Key Definitions for Law

Legislation is a law or a couple of laws made by the government and finalised by the parliament. The parliament decides whether the legislation is good enough or needs improvement.

Judicial precedent as a whole is the way in which English law provides and maintains consistency and predictability. This assumption of consistency and predictability through judicial precedent allows the law to exude a sense of certainty, fairness and by extension some amount of flexibility; but the question is, how can something which is consistent and predictable to such a degree that it is considered certain exhibit flexibility? After all one would think that in order to be consistent and predictable there must be rigidity involved.

b. From this, the principle may influential to individual justices that can compare the current case to that of a previous ruling, and in result the justice may choose the same ruling that was given to the similar case.

In legal models, the judge makes a decision based on facts and laws without considering how the decision may impact public policies. They may also utilize previous cases that have similarities to the current case in order to make a decision. This is useful because they may interpret the Constitution from different points of views of other justices or judges which had to make a decision on a past similar case (Video Engager). The only downside to this model is the fact that judges make decisions without

In addition, Case Law Reasoning was used to determine the outcome. Case Law Reasoning is when courts take prior cases, also known as precedents, and apply these cases to guide in the decision making processes. This application of taking prior cases to assist in the conclusion of current cases is known as stare decisis. Because case facts often vary, several cases are usually brought up to expand and make it possible to have a factual determination. In addition, several cases are brought up because moral ideas and the acceptance of such will change over time. Having

27). By following this doctrine of precedent, stare decisis, judges are bound to follow the ratio decidendi, the reasons given, for the rulings in previous cases from higher up in their jurisdictional hierarchy. Rulings from other jurisdictions can also be used as persuasive force and argument, as can the obiter dicta, the judges’ comments other than those given as the reason for the ruling. In this way Judge made law resolves conflict and injustice by ruling consistently with rulings made in previous, characteristically similar cases. An inconsistent approach to similar situations cannot equate to being fair, just or equitable. In this way the ALS is not biased or prejudice, is applied equally to all, and ensures that the law is based on fairness and justice.

Stare decisis “to let the decision stand” operates in a pyramid-type fashion and is the doctrine that judicial decisions stand as precedent for cases arising in the future. It is a fundamental policy of our law that, except in unusual circumstances, a court’s determination on a point of law will be followed by courts of the same or lower rank in later cases presenting the same legal issue, even though different parties are involved and any years have elapsed.

Our court systems are founded on the belief that there should be fairness, consistency, and predictability in judicial decision making. The doctrine that expresses this concept is labeled stare decisis. In essence, stare decisis considers mandatory, or binding, an existing decision from any court that exercises appellate jurisdiction over another court, unless the lower court can show that the decision is clearly wrong or is distinguishable from the case at hand.

xiii) Influence of EU ensures that altering UK constitution is hard – cannot be incompatible

According to Author: Hon. John M. Walker, Jr., Senior Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. " The American case system is based on the principle of stare decisis and the idea that like cases should be decided alike" What I take from this passage is the equal rights of decision making from both parties. The judge decide matters depending no external authority designates precedents. Most cases will fall under the stare decisis in some sense.

Court decision rules and help make the outcome of case law. The important of case law is it can be interprets with statues, regulation, constitutional provisions and other case law. (Miller, 2017). Judges decisions which are made in previous cases can make a case law. Case laws decisions can come from civil lawsuit, state court, local court and federal court. For example, if I had file a civil lawsuit against someone about an incident and win the case. A few years later, somebody else has a similar incident, but loses their case. The court the court must use the previous court’s decision in applying the law.

Stare decisis and precedent are related because they both involve judges to use past decision in order to make decision on more current decisions. When judges use precedent they look back on old court decision on similar cases and then rule the same. When using stare decisis the judges will look back on prior ruling and adjust their rulings for more modern day use for a more equal fairness under the law.

Statute is an Act of Parliament that is created by Parliament, which is made up of three parts; the Monarch, The House of Lords and The House of Commons. Parliament is sovereign, which mean that Parliament has the power to create or dismiss any law it chooses and all the courts must implement them. It makes Parliament the supreme legal authority in the UK. The House of Commons is the democratically chosen legislative body of Parliament; 646 Members of Parliament are elected by the public in the general elections by vote. The House of Lords currently has 780 members who are known as Lords or Peers. The people, who are members of the House of Lords unlike the House of Commons, are not elected. There are three types of members in the House of Lords; Life Peers, Bishops and Hereditary Peers.

Time-saving. Where principles have been established, cases with familiar facts are unlikely to go through a lengthy process of litigation. The main disadvantages of the doctrine of judicial precedent are; -

The lower courts are bound by the House of Lords so they have to apply