Focus On Judicial Decisions: The American Judicial System

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D. Focus on Judicial Decisions

1. Common Law Defined

The American judicial system is a “common law” system in which a court deciding a dispute considers earlier judicial decisions as well as statutes to determine the outcome of the present case. Statutes are binding if enacted after contradictory judicial decisions, unless the judicial decision is an interpretation of the Constitution by the U.S. Supreme Court. The earlier cases are called “precedent.” Judicial reliance on precedent assures that outcomes in similar cases are consistent and enables attorneys to predict the success or failure of future cases.

The common law system is different from the approach used by courts in civil law countries, where the civil rule, statute,

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