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## Contents

* 1 How it works
* 2 Precedent in the U.S. legal system
* 3 See also
* 4 Footnotes

In common law, a precedent is a legal rule established through prior court cases that affect the application of law in future cases with similar questions and facts. The term may also be used to refer to the body of case law that guides judges in interpreting the law. If a court finds that a dispute is fundamentally distinct from all previous cases, judges have to set a precedent that becomes part of the common law and a guide for future decisions.[1]

## How it works[edit]

The legal doctrine built on precedent dictates that justices should apply the decisions in previous legal cases with facts similar to those of a case at hand to resolve legal disputes. When courts have no precedent relevant to a case to guide their decision-making, they can draw from precedents in other areas of the law and create analogies between those areas and the case at hand. Decisions made without relevant precedent are called cases of first impression and become precedential.[1]

## Precedent in the U.S. legal system[edit]

See also: Stare decisis

The application of precedent is also known as stare decisis, and is considered a part of judicial restraint in the United States' legal system.[2]

Stare decisis may be applied both horizontally and vertically. It is said to be applied horizontally when a court follows its own precedent and vertically when a court follows the precedent of a higher court.[3] In the United States, the U.S. Supreme Court is the highest authority with regard to stare decisis. The U.S. Supreme Court and the state supreme courts are responsible both for setting new precedents and for resolving conflicting legal rules.[2]

Generally, courts only overrule precedent if they decide that a prior decision is unworkable in a particular case or if they believe a case was incorrectly decided. One example of a case where the U.S. Supreme Court overturned precedent was Brown v. Board of Education. In Brown, the Supreme Court decided to overturn its prior ruling in Plessy v. Ferguson, rejecting the separate-but-equal doctrine and shifting the body of precedent in U.S. law.[3][2]

## See also[edit]

* Index of terms
* Knowing your Latin
* Federalism
* Stare decisis
* Common law
* Philosophy of law
* Judicial activism
* Judicial restraint
* United States Supreme Court

## Footnotes[edit]

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Free Dictionary, "Precedent legal definition," accessed December 10, 2015
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 The Free Dictionary, "Stare decisis definition," accessed December 9, 2015
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Cornell Law School, "Stare decisis," accessed December 9, 2015

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