Case Law

Question 1

What are the different components of a Reported Case?
note: there are 13 components

Answer 1

1. Court (what court was it the case heard in? The more senior the court, the more legally binding).
2. Case Name
3. neutral citation number
4. Case Citation - law report
5. Date of the hearing and judgment
6. Judges
7. Subject Matter
8. Headnote
   9.List of cases
9. Details of the action
10. council
11. Judgment
12. Solicitors and Reporter

Question 2

What is a Judicial Precedent?

Answer 2

The process by which judges follow the decisions of previously decided cases.

Question 3

What is the doctrine of Precedent?

Answer 3

like cases should be treated alike

once a decisions has been reached in a particular case, it stands as good law and should be relied upon in other cases as an accurate statement of law.

Question 4

binding precedent

Answer 4

a decided case that must be applied in a later case - even if it is considered to be wrongly decided.

Question 5

persuasive precedent

Answer 5

a precedent which may be followed by a court.
i.e. There is no legal compulsion to follow the precedent.

Question 6

practise statement

Answer 6

The Practice Statement [1966] 3 All ER 77 was a statement made in the House of Lords by Lord Gardiner LC on 26 July 1966 on behalf of himself and the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, that they would depart from precedent in the Lords in order to achieve justice.

Question 7

Distinguishing precedents

Answer 7

the court can decide that the case before is materially different on the facts or the social situation has changed enough to effect the case at hand.

Hence, the ratio decidendi is only valid when the material facts are the same or even the social context has remained unchanged

Question 8

Overruling a case

Answer 8

occurs hen a court higher in the hierarchy overturns the decision of a lower court in a different case.
this mean that the higher court is not bound to follow the earlier decision