Legal research of domestic lawyers began to analyze more the concept of legal precedent and its significance in the legal system. The growing interest in this issue is explained by the desire of Russian lawyers to identify and outline the ways and means of raising the judiciary.
Instructions
Step 1
As a source of law, precedent has existed since ancient times. Initially, the precedents were oral statements or decisions of magistrates. They were obligatory in the adjudication of similar cases only for the magistrates themselves who adopted them, during the entire term of their office.
Step 2
The legal precedent has been widely applied at all times. Today it is the most important source of law in the legal systems of the UK, Australia, USA, Canada and many other countries. In Russia before the revolution, the significance of the legal precedent was ambiguous. Some legal figures recognized the precedent as a form of law, albeit as an addition to the basic law, while others denied the significance of the precedent as an independent source of law.
Step 3
In a number of countries, legal precedent occupies the most important place among legal forms. Having arisen back in the days of the slave system, a precedent is an action or a solution to a problem, which in the future, in similar conditions, is considered as a kind of model. Thus, case law is a judicial or administrative verdict on a specific legal process that is subject to generally binding legal significance.
Step 4
The legal precedent is always as similar as possible to the actual situation, since it is developed on the basis of specific cases and incidents. There are many instances that can create a precedent. As a legal source, the precedent is characterized by flexibility and contradiction, which are caused by the fact that the regulations issued by the same authority are sometimes contradictory. Therefore, it is not surprising that the verdicts of different judicial boards in similar cases have significant differences. This determines the flexibility of the legal precedent as a legal source.
Step 5
Often, when applying the law, the court does not find a legal norm for making a decision on a particular case. Based on this, the court cannot refuse to consider this dispute, therefore, relying on the general principles of a particular legal system, the court can establish a new rule. Or, having correctly interpreted a similar existing norm and linking it with the case under consideration, put it in the basis of your decision - this is how new norms are born that are applied in practice by other courts, acquiring significant force and the status of a legal precedent.
