Doctrines

Precedent (Stare Decisis)

STAIR-ee dih-SY-sis

Also Known As Doctrine of Precedent

Citation Formats

General Reference

Law Atlas. "Precedent (Stare Decisis)." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://law.interactiveatlas.org/doctrines/stare-decisis.

APA Style

Law Atlas. (n.d.). Precedent (Stare Decisis). Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://law.interactiveatlas.org/doctrines/stare-decisis

BibTeX

@misc{lawatlas-precedent-stare-decisis,
  author = {Law Atlas},
  title = {Precedent (Stare Decisis)},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://law.interactiveatlas.org/doctrines/stare-decisis},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Origin Developed gradually within English common law over centuries, with the wider availability of published law reports from the sixteenth century onward making consistent citation of precedent practical, and the modern strict rule generally dated to nineteenth century English cases such as London Street Tramways v London County Council (1898).

Stare decisis, Latin for to stand by things decided, is the doctrine that a court should follow the legal principles established in earlier decisions on materially similar facts, particularly decisions of higher courts within the same jurisdiction. It is foundational to common law reasoning, providing predictability and consistency, though it is not absolute: a court, especially the highest court in a system, can depart from its own prior precedent when it concludes the earlier decision was wrongly decided, as the United States Supreme Court did in overruling Roe v Wade. Stare decisis is the common law name for a specifically BINDING rule of precedent; it should be distinguished from the broader, cross-tradition concept of precedent as a source of law, which civil law systems also recognize but generally treat as persuasive rather than strictly binding, under a practice often called jurisprudence constante, a settled line of decisions courts are expected to follow in the ordinary course but are not doctrinally bound by in the way stare decisis binds a common law court.

Facts

Origin Period

Developed gradually within English common law over centuries, with the wider availability of published law reports from the sixteenth century onward making consistent citation of precedent practical, and the modern strict rule generally dated to nineteenth century English cases such as London Street Tramways v London County Council (1898). 1

Core Principle

A settled line of decisions, jurisprudence constante, is generally treated as persuasive and expected to be followed in the ordinary course, but a civil law court is not doctrinally bound to a prior decision the way stare decisis binds a common law court; the primary source of law remains the code, with case law as its gloss rather than a source of law in its own right. 2civil-law

Core Principle

Like cases should be decided alike; a court is generally bound by the decisions of higher courts within the same jurisdiction on materially similar facts. 1

Disputed

Core Principle

How much deference a precedent is owed, and when it may be overruled, is itself contested: the Supreme Court has said stare decisis is not an inexorable command and may yield when a decision is unworkable or badly reasoned, but critics argue the Court applies that standard selectively, as in Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022), whose majority opinion held that Roe v Wade was egregiously wrong from the start and that its reasoning was exceptionally weak, while the joint dissent by Justices Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan wrote, with sorrow, for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection, we dissent. 3

Whether the Dobbs majority applied a principled stare decisis standard or one result-driven exception is a genuinely contested question among justices and scholars, not a settled one.

Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Brown v Board of Education

Brown expressly renounced Plessy v Ferguson rather than following it, the Supreme Court's own illustration of departing from precedent judged badly reasoned.

Source Stare Decisis (Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School)

Roe v Wade

Roe's own overruling in Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization (2022) is the case most often cited in the live debate over how much deference stare decisis owes a precedent later judged wrongly decided.

Source Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (Wikipedia)

In Legal System

Civil Law

Civil law courts follow jurisprudence constante, a settled line of decisions expected to be followed in the ordinary course, but are not doctrinally bound to a single prior decision the way stare decisis binds a common law court.

Source Stare Decisis (Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School)

Common Law

Source Major Legal Systems in the World TodayRene David and John E.C. Brierley

Sources

1. Black's Law Dictionary

Bryan A. Garner, editor; founded by Henry Campbell Black, Thomson Reuters

2. The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Law

Mathias Reimann and Reinhard Zimmermann, editors, Oxford University Press

3. Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization (Wikipedia)

Dissent, Part III closing statement

Quote, Dissent, Part III closing statement