ABSTRACT
The doctrine simply means that a judge who is hearing a particular type of court case does not have to make a decision using simply his own knowledge of the relevant legal rules, but that similar previous decisions can be consulted to guide and justify the conclusion reached in the instant case. The hierarchy of the courts is an important factor in the operation of the doctrine in practice. It is important to be aware of which part of the decision of a previous case is to be regarded as binding. The decision itself, i.e. who wins and who loses, is only really of interest to the parties in the case. The ratio decidendi is often contrasted with other parts of the judgment which are said to be obiter dicta. It is easy to focus on the binding nature and the binding element (ratio decidendi) of the system of precedent to the exclusion of all other factors.
