explain overruling and reversing and distinguishing

Question 1

what is overruling

Answer 1

where courts in later cases states that legal principle/precedent decided earlier is wrong; may occur when a higher court overrules a decision made in an earlier case by a lower court/ if has power one of its own decisions

Question 2

what are examples of overruling

Answer 2

UKSC overruling decision of CoA in different case on same legal point; CoJ of EU overrules past decision it’s made in a different case but on same legal point

Question 3

what is a case example of overruling

Answer 3

UKSC uses practice statement 1966 to overrule a past decision of its own e.g Pepper v Hart overruled earlier decision in Davis v Johnson regarding use of Hansard

Question 4

what is reversing

Answer 4

where higher courts up hierarchy overturns a decision of lower court on appeal in same case

Question 5

what is an example of reversing

Answer 5

UKSC may disagree with CoA when same case gets appealed up to UKSC so higher court ‘reverses’ decision of lower court

Question 6

what are case examples of reversing

Answer 6

Sweet v Parsley, R v Kingston + Fitzpatrick v Sterling Housing Association ltd; RE:Pinichet HoL reversed its own previous decision for the first time

Question 7

what is distinguishing

Answer 7

where judge finds the material cases of the two cases sufficiently different to avoid following the precedent

Question 8

what are case examples of distinguishing

Answer 8

Balfour v Balfour, distinguished in Merritt v Merritt; In Balfour husband + wife agreed to pay wife some money, when couple separated wife asked for money, court ruled that since they were married at the time of promise, it was not legally binding. However in case of Merritt, husband promised money when they were separated and the court considered this sufficient difference from Balfour