ratio decidendi

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Ratio Decidendi

[Latin, The ground or reason of decision.] The legal principle upon which the decision in a specific case is founded.

The ratio decidendi is also known as the rationale for a decision.

ratio decidendi

‘the rule in a decision’. This is a crucial part of the understanding of the way in which the common law works. Once a system has been adopted of binding PRECEDENT, it has to be discovered what it is in the previous decision that binds the court later in time. While it is sometimes possible to peruse the opinion of the judge to find the rule, this is not by any means a reliable way of discovering the rule in the case. The soundest general method is to discover the material facts of the case, determine what the decision was and then to draw the proposition that most closely marries the material facts to the actual decision. It is difficult enough to do this with a single opinion but very much harder with multiple opinions such as come from the Court of Appeal, the Inner House and the House of Lords. Sometimes it is said to be impossible to form a ratio of general application. Anything that is said that is not part of the ratio is said to be an OBITER DICTUM.

Collins Dictionary of Law © W.J. Stewart, 2006

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References in periodicals archive ?

On the basis of the ratio decidendi of the judgment of the AJK Supreme Court (1996 MLD 1377), the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs observed in its summary dated May 28, 2018, that the Pakistani citizens do not have any protection of the fundamental rights under the AJK Interim Constitution of 1974.

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Goodhart, Determining the Ratio Decidendi of a Case, 40 YALE L.J.

ON TREATING UNLIKE CASES ALIKE

'The ratio decidendi or main point in the case of Senator Trillanes, which PDG Albayalde cited in his reply to SP Sotto, is actually the recognition by the Court that a detained legislator could still 'somehow accomplish legislative results' despite the limitations caused by the confinement in so far as it restrains the power of locomotion or physical movement,' she explained.

De Lima: PNP chief may have been fed wrong legal advice in denying Sotto's request

Further, only one bit of this judgement appears to have been used, while the overall ratio decidendi (the reason for the decision) appears to have been overlooked.

Beyond precedent

30, alterando o regime dos precatorios, e quando do julgamento definitivo da ADI o STF entendeu que as mudancas contidas naquela Emenda nao alteravam a ratio decidendi contida na medida liminar.

DIFFUSE CONTROL IN THE NEW BRAZILIAN CIVIL PROCEDURE CODE/CONTROLE DIFUSO NO NOVO CPC

Each chapter explains the purpose of a specific article in the Code, traces the original regulations and directives consolidated in that article, identifies relevant provisions in the revised Kyoto Convention, and surveys the ratio decidendi of all Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) judgements dealing with the article.

European Union Customs Code

Por "precedente" entiendo: aquellas razones (que hacen parte de la sentencia) que expone un juez para sustentar la decision judicial (la ratio decidendi), que son tomadas por otro juez u otro operador juridico para aplicarlas a un nuevo caso, por la similitud de lo que se discute.

El precedente: un concepto

A fixacao da regra do precedente depende da compreensao das partes que lhe compoe: a ratio decidendi e o obter dictum.

THE LEGAL EDUCATION AND THE NEW CODE OF CIVIL PROCEDURE: CHALLENGES OF REFORM UNDER THE BRAZILIAN LEGAL SYSTEM TRANSFORMATIONS/O ENSINO JURIDICO E O NOVO CODIGO DE PROCESSO CIVIL: DESAFIOS DE REFORMA DIANTE DAS TRANSFORMACOES NO SISTEMA JURIDICO BRASILEIRO