English Law Basics · glossary
The reason a court needed to decide the case: the one part of a judgment that binds later courts. The ratio of Photo Production is that the question is whether the clause’s words cover what happened. Short for ratio decidendi. Case note, Photo Production v Securicor · Chapter 2 · see Binding precedent, Obiter
Explained in Chapter 2, Doctrine of Precedent: Ratio Decidendi and Obiter Dicta, of English Law Basics.
Not every sentence in a judgment binds. The part that binds is the ratio: the reason the court needed to decide the case. The rest is obiter: things said by the way, such as how a different case might come out. Obiter can persuade a later court, but it does not bind it.Read Chapter 2, Doctrine of Precedent: Ratio Decidendi and Obiter Dicta →
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