Case Law
- Judge made law case by case
- Also known as Common Law handed down by judges
- Compare Act of Parliament
- Acts of Parliament must be upheld and enforced by judges
- However, Acts are not always clear
- Judges interpret what parliament intended when enacting.
- Judges may disagree with each other resulting in cases starting in:
- County courts being overturned in
- Crown Courts and reversed in the
- Court of appeal and reversed again in the
- House of Lords before being overturned in the
- European Court of Justice.
- Senior judges must be followed by less senior judges unless they distinguish between cases with different principles.
- The case of Street and Mountford below is one such example of case law.
Published: 21 October 2013 Last Updated: 21 November 2021