CS Executive Complete

Welcome to CS Executive Complete. We will study Sources of Law and the Schools of Jurisprudence, work through an example, and practise using the course's learning material. Complete CS Executive preparation pathway. Sign in and use the study header to open your authorised course. Select this published lesson. Start Course Tutor with Auto audio on: it teaches continuously, answers a typed question, then resumes. Precedent. A precedent is a judicial decision that contains a principle a later court must, or may, follow. The binding part of a judgment is the ratio decidendi, the principle of law necessary for the decision on the material facts. Example 2 — ratio and obiter. A High Court decides that a company's board could not approve a transaction because the articles required shareholder approval. In passing, the judge remarks that the result might differ if the transaction were below a certain value. In a later case on a low-value transaction, a party relies on the remark. Reasoning: the remark was not necessary to the decision on the facts, so it is obiter. The later court may consider it persuasive but is not bound. Answer: the ratio is "where the articles require shareholder approval, board approval alone is insufficient"; the value remark is obiter. Which mistake would change the reasoning in this example? Treating obiter as binding. Only the ratio binds; obiter, even from the Supreme Court, is highly persuasive rather than binding in the strict sense. Identify the material facts before naming the ratio. Calling all rules "legislation" without distinguishing supreme and subordinate. Ask Course Tutor: please explain this step from the example. In a later case on a low-value transaction, a party relies on the remark. Why does it follow? Add what you tried, so the explanation addresses your difficulty. Now try the source practice. What is the difference between ratio decidendi and obiter dictum? Pause before the answer. The source answer is: The ratio is the principle of law necessary to decide the case on its material facts and it binds lower courts; obiter is a remark made in passing that is not necessary to the decision and is only persuasive. Explain the key idea in your own words, revisit any mistaken step, then continue to the next lesson. Use Stop to end Course Tutor when you finish.