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Business Unit 23 - The English Legal System P6 P7 M2
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Dear Benjamin and Saira,Looking at the incident you were involved in, this is quite a serious case and I think there is a
high chance of it being heard. I will now explain to you what precedent is and how it is
applied in court as well as how it can be beneficial to you.
Precedent is just where judges follow decisions that have previously been made when
looking at new cases. These decisions are based upon laws that were made by previous
judges. Precedent is now commonly known as case law or common law. Society generally
view precedent as being fair because the decisions made are decisions made from previous
cases, which means that justice is served equally.
Ratio Decidendi affects precedent. Ratio Decidendi means ‘Reasons for deciding’ and is the
important part of the decision made. This is because it is the legal reasons of the cases.
Ratio Decidendi is where a decision made is then used as a source for decision making in
the future by other judges as long as the future case has a similar set of facts to the
precedent case. Orbita Dicta just means ‘other things said by the way’ and is the opinions,
comments and discussions made by the judge that might not actually be important. Orbita
Dicta does not have to be followed but can be and plays a very important role when judges
are making decisions.
An example of precedent was the R V Dudley and Stevens (1884) case. This was when two
shipwrecked men decided to kill and eat the cabin boy as they felt it was necessary to
survive. Both men were then later convicted to murder. The judge in this case gave three
reasons (ratios) to refuse that it was necessary to kill. These were: under Christianity it is
wrong to kill, a person should give their lives to others rather than taking someone else’s life
for their own, and a person does not have the right to choose whom dies first. If a similar
case was to occur, the precedent would be used from the R V Dudley and Stevens (1884)
case by a different judge to provide justice.
I think that your case would be compared to the previous case: Donaghue v Stevenson
(1932) case. This was when the claimant found a decomposed slug in the bottom of her
ginger beer which was potentially harmful. Mrs Donaghue went to court to sue the
manufacturer. The Court concluded that manufacturers should owe a duty of care to end
products of consumers. A precedent was created and the ratio was extended to other
product categories that could potentially harm consumers. I think your case would be
compared to this one and that precedent would be used as it is very similar. This is because
you purchased a product from Daisy’s Desserts outlet expecting a certain standard which
you did not receive as you found half a cockroach in your dessert. This is like how Mrs
Donaghue found a decomposed slug at the bottom of her ginger beer. Both the slug and the
cockroach have impacts on the health and wellbeing on both you and Mrs Donaghue, that is
why the cases are similar.
Overall, I think you have a very strong case here.
Yours Sincerely,
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In this assignment I will describe the process of how Acts of Parliament are made.
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