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Doctrine of precedent: Difference between revisions
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=====A golden thread running though the web of English law==== | |||
A world-view that underpins everything the common [[lawyer]] holds dear: that, as far as makes any difference, there is nothing new under the sun, and if anything transpires to be, one should keep well clear of it. | A world-view that underpins everything the common [[lawyer]] holds dear: that, as far as makes any difference, there is nothing new under the sun, and if anything transpires to be, one should keep well clear of it. | ||
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Outside the great curial chambers of the [[Chancery Division]], the greatest exponent of the [[doctrine of precedent]] is one’s own [[general counsel]] who, when brought a novel conundrum, will immediately ask, “what have we done before?” | Outside the great curial chambers of the [[Chancery Division]], the greatest exponent of the [[doctrine of precedent]] is one’s own [[general counsel]] who, when brought a novel conundrum, will immediately ask, “what have we done before?” | ||
The [[doctrine of precedent]] stands in contradistinction to realistic, pragmatic theories of | ====On whether there is anything new under the sun==== | ||
The [[doctrine of precedent]] stands in contradistinction to realistic, pragmatic [[Epistemology|theories of knowledge]] which recognise that since, as a brute fact, the class of things that have not yet happened yet is unlimited and, however compendious it may be, the class of “previously encountered things under the sun” may be, it is necessarily finite, and that since an infinite number divided by a finite one is still infinite, then managing risk by only doing what you’ve always done isn’t enormously prudent. | |||
And | And nor is there much to be said for closing your stable door once your horse has bolted, either. | ||
{{seealso}} | {{seealso}} | ||