Judicial Precedent

Judicial Precedent

Setting a precedent is providing an example for others to follow.

Legal precedent is however slightly more complicated. It is the term

given to a previous decision, a particular stance or view, judge's

Statement, or the effect of certain fact(s) present within a past

case; which dictates or influences the adjudication or verdict of a

later case. Or put simply 'a reason for deciding a particular issue as

established by a judge in a previous case'.

Judicial Precedent is separated into the three Latin named sectors

which define a judgement:-

Stare Decisis, (the literal interpretation 'let the decision stand').

This is the

verdict of the case, upon which sentencing occurs in criminal cases

and compensation is awarded in civil. This term expresses the

principle of precedent, that one should 'stand by' ones previous

decisions. For example in the case of R V Collins, ex parte S, the

Stare Decisis would be that S won the case.

Ratio Decidendi, this is what forms the precedent of a case, because

it is the reason or reasoning behind the judges decision, so sets an

example to those adjudicating later cases of what verdict they must

come to. For example in Hedley Byrne and Co. Ltd V Heller and Partners

Ltd (1964) the ratio of the case was 'a person owes a duty of care

when making a statement to persons when it is reasonable to expect

that he or she will act in reliance on that statement'.

Obiter Dicta, (by the way) is a statement made by the judge which did

not directly affect, nor determine the outcome of the case. For

example in Donoghue V Stevenson (1932) where the 'neighbour principle'

as the basis of th...

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... It is also considered overruling when the House of

Lords utilises the 1966 Practice Statement to depart from its own

previous decisions.

Precedents can also be overruled by an Act of Parliament (Law Reform

(Year and a Day Rule) Act 1996)

This does not however affect the parties of previous cases which

followed the overruled precedent unless stated in the Act (War Damage

Act 1965), this is only a consequence when a court overrules a

judgement and hence, retrospectively the verdict of the case is

altered. In some situations, in the High Court for example where a

judge disapproves of a fellow judges earlier decision but is not bound

by the decision, he or she cannot overrule it, but is able to

disapprove of the precedent and formulate a contradictory decision,

which weakens the authority of the earlier precedent.