What is a precedent
- refers to judges following the decisions of previous cases when determining sentences
- a decisions taken by a case in a higher court automatically creates an original or binding precedent for lower courts- must be followed when dealing with similar cases
What are the 2 ways judges can make laws
- precedent
- statutory interpretation
What is an example of a precedent
Donoghue v Stevenson
- 2 friends visited a cafe and one drank a bottle of beer that had remains of a decomposing snail in
- the woman fell ill and sued the manufacturer
- she won her case
- this case founded the modern day law of negligence
What is statutory interpretation
- judges can make law by the way they interpret the statutes or acts of parliament
- a statute is a written law and judges need to interpret the meaning of the words to apply them to a case
What are the 3 rules in statutory interpretation
- golden rule
- literal rule
- mischief rule
What is the literal rule
judges should take the everyday, ordinary meaning of the words in the statute
What is the golden rule
the golden rule allows the court to modify the literal meaning to avoid an absurd result that the literal rule can cause
What is the mischief rule
this rule allows the court to enforce what the statute intended to achieve, rather than what the words actually say
