ABSTRACT
Precedents consist of the decisions of cases that judges use to help guide them as to how to rule in new cases. Prior cases that are quite close in facts or legal principles to the case before a court are called precedents. The principle of following precedent, long upheld in Anglo-American courtrooms, ensures that rulings are consistent and predictable, so that citizens and institutions know how a law is likely to be interpreted in the future and can make decisions based on such expectations. The rule of precedent helps to ensure that lower courts are consistent with higher courts. Justices also have some leeway with regard to following precedent because they can view a new case in different ways, as to what principles and precedents are at issue in it. Some scholars have noted that particularly in cases of constitutional interpretation, the Court is often willing to reexamine and sometimes reverse precedent.
