In England and Wales the legal

Running head: CIVIL LAW
CIVIL LAW
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Introduction
The doctrine of the judicial precedent can be described as the principle which binds
the subordinate courts to be following the previous judgments of the superior courts. The
main purpose for applying the principle of judicial precedent is to provide consistence and
predictability in the legal system. The principle of judicial precedent can be understood as
providing a guideline for the judges to make decisions in the similar disputes so that it
ensures predictable outcomes for cases having similar facts. In the United Kingdom the
judges are bound by the doctrine of judicial precedent by way of stare decisis under the
common law provisions. There is a debate among the scholars about the applicability of the
principle of precedence in the process of law making by the judiciary in England and Wales1.
The courts in UK except the higher courts can be seen as being subjected to the precedents
that have been set by the superior courts. This paper will discuss in detail about the doctrine
of judicial precedent in the law making process in England and Wales. In this context the
paper will provide the readers with a brief introduction to the legal structure of England and
Wales. The paper will then proceed to discuss about the policy of judicial precedent and its
role in the process of making law by the judiciary. In the paper a detailed discussion would
also be done about the role of statutory interpretation in the process of stare decisis.
Legal System in England and Wales
In England and Wales the legal structure is operated under the common law using
both the combination of the legislations and the precedents of case laws. There is no single
legal system in the United Kingdom as the system had been created with the help of the
political unions of the countries that had been considered to be independent in the past. In the
United Kingdom the main sources of law include the legislations and the common law
1 Bankowski, Z., MacCormick, D.N. and Marshall, G., 2016. Precedent in the United Kingdom. In Interpreting
Precedents (pp. 315-354). Routledge.

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doctrine of judicial precedent. Legislations are all the laws that have been created by way of
the legislature. In the UK the most important legislations are the Acts of the Parliament.
Another source of law in the United Kingdom is the common law which requires the
judiciaries to be following the principle of stare decisis for the similar past decisions of the
higher courts. In the legal system of the United Kingdom the Supreme Court is considered to
be the highest court for all the civil and criminal cases in England and Wales. The Supreme
Court can be seen as having the authority to be interpreting the laws in the United Kingdom.
However, there is a limit to the power awarded to the Supreme Court for the interpretation of
the laws. In England and Wales the court system can be observed as being headed by the
Senior Courts of England and Wales. The Superior Courts in the England and Wales can be
observed as consisting of the Court of Appeal, the High Court of Justice and the Crown
Court. The English legal structure can be seen as being administered by the courts present in
the England and Wales. The main basis of the common law is the principles set by the
English Law. The English Legal System has a separate legal system which can be considered
as distinct from the legal system based on the legal system.
Doctrine of Judicial Precedent
In the legal system of England and Wales no major codification has been done
towards the law. The legal system in the England and Wales has been developed by way of
the judiciaries in the courts through the application of the statutes, precedents and reasoning
that have been developed on a case by case basis for providing explanatory judgments of the
principles in the law that can be considered as explanatory2. The judgments of the cases are
binding towards the analogous cases in the future by way of the norm of stare decisis. The
principle of judicial precedent can be defined as the standard for binding the subordinate
courts for following the preceding rulings of the higher courts. The chief purpose for the
2 MacCormick, D.N., Summers, R.S. and Goodhart, A.L., 2016. Interpreting precedents: a
comparative study. Routledge.

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application of the the principle of judicial primacy is to provide consistence and predictability
in the legal system. The doctrine of judicial precedent can be observed to be providing a
standard for the judiciaries for making resolutions in the similar disputes so that it ensures
predictable outcomes for cases having similar facts. In England and Wales one of the major
foundations of law is the common law which requires the judiciaries to be following the norm
of stare decisis for the similar past decisions of the higher courts.3 The principle of judicial
precedent can be observed as applying the stare decisis principles to the cases that have
similar factual backgrounds. In other words, the lower courts can be observed as being bound
towards the application of the permissible principles that have been set down by way of the
superior courts in similar precedent cases.
Judicial precedence can be considered as a major source of law. By way of the
judicial precedent the judiciaries are able to create law for referring the same in similar cases
in the future. The principle of precedence is primarily based on the standard of stare decisis
whose literary translation is ‘standing by the decided matters’.4 The judges in the lower courts
are required to be following the binding the precedent where they are required to be
following the previous decisions of the superior courts. The doctrine can be observed as
following two separate principles. The first principle is that any court would be bound by the
decisions either by the higher courts or by the courts in the equal level. The second principle
that is followed in the doctrine of judicial precedent is that cases having similar factual
backgrounds are required to be treated in a similar manner. This principle states that once the
decision in a case is made the subsequent cases having similar facts can use those decisions
as accurate statements of law.
3 Bankowski, Z., MacCormick, D.N. and Marshall, G., 2016. Precedent in the United Kingdom. In Interpreting
Precedents (pp. 315-354). Routledge.
4 Callander, S. and Clark, T.S., 2017. Precedent and doctrine in a complicated world. American Political Science
Review, 111(1), pp.184-203.