Definition
Judicial Precedent (Ro.: precedent judiciar, Fr.: règle du precedent, De.: Präzedenzfall, Gr.: Precedent Gjyqësor) (See also: (vertical and horizontal) stare decisis, ratio decidendi, obiter dictum, holding, statutory interpretation)) = legal principle establishing that a court’s previous decision will be binding or persuasive, when deciding subsequent cases with similar facts. The principle has applicability mainly in common law jurisdiction, as in civil law systems it would violate the rule that only the legislature is able to make law. The corresponding principle in civil law is jurisprudence constante, which dictates that a lengthy series of previous decisions in relation to a particular law is very important and may be determinative in subsequent cases.
Overruling a ~ = a court higher in the hierarchy departs from a decision made in a lower court.
Distinguishing a ~ = a court deems the fact of the case under consideration as sufficiently different from that of a legal precedent, which is thus not binding.
Useful links
Case law
http://www.justis.com/titles/iclr_s4420113.html - Court of Appeal (UK), Young v Bristol Aeroplane Company Limited, 1944
Online publications
http://faculty.law.lsu.edu/toddbruno/mandatory_v__persuasive.htm - Bintliff, Barbara, 2001, Mandatory v Persuasive Case Authority, USA, 9 Perspectives: Teaching Legal Research and Writing
http://www.innertemple.org.uk/downloads/education/lectures/lecture_james_lee.pdf - Lee, James, 2011, The Doctrine of Precedent and the Supreme Court, UK, Inner Temple Academic Fellow’s Lecture
http://www.hcourt.gov.au/assets/publications/speeches/former-justices/kirbyj/kirbyj_17jul06.pdf - Justice Kirby, Michael, 2006, Precedent – Report on Australia, The Netherlands, International Academy of Comparative Law Conference, Utrecht
http://e-lawresources.co.uk/Judicial-precedent.php - About Judicial Precedent
http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2010/01/19154813/11 - Appendix III: Autonomy of Scottish law within the appellate jurisdiction of the House of Lords/Supreme Court
Publications
Landes, William and Posner, Richard, 1976, Legal Precedent: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis, 19 Journal of Law and Economics
Duxbury, Neil, 2008, The Nature and Authority of Precedent, Cambridge UP
Martin, Jacqueline, 2005, The English Legal System (4th ed), Routledge
Practice Statement HL Judicial Precedent [1966] 1 WLR 1234