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Precedent
In legal systems based on common law, a precedent, or authority, is a principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts . Common law legal systems place great value on deciding cases according to consistent principled rules so that similar facts will yield similar and predictable outcomes, and observance of precedent is the mechanism by which that goal is attained. The principle by which judges are bound to precedents is known as stare decisis. Black’s Law Dictionary defines “precedent” as a “rule of law established for the first time by a court for a particular type of case and thereafter referred to in deciding similar cases”. Common law precedent is a third kind of law, on equal footing with statutory law (statutes and codes enacted by legislative bodies), and delegated legislation (in U.K. parlance) or regulatory law (in U.S. parlance) (regulations promulgated by executive branch agencies).
Case law, in common law jurisdictions, is the set of decisions of adjudicatory tribunals or other rulings that can be cited as precedent. In most countries, including most European countries, the term is applied to any set of rulings on law which is guided by previous rulings, for example, previous decisions of a government agency.
Essential to the development of case law is the publication and indexing of decisions for use by lawyers, courts and the general public, in the form of law reports. While all decisions are precedent (though at varying levels of authority as discussed throughout this article), some become “leading cases” or “landmark decisions” that are cited especially often.
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Precedent (noun)
An act in the past which may be used as an example to help decide the outcome of similar instances in the future.
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Precedent (noun)
A decided case which is cited or used as an example to justify a judgment in a subsequent case.
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Precedent (noun)
An established habit or custom.
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Precedent (noun)
The aforementioned (thing).
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Precedent (noun)
The previous version.
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Precedent (noun)
A rough draught of a writing which precedes a finished copy.
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Precedent (adjective)
Happening or taking place earlier in time; previous or preceding. from 14th c.
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Precedent (adjective)
Coming before in a particular order or arrangement; preceding, foregoing. from 15th c.
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Precedent (verb)
To provide precedents for.
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Precedent (verb)
To be a precedent for.
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Antecedent (adjective)
Earlier, either in time or in order.
“an event antecedent to the Biblical Flood”
“an antecedent cause”
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Antecedent (adjective)
Presumptive.
“an antecedent improbability”
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Antecedent (noun)
Any thing that precedes another thing, especially the cause of the second thing.
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Antecedent (noun)
An ancestor.
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Antecedent (noun)
A word, phrase or clause referred to by a pronoun.
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Antecedent (noun)
The conditional part of a hypothetical proposition, i.e. p rightarrow q, where p is the antecedent, and q is the consequent.
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Antecedent (noun)
The first of two subsets of a sequent, consisting of all the sequent’s formulae which are valuated as true.
“rfex|en”
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Antecedent (noun)
The first term of a ratio, i.e. the term a in the ratio a:b, the other being the consequent.
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Antecedent (noun)
Previous principles, conduct, history, etc.
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Antecedent (noun)
a thing that existed before or logically precedes another
“some antecedents to the African novel might exist in Africa’s oral traditions”
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Antecedent (noun)
a person’s ancestors or family and social background
“her early life and antecedents have been traced”
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Antecedent (noun)
an earlier word, phrase, or clause to which another word (especially a following relative pronoun) refers back.
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Antecedent (noun)
the statement contained in the ‘if’ clause of a conditional proposition.
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Antecedent (adjective)
preceding in time or order; previous or pre-existing
“antecedent events”
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Antecedent (adjective)
denoting or counting as an antecedent.