Judicial Precedent

What Judicial Precedent covers

Judicial Precedent is examined in AS Unit 1, The Nature of Law and the Welsh and English Legal Systems. It covers the doctrine of precedent and stare decisis, ratio decidendi and obiter dicta, binding and persuasive precedent, the hierarchy of the courts in England and Wales, the Supreme Court and the Practice Statement, overruling, reversing and distinguishing and advantages and disadvantages of precedent.

The 7 subtopics

Each one has its own page. WJEC AS Law students sit this topic in the first year.

• The doctrine of precedent and stare decisisJudicial precedent, res judicata and declaratory theory of precedent.Open →
• Ratio decidendi and obiter dictaRatio decidendi, obiter dicta and material fact.Open →
• Binding and persuasive precedentBinding precedent, persuasive precedent and original precedent.Open →
• The hierarchy of the courts in England and WalesRecall questions on the creation of the Supreme Court, the three exceptions in Young v Bristol Aeroplane, the Criminal Division's extra freedom, why magistrates' decisions bind nobody, and Welsh cases.Open →
• The Supreme Court and the Practice StatementTwo reasons the Practice Statement gave for the change and leapfrog appeal.Open →
• Overruling, reversing and distinguishingDisapproving a decision and supreme Court overruling a settled line of authority.Open →
• Advantages and disadvantages of precedentCertainty as an advantage of precedent, consistency as an advantage of precedent and flexibility as an advantage of precedent.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Judicial Precedent further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Ratio decidendi vs Obiter dictum

  Ratio decidendi: the rule necessary to the decision and binding. Obiter dictum: a remark not necessary to it and only persuasive.

• Overruling vs Reversing

  Overruling: rejecting a rule laid down in an earlier separate case. Reversing: changing the outcome of the same case on appeal.

• Stare decisis vs Res judicata

  Stare decisis: the duty to follow earlier rulings on law. Res judicata: preventing the same parties relitigating a matter already decided between them.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is meant by judicial precedent?

   Model answer

   Judicial precedent is the practice by which a ruling on a point of law made in one case is followed in later cases whose material facts are the same.

2. 2

   Translate the phrase stare decisis and explain what it requires.

   Model answer

   It means to stand by decided matters, and it requires a court to follow the legal rulings of the courts above it and, in many situations, its own earlier decisions.

3. 3

   What is res judicata?

   Model answer

   Res judicata is the rule that a matter finally decided between two parties cannot be litigated again by them, which settles their dispute but creates no rule binding on anyone else.

4. 4

   Why is precedent described as a source of law?

   Model answer

   Judges deciding real disputes lay down rules that later courts must apply, so the reported decisions of the higher courts create legal rules that stand alongside legislation.

5. 5

   Explain the declaratory theory of precedent.

   Model answer

   Blackstone's declaratory theory holds that judges do not make law but declare what the law has always been, so a decision uncovers a pre-existing rule rather than creating a new one.

6. 6

   Give two criticisms of the declaratory theory.

   Model answer

   It cannot explain how a court can overrule a rule that was previously binding, and it conceals the fact that a new decision alters people's rights in respect of conduct already past.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Judicial Precedent revision questions

Is Judicial Precedent examined at AS in WJEC Law?

Yes. It sits in AS Unit 1, which you take in the first year, so it is on the AS paper as well as counting towards the full A level.

What does Judicial Precedent cover in WJEC AS-Level Law?

7 subtopics: the doctrine of precedent and stare decisis, ratio decidendi and obiter dicta, binding and persuasive precedent, the hierarchy of the courts in england and wales, the supreme court and the practice statement, overruling, reversing and distinguishing and advantages and disadvantages of precedent. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Judicial Precedent organised?

By the WJEC 603-1978-1 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.