Judicial Precedent

• The English & Welsh legal system is a common law system, which means that much of our law has been developed over time by courts. Our law is developed by judges, using a system of judicial precedent.
• Past decisions of judges create

  law for future judges. Judges should therefore follow the decisions made in previous, similar cases which ensures consistency and fairness and certainty. This allows for a single set of laws

  common to all the UK – ‘common law’.
• Judicial precedent definition: refers to the source of law where past decisions of the judges create law for future judges to follow: its also known as case law.

  Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal can actually make case law; by defining what Parliament hasn't when they created the statute.
• Judicial Precedent - where a previous decision set by a court must be followed by all lower courts and can only be reversed by higher courts.

  Laws can be created by :

  • House of Lords
  • Supreme Court
  • Court of Appeals

  Laws must be followed by :

  • Magistrates and Crown Court
  • County Court
  • Tribunals
• The plantiff sued the defendant after a friend of the plaintiff bought her a drink from the defendant. The drink contained decomposed snails and the plantiff became ill ofter drinking it. The House of Lords stated that the manufacturer is responsible (had a duty of care) towards the customers although the customers didn't have any contact with the manufacturers.
• The plantiff case created the neighbour principle which outlines whom we owe a duty of care. "You must take reasonable care to avoid acts or omissions which you can reasonably foresee would be likely to harm anyone so closely and directly affected by the act or omission."