6 Precedent and interpretation
From this point of the course, you are going to further explore what happens when the law is uncertain. Where the law is uncertain, it often will need to be researched, and correspondingly, people are more likely to need the help of a lawyer.
Introduction
Watch the following video, which is an introduction to the next part of this course.
Download this video clip.Video player: Video 5 Introduction
Transcript: Video 5 Introduction
PAUL TROOP
This unit looks at which cases are the most powerful and persuasive.
It does this by looking at lots of old legal concepts, which unfortunately tend to be known by their Latin names.
Edward Marshall Hall, perhaps one of the most famous barristers ever, was once asked by a judge: ‘Surely Mr Marshall Hall, your client is familiar with the concept of res ipsa loquitur?’ ‘Of course’, said Mr Marshall Hall, ‘where my client comes from, they speak of little else’.
We’re going to explore what happens when the law is uncertain.
People are most likely to need the help of a lawyer when rules are uncertain and these are also the types of cases that are more likely to be appealed to the higher courts so that the law can be clarified.
Finally, once you have a good understanding of legal reasoning and precedent, the unit concludes by asking whether judges make law. Historically this has been a somewhat controversial question for the common law, due to the fact that judges are not democratically accountable, and in addition, as we’ve seen, judges tend not to be representative of wider society.
Video 5 Introduction
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