Political Science 2230E Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Precedent, Financial Independence, Implied Consent
18 Jan 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
A rule adjudication function, and it renders forma, impartial and authoritative judgement to resolve disputes when two parties are in a dispute and cannot be settled otherwise. Politics is supposed to be done by the peoples representative. Judges are unelected and unaccountable to the people. Judges are not supposed to be making the laws according to liberal democratic theory. Laws should be found in pieces of legislation and statutes: liberal democratic theory assumes that most laws will be found here. However in canada the common law is an exception to this: common law is judge made law, we do not have law that covers every single dispute, common law covers criminal law and contract law in canada. Precedent (stare decisis) the common law works on the basis of this. It means that when judges create a legal principle it become precedent: like cases are treated alike, this is binding.
