A Judicial Precedent

A Judicial Precedent

The doctrine of binding precedent or stare decisis, refers to the fact

that, the decision of a higher court will be binding on a court lower

than its hierachy. Judicial precedent can be applied on cases and to

be treated similiarly when the material facts of the cases are

identical.

There are two main principles that are involved in judicial precedent,

there are ratio decidendi and the obiter dictum. Ratio decidendi is a

principle of law on which the court reaches its decision. The ratio

decidendi of a case may be understood as the statement of the law

applied in deciding the legal problem raised by the concrete facts of

the case. The ratio of a case is binding on lower courts but may not

be cited as persuasive authority in later cases.

The second principle is the obiter dictum. It is a statement made by

the judge that is not an essential part of the ratio decidendi. It is

most referred that something said by the way. Obiter dicta a

statements do not form part of the binding precedent, but...