Open AccessPrecedent
Author(s) -
Denis O’Brien,
Marco Félix Jobim
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
direitos fundamentais and justiça
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2527-0001
pISSN - 1982-1921
DOI - 10.30899/dfj.v12i38.711
Subject(s) - undercut , law and economics , law , political science , sociology , engineering , mechanical engineering
Precedent is and remains central to common law, but is neither fixed in stone, a mechanical rule to follow, nor fundamentally “binding.” In interesting yet often neglected ways, precedents maynot only be expressly but implicitly overruled, abandoned or circumvented (without saying so), so as to render them no longer “good law”, or undercut by simply whittling them down to size, only then to subsequently reaffirm them.