SSCI 1010U Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Statutory Law, Ratio Decidendi, Judiciary Of Australia
11 Feb 2017
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Common law: previously decided cases provide basis for legal rules (called case law, based on precedent. Appellate courts (review devisions of lower courts) Decisions by courts at same level are persuasive . Modern common law system is mixed : case law (both common law and equitable rules, statutory law. Civil law: features: more abstract than common law, more deductive reasoning (from general to particular, leading role of statue; codi cation of law, doctrine of stare decisis non-existent; rare use of precedent. Civil code of quebec: coherent, explicit, sets out general principle, all-inclusive: code is meant to cover every eventuality, prior case law and court hierarchy is less important, doctrine (commentary from learned legal scholars) is more important. In a civil code system: deductive reasoning: general to speci c. Common law goes from the speci c to the general (inductive reasoning: law is developed from abstract principles.
