case law |
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| • | Case law (precedential law) is the body of judge-made law and legal decisions that interprets prior case law, statutes and other legal authority -- including doctrinal writings by legal scholars such as the Corpus Juris Secundum, Halsbury's Laws of England or the doctrinal writings found in the Recueil Dalloz and law commissions such as the American Law Institute. In the civil law tradition, case law formally plays a minor role compared to the status of the civil code; however, judicial interpretation of the civil code, interpreting the legal meaning of the code's provisions, clarifying them, and providing for unforeseen developments, is often referred to as a juriprudence constante. In France, the jurisprudence constante of the Cour de cassation (for civil and penal cases) or the Conseil d'État (for administrative cases) is in practice equivalent to case law, and is of considerable import in certain domains such as labor law or administrative law. In particular, the Conseil d'État and the Constitutional Council have distinguished "fundamental principles" that statutes and regulations must follow, even when those principles were not explicitly written in statutes. In the common law tradition case law regulates, via precedents, how laws are to be understood, based on how prior cases have been decided. Case law governs the impact court decisions have on future cases. Unlike most civil law systems, common law systems follow the doctrine of stare decisis in which a lower court usually make decisions which are consistent with previous decisions of higher courts. However, if a lower court judge acts against precedent and the case is not taken to appeal it will still stand. Generally speaking there is no direct oversight that appeal courts have over a court of record. This may occur more frequently than has been documented as an appeal is usually quite expensive to prepare. Some judges are also known to rule against precedent on principle. A judge (or even an interim appeal court) may rule against a precedent that is outdated; she may feel the decision needs to be overturned due to more sophisticated legal reasoning. Such a judge may wish to help the law evolve by ruling against precedent and forcing the case to appeal. Then, Source: [wikipedia: case law] |
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| LexisOne | ||
| free database of recent case law from all united states jurisdictions, with additional cases available by subscription or individual purchase. | ||
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