ENVS201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Parliamentary Sovereignty, Obiter Dictum, Ratio Decidendi

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: Environmental Studies
• Course: ENVS201
• Professor: Alastair Neil Craik

Document Summary

**law will give justice to anyone when there is a breach in law (legal basis) : barking dog case: we can go for negligence" bc the dog is a nuisance. Pleadings (factual allegations, legal basis, and relief sought: statement of claim initiates case. Served to defendant: statement of defence. Served by defendant after statement of claim. Usually ask court to dismiss the case. Discovery: disclosure of evidence in support of claim from both sides. Appeal: mistakes of law or mixed questions of law and fact. Incremental development of the law: by judges, through deciding particular cases, with, each decision being shown to be consistent with earlier decisions by a higher or co-equal court. Equal parts moral intuition, hierarchical discipline and principled consistence. Ratio decidendi - material facts and legal conclusions necessary to resolve issue before court; the legal basis of the outcome; binding on lower or co-equal courts in subsequent cases.