Handbook On The Law Of Judicial Precedents

Excerpt from Handbook on the Law of Judicial Precedents, or the Science of Case Law Nearly a quarter of a century ago, the late Mr. Justice Miller, of the Supreme Court of the United States, in a public address on the use and value of authorities in the argument and decision of cases, expressed his surprise that no book had yet been written, or none that he had seen, distinctively devoted to the subject on which he was speaking, adding, perhaps by way of explanation of the fact, that the sources of such a work are not ample and are difficult to come at. If a systematic and comprehensive treatise on the law of judicial precedents was a desideratum at that time, it is much more so to - day. For the reported decisions have enormously multiplied, and the lawyer's problem now is not merely to find the law, but to weigh and estimate the value of what he discovers. Now, more than ever, he needs a guide through the lawless science of the law, the count less myriad of precedents. Moreover the rules which gov ern the subject, - ii rules they can be called, which rest only in judicial discretion and have no stronger sanction than judicial habit, - are intricate and not free from confusion, and have long been in need of clear and discriminating ex position. Also it is true that the very theory of the prece dent has been vigorously assailed of late in high quarters, and there are evidences of an insistent demand for greater flexibility in the interpretation of the law and a closer cor respondence between the rulings of the courts and what is supposed to be the spirit of the age or the wants and wishes of the people. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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The Law of Judicial Precedent is the first hornbook-style treatise on the doctrine of precedent in more than a century. It is the product of 13 distinguished coauthors, 12 of whom are appellate judges whose professional work requires them to deal with precedents daily. Together with their editor and coauthor, Bryan A. Garner, the judges have thoroughly researched and explored the many intricacies of the doctrine as it guides the work of American lawyers and judges. The treatise is organized into nine major topics, comprising 93 blackletter sections that elucidate all the major doctrines relating to how past decisions guide future ones in our common-law system. The authors' goal was to make the book theoretically sound, historically illuminating, and relentlessly practical. The breadth and depth of research involved in producing the book will be immediately apparent to anyone who browses its pages and glances over the footnotes: it would have been all but impossible for any single author to canvass the literature so comprehensively and then distill the concepts so cohesively into a single authoritative volume. More than 2,500 illustrative cases discussed or cited in the text illuminate the points covered in each section and demonstrate the law's development over several centuries. The cases are explained in a clear, commonsense way, making the book accessible to anyone seeking to understand the role of precedents in American law. Never before have so many eminent coauthors produced a single lawbook without signed sections, but instead writing with a single voice. Whether you are a judge, a lawyer, a law student, or even a nonlawyer curious about how our legal system works, you're sure to find enlightening, helpful, and sometimes surprising insights into our system of justice.

This fourth edition of Precedent in English Law presents a basic guide to the current doctrine of precedent in England, set in the wider context of the jurisprudential problems which any treatment of this topic involves. Such problems include the nature of _ratio_ _decidendi_ of a precedent and of its binding force, the significance of precedents alongside other sources of law, their role in legal reasoning, and the account which must be taken of them by any general theory of law. Considerable re-writing has been undertaken to update case-law and take account of the possible implications for the doctrine of precedent of the impact of European Community law, making it an indispensable work of reference for readers interested in the past history, present state, and future developments of English rules of precedent.

The Research Handbook on Law and Courts provides a systematic analysis of new work on courts as governing institutions. Authors consider how courts have taken on regulating fundamental categories of inclusion and exclusion, including citizenship rights. Courts’ centrality to governance is addressed in sections on judicial processes, sub-national courts, and political accountability, all analyzed in multiple legal/political systems. Other chapters turn to analyzing the worldwide push for diversity in staffing courts. Finally, the digitization of records changes both court processes and studying courts. Authors included in the Handbook discuss theoretical, empirical and methodological approaches to studying courts as governing institutions. They also identify promising areas of future research.

Reprint of first edition (1896). "The following pages contain a condensed statement and exposition of the accepted canons and rules for the construction and interpretation of the written laws, whether constitutional or statutory. In accordance with the general plan of the Hornbook Series, these rules have been formulated somewhat after the manner of a code, expressed in brief black-letter paragraphs numbered consecutively throughout the book, and explained, developed, and illustrated in the text." --Preface, iii. HENRY CAMPBELL BLACK [1860-1927] was also the author of the standard American law dictionary, A Dictionary of Law Containing Definitions of the Terms and Phrases of American and English Jurisprudence, Ancient and Modern Including the Principal Terms of International, Constitutional, and Commercial Law, first published in 1891, and other works.