The Doctrine of Judicial Precedent
1
Table of Contents
Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 2
The Hierarchy of Courts in Mauritius .................................................................................... 3
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) ........................................................ 3
The Supreme Court ........................................................................................................... 4
The District Court ............................................................................................................. 5
The Intermediate Court...................................................................................................... 5
Ratio Decidendi & Obiter Dictum ......................................................................................... 6
Types of Precedent ................................................................................................................ 7
(1) Decisions of courts lower in the hierarchy........................................................................ 9
(2) Decisions of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council ................................................ 9
(3) Dissenting judgments ....................................................................................................... 9
Avoiding Precedent ............................................................................................................... 9
Reversing .......................................................................................................................... 9
Distinguishing ................................................................................................................. 10
Overruling ....................................................................................................................... 11
Advantages & Disadvantages of
Table of Contents
Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 2
The Hierarchy of Courts in Mauritius .................................................................................... 3
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) ........................................................ 3
The Supreme Court ........................................................................................................... 4
The District Court ............................................................................................................. 5
The Intermediate Court...................................................................................................... 5
Ratio Decidendi & Obiter Dictum ......................................................................................... 6
Types of Precedent ................................................................................................................ 7
(1) Decisions of courts lower in the hierarchy........................................................................ 9
(2) Decisions of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council ................................................ 9
(3) Dissenting judgments ....................................................................................................... 9
Avoiding Precedent ............................................................................................................... 9
Reversing .......................................................................................................................... 9
Distinguishing ................................................................................................................. 10
Overruling ....................................................................................................................... 11
Advantages & Disadvantages of
References: MacCormick, N. (1987) 'Why Cases haves Rationes and what these are ', in L. Goldstein (ed) Precedent in Law, Oxford: Clarendon Press Steiner, J (1990) Textbook on EEC law, 2nd ed., London: Blackstone Press. Websites Goodhart, A. (1931) Essays in Jurisprudence and the Common Law Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Schmidhauser, John R. 1962. Stare Decisis, Dissent, and the Background of the Justices of the Supreme Court Law Review 14:194-212 Landes, William M., and Richard A. Posner. 1976. Legal Precedent: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis Gennaioli, Nicola, and Andrei Shleifer. 2007. The Evolution of Common Law. Journal of Political Economy 115:43-68 Fowler, James H., and Sangick Jeon. 2008. The Authority of Supreme Court Precedent. Social Networks 30:16-30 Epstein, Lee, and Tonja Jacobi. 2010. The Strategic Analysis of Judicial Deci- sions. Annual Review of Law and Social Science 6:341-58 Harris, B.V. (2002), 'Final Appellate Courts Overruling their Own "Wrong"Precedents: the Ongoing Search for a Principle ',118 Law Quarterly Review 408.