avoiding & altering

• What are the 5 ways judicial precedent can be altered or avoided?

  - Following

  - Overruling

  - Distingushing

  - Reversing

  - Disapproval
• what is following?

  when the precedent of an earlier case is repeated due to the facts of another case being sufficiently similar to the previous case (ratio or obiter)
• what is overruling?

  Where a Court in a later case states that the legal rule in an earlier case is wrong (they change the precedent)
• where can overruling only occur?

  - in the same court

  - in a higher court
• can someone's sentence or outcome of a case automatically change if precedent is overruled?

  it can't automatically change but they can appeal for it to be changed
• give the 2 double case examples for overruling

  - Anderton v Ryan (1985) & R v Shivpuri (1986)

  
  

  - Davis v Johnson (1979) & Pepper v Hart (1993)
• explain Anderton v Ryan (1985)

  A woman bought a video recorder for really cheap & didn't question if it was stolen. Her house was later robbed and it was stolen. She told police it was cheap so they questioned her regarding if it was stolen, she said she didn't know that if it was.
• what was the outcome of Anderton v Ryan (1985)?

  The woman was charged with handling stolen goods due to her belief not being enough to amount to an attempt
• explain R v Shivpuri (1986)

  a guy attempted to smuggle drugs into the Uk from India but said he thought it was vegetable powder
• what was the outcome of R v Shivpuri (1986)?

  he was not charged as the belief was enough
• how does the R v Shivpuri & Anderton v Ryan cases link to eachother?

  the ratio in Anderton v Ryan was overruled in the R v Shivpuri case as they believed the drug guy and not the video player woman
• how does the Davis v Johnson & Pepper v Hart cases link?

  Davis v Johnston (1979) was not allowed to use Hansard whereas this precedent was overruled in the Pepper v Hart (1993) case where they were allowed to use the Hansard
• What is Hansard?

  The official report of what was said in Parliament when the Act was debated
• what is distingushing?

  where a judge avoids following a past decision by finding that the material facts are sufficiently different
• what is the double case example for distingushing?

  Merritt v Merritt (1971) & Balfour v Balfour (1919)
• explain how these two cases link

  Merritt v Merritt - husband split from wife & didn't pay her money despite it being in writing & signed agreement

  
  

  this case is distinguished from:

  
  

  Balfour v Balfour - husband & wife made previous agreement to that husband would pay however it wasn't in writing, and when they split husband didn't pay.
• why were these two cases distinguished from each other?

  Merritt v Merritt had an intention to create legal relations whereas Balfour v Balfour had no intention to create legal relations
• what is reversing?

  where a decision by a court is overturned by a higher court on appeal (in the same case)
• what courts can reverse precedent?

  Only appellate courts (appeal courts)
• what is the case example for reversing?

  R v Dietschmann (2003)
• explain the R v Dietschmann case

  The court of appeal found him guilty of murder however he then appealed and then the house of lords (now supreme court) reversed the decision to manslaughter
• what is disapproval?

  a method highlighting judicial dislike of precedent
• what is the double case example for disapproval?

  R v Wilson (2007) & R v Howe (1987)
• how do these two cases link

  in R v Wilson the court of appeal disapproved of R v Howe