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hi,
european cour of justice(EJC) ‘binds’ all english courts.
Q: what does it mean by ‘BINDS ‘ ?(lecture 2, [1:13] )
Thank-you in advance.
It means that all English Courts are bound by the ratio decidendi (the reason for the decision) of the European Court of Justice. The ratio decidendi of the case is binding as per the doctrine of stare decisis but the ratio decidendi could be avoided if the facts of the case can be distinguished, if the ratio decidendi is too obscure, too wide, made per incuriam, made by an inferior court (the ratio decidendi of a case from the Higher Court does not bind the Supreme Court, since the higher court is an inferior court) , goes against a general principle in law, or goes against the European law. To summarise, the English courts are ‘compelled’ to follow the ‘reason for the decision’ of a similar case adjudicated by the European Court of Justice unless, for the reasons aforementioned, the ratio decidendi is not appropriate and thus not binding. (The English courts are not ‘compelled’ to follow ‘the reason for the decision’ to a similar case.)
Lavish, thank you for your input … however, I believe that this question was addressed to me. If you see any question in the general forums, please fell free to get involved. But if you see a question in the Ask ACCA Tutor forums, please leave those alone. Thanks
Simran, Lavish is correct in his response. Put very simply, the expressions ‘binds’ ‘is bound by’ ‘binding’ refer to the situation that a judge in a Court currently hearing a case and facing the issue of deciding on the current case is not free to make a decision according to his / her own feelings
The decisions in earlier similar cases from judges in Courts of higher or the same rank must be followed by those judges in lower or same rank when they announce their decision on their current similar cases
That is to say, the decisions from cases decided in the European Court of Justice (the HIGHEST ranking Court … until 2 days’ time!) are binding on judges hearing cases in the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeal and all the lower ranking Courts in the English judicial hierarchy
OK?
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