Importance Of Common Law

The common law is usually called the law established on the basis of judges’ decisions, therefore, judgments and decisions made by judges play an important role in crystalizing the source of law in common law countries. This nature of the common law derived from a doctrine that has developed officially since the 19th century, namely ‘the doctrine of precedent’ or ‘stare decisis’. This doctrine has been seen as ‘the cornerstone of a common law judicial system’ in general since it was approved as a compulsory principle of English law. The doctrine strictly requires courts in a common law country to adhere and apply directly the decisions and arguments in the judgments concluded by other courts in that state when it deal with cases. Nevertheless, the court does not have to follow previous positions and conclusions of all courts in the same judicial system, stare decisis only requires the court to adhere previous decisions of courts which stand at

However, this fact could not be concluded that judges in this period had considered themselves to be bound by the doctrine of precedent, many judges including Vaughan expressed their position common law courts obliged to follow statutes rather than precedent. Thus same as the 16th century, the doctrine of precedent did not exist as a dogma in English common law in that period although the doctrine became a wider range practice in common law courts. However, the establishment and evolution of the doctrine of equity since the late 17th century gave the doctrine of precedent a hand to develop when judges of equity court, namely the Court of Chancery, considered decisions of the court in previous cases are compulsory rules which they must abide to cope with cases submitted to the court