Title ACCA-LW Chapter 2 Study Guide (Preview Copy).pdf ✅

ACCA-LW (ENG): CORPORATE AND BUSINESS LAW CHAPTER 2: SOURCES OF LAW 22 2.1 Case Law and Precedent Learning Outcome (ACCA Study Guide Area A) A2a: Explain what is meant by case law and precedent. The term case law refers to law that comes from decisions made by judges in previous cases. Case law, also known as “common law,” and case precedent, provides a common contextual background for certain legal concepts, and how they are applied in certain types of cases. Part of common law, consisting of judgments given by higher (appellate) courts in interpreting the statutes (or the provisions of a constitution) are applicable in cases brought before them. Called precedents, they are binding on all courts (within the same jurisdiction) to be followed as the law in similar cases. Diagram 2.1: Sources of Law In England the Common Law (law of the courts) is found mainly in the decisions of judges from the High Court, the Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court. The law in a country is made by the Parliament and the court's main task is to interpret the law in accordance with the directions of the parliament. Parliament does not directly state its intentions but it is implied indirectly (through its sanctions). In performing their duties, the judges are bound to follow certain accepted principles, which are known as precedents. They do not act arbitrarily according to their whims and fancies. 2.1.1 Doctrine of Judicial Precedent Definition
ACCA-LW (ENG): CORPORATE AND BUSINESS LAW CHAPTER 2: SOURCES OF LAW 23 Diagram 2.1.2: Judicial precedent This means that judgements reached in earlier cases should be followed in later cases unless there are sound reasons why they should not be. In other words, judges can create binding precedents by the judgements they make because other courts are bound to follow these judgements. In simple words, a binding precedent means that judges follow what their predecessors had decided earlier in a similar situation (treating ‘like cases as alike’) The usage of precedent is regarded ‘as an indispensable foundation upon which to decide what is the law and its application to individual cases’. 2.1.2 Judicial Precedent