Judicial Precedent A03 11/14

Question 1

Adv Precedent (certainty)

Answer 1

• ✅ Precedent creates certainty because judges follow past decisions so people know how it will be applied to their case.
  
  • Easier for lawyers to advise clients
  • Businesses can make financial arrangements

Question 2

Adv Precedent (Practice)

Answer 2

• ✅ The Practice Statement points out the importance of certainty
  
  • Adhering to certainty complies with ROL
  • Just and fair that cases are decided similarly
  • Law is consistent and fair, making it more credible

Question 3

Adv Precedent (COA Power)

Answer 3

• ✅ Lord Denning thought the COA should have more power as its often the last appeal court for people due to lack of finances
• This is why it’s good that it’s not bound under YvBA exceptions
  
  • Therefore people would benefit from the COA having greater powers
  • Furthermore, appeals to the SC can take over a year, putting people off
  • Encourages more people to seek justice

Question 4

Adv Precedent (appeals)

Answer 4

• ✅ Stops unnecessary appeals to the SC as COA would be able to overrule previous decision
  
  • Saves money being spent on wasted appeals
  • Encourages people to seek justice
  • Law Lords generally agree with COA anyway

Question 5

Dis Precedent (inflexible)

Answer 5

• ❌ Lower courts having to follow higher courts makes the law inflexible
  
  • Bad decisions are likely to be repeated
  • Few cases go to SC, change in law only happens when a party has the courage, persistence and money to appeal there

Question 6

Dis Precedent (finding case law)

Answer 6

• ❌ 500,000 reported cases, not easy to find all relevant case law
  
  • Makes the law very complex
  • Contradicts ROL (unascertainable)
  • Judgements are often very long with no clear distinction between comments
  • Difficult to identify the ratio decidendi
  • Lack of accessibility makes the law unascertainable (contradicts ROL)
  • Distinguishing can lead to small differences and illogical decisions (“hair splitting”)
  • Some areas of the law will become very complex undermining the ROL (certainty)

Question 7

Dis precedent (power)

Answer 7

• ❌ Judges in COA are reluctant to use their extra power which can restrict the development of the law
  
  • Can be seen through very few cases have used the exceptions from R v Bristol Aeroplane
  • Therefore if COA given extra power, unlikely to use it
  • Still would be rigidity in the law, errors would remain as most cases don’t reach the SC