Sources of Law

Ratio decidendi is the rationale for the decision reached by the judge

Anything else said by the judge in his / her summarising of the case is obiter dicta (literally ‘things said by the way’)

You must appreciate that a judge’s summing up of a case can take as long as the time taken to present the evidence in that case but there’s only going to be a limited amount of evidence that is SO persuasive to lead the judge to reaching their decision

Other stuff that is not SO persuasive is supportive or contradictory to that persuasive evidence and will likely be included within the judge’s summing up

What you should also realise is that the ratio (and therefore also the obiter) is not identified by the judge as those separate elements. Oh no! The ratio of a case is determined by subsequent cases in which the legal minds representing the plaintiff and the defendant try to persuade this later judge that the case Somebody v Somebody Else was decided BECAUSE of such and such a point of law and the ratio for this earlier decision must therefore have been …. and therefore also anything else that is included in that earlier judge’s summing up must be obiter

Is that better?