the literal rule that it’ll allow the law to be precisely applied to the case therefore allowing the separation of powers to remain separated. However, this is only if the judge, a single person that has the law in his or her hands, believes if the law was presumed to be applied as how it was written. Therefore this still allows precedent to be a law making power to the court and therefore not keeping the judiciary separate from the legislative. The court is made a living organism, a naked usurpation, of the