TRN305Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Obiter Dictum, Precedent, Ratio Decidendi
Document Summary
Stare decisis lower courts required to apply decisions/law as its been formulated by higher courts. Spend a lot of time looking at court cases to determine what the law is. Legal problem look to past to find answers. Learn the law by reading case, learn tests/rules. Ex. client wants to know if some harm they experienced is an actionable offence, if individual that caused harm is liable for damage. Need to determine if individual has acted in negligible way whether they owed duty of care to person they harmed. Give us idea about what the future is. Ex. client is business that wants to buy building what are the legal requirements for this. Look to case law if there may be dispute in future. Strong indication of what court will likely do in future. Appellate level cases question of law . Not first instance case questions of fact . Ex. most criminal cases, those we see in media.
