Case Law

Courts are institutions that apply the law on daily basis. Judges and magistrates, like all lawyers consult legislation and rules of common law and custom applying to the particular case before them. Courts also take into account their previous judgements in similar cases, because they are bound to the approach followed in the past. Previous judicial decisions therefore constitute law and the way in which the law was applied there is authoritative. The reason for this lies in the system of judicial precedent, also called the doctrine of stare decisis, which applies in South Africa. The application of the doctrine of precedent depends, among other things, on reported cases