Doctrine of Precedents
Doctrine of Precedents
Doctrine of precedent is the rule that a legal principle that has been established by a superior
should be followed in other similar cases by that a court and other courts.
Doctrine of precedent is the custom of the courts to stand by previous decisions, so that once
a point of law is decided upon a court, then the same law must be applied to future cases with
materially similar facts.
The doctrine of precedent is often referred to as stare decisis.
The doctrine of precedent is bases on the principle of stare decisis, which requires lower
courts to take account of and follow the decisions made by the higher courts where the
material facts are the same and states that as a general rule, courts follow earlier decisions of
themselves or of other courts of the same level.
When a judge makes a decision in a case, they create a precedent which low courts are bound
to flow in future cases with similar facts.
Precedent is a decision of court which is considered as furnishing a law or authority for the
determination of a case. Precedents follow the hierarchy of courts within a given jurisdiction
of Uganda which aims at consistency and future judges to follow same decisions.
The underlined principle in a case is known as ration decidendi which is the material
principle on which the case has been decided or the reasoning behind the court’s judgement.
Decision of judges has 3 aspects.
He decides what to happen to plaintiff and defendant.
Judge will give his reasoning for his findings of fact.
He will give reason for any legal rulings.
Ug V Onegi Obee
Court’s holding
Constitutional courts considered the same issues that Mr. Onegi was seeking to interprete A.G
argued when constitutional courts interprete the constitution then the courts pronouncement
of the law and as such cannot be subject to consequent interpretation even by different
parties.
In Ug, it is only the decision of courts to record which form the basis of precedent and are
binding on courts of co-ordinate and all courts subordinate thereto.
Art 129 (2) of the Constitution of Uganda;
States that the Supreme Court of Appeal and High Court of Uganda are courts of record and
their decision can be cited as a precedent.
Res Judicata means re-litigating the same case after the judgement has been granted. Reason
of Res Judicata is to bring an end of litigation.
So a court has a judgment, parties are bound and losing party, has only a right either to
appeal, review but cannot file a fresh suit basing on the same facts.
Phrases on Res Judicata
Types of precedents.
1) Binding/Authoritative Precedents.
According to Salmond, an authoritative precedent is one which judges must follow
whether they approve it or not. Authoritative precedents are the legal sources of law.
They establish law in pursuance of definite rule of law which confers upon them that
effect.
Conditional
In case of authoritative precedents having a conditional authority, the court can
disregard them under certain circumstances, ordinarily they are binding but under
special circumstances, they can be disregarded.
3) Reversing
This is also a way of avoiding precedents and if the overturning the/by a higher court
of the decision of the lower court while hearing an appeal.
Appeal court then substuents its decision each there is a lower court. Reversing
occurs when a higher court in hierarchy denies the decision of the lower court on
appeal with the same case. If a judgment made by an inferior court was founded to
be incorrect and wrong, a superior court will overturn the decision on appeal