PAPER 2: Section A - Judicial Precedent Flashcards
1) What is case law?
The decisions made by judges in cases before them.
2) What is judicial precedent?
The idea that once a decision from the higher courts has been made on how the law applies to a certain set of facts, similar cases should be treated the same way.
3) What does ‘state decisis’ mean?
A Latin term meaning ‘Let the decision stand’.
4) What are 3 essential features to precedents?
1) Hierarchy
2) Ratio decidendi / Obiter dicta
3) Law reports
5) What is so special about the Supreme Court in terms of precedent?
Apart from European law, all appeal courts are bound by the Supreme Court. This means that these lower courts must follow the Supreme Court’s case decisions and legal principles.
6) What are the decisions of the European Court of Justice?
Decisions of the European Court of Justice are binding on all courts. It isn’t bound by its own decisions
7) What happens in the civil Court of Appeal division regarding precedent and give the supporting CASE explaining the three exceptions (hint: opposite of old v ✈️)
The civil division of CoA is bound by the House of Lords.
Young v Bristol Areroplane Co Ltd - Three execrations are:
1) Where the previous decisions made in ignorance of a relevant law.
2) Where there’s two previous conflicting Court of Appeal decisions.
3) Where there’s a later conflicting Supreme Court Decision.
8) What happens in the criminal Court of Appeal division regarding precedent? Compare with civil
Thé approach is more flexible as in civil court you lose money whereas in criminal law you only lose ‘years of your life’ in prison.
9) Whats the High Courts role in judicial precedent
Bound by the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court.
The civil divisional courts (Chancery & family court) are bound by their previous decisions, but the Queen’s bench is more flexible.
10) What are thé Crown’s, Magistrats and County courts role judicial precdent
Crown - Bound by all courts above it. Their decisions don’t form precedent.
Mag&County - Known as inferior courts Bound by all the higher courts. These binding courts cannot create precedent and their decisions are not binding.
What is ratio décidendi
…
What is obtient dicta
The remainder of the judgement is called obiter. They give hypothetical situations and the legal reasoning put forward may be considered in future cases.
R v Hower - duress
What are law reports?
Law reports are the third mechanism in precedent. They’re journals which contain all case law in the UK.
They contain the facts of the case, judgements from the judges and the outcome of the case. This allows for accurate record of the decisions made.
What is a binding precedent? State the relevant CASE (hint _ v _)
Precedent from an earlier case which must be followed even if the judge in the later case doesn’t agree with the legal principle. A binding precedent is only formed if the previous case is sufficiently similar to the original case.
R v R - In 1991, the Supreme Court decided marital rape is illegal, and the défendent was found guilty. This decision is still in place today.
What is an original precedent?
Relevant CASE (R v G_ _ _ _ _ _ _ ,, featus deletus)
A type of precedent where there’s no previous case law.
Judges had to deal with all legal issues independently.
R v Gillick - Judges held that an underage girl can ask a doctor for contraceptive without parental consent. Judges didn’t have previous case law to decide this.
