University of Virginia Library

Search this document 
Dictionary of the History of Ideas

Studies of Selected Pivotal Ideas
  
  

collapse sectionV. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
collapse sectionV. 
  
collapse sectionV. 
  
  
  
  
collapse sectionV. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
collapse sectionV. 
  
  
  
  
IV. CONCLUSION
  
collapse sectionV. 
  
collapse sectionV. 
  
  
  
  
  
collapse sectionVII. 
  
collapse sectionVII. 
  
  
  
  
  
collapse sectionIII. 
  
collapse sectionIII. 
  
collapse sectionI. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
collapse sectionII. 
  
collapse sectionV. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
collapse sectionV. 
  
  
  
  
collapse sectionVI. 
  
collapse sectionII. 
  
collapse sectionV. 
  
  
  
  
  
collapse sectionV. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
collapse sectionVII. 
  
collapse sectionVII. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
collapse sectionI. 
  
  
  
  
  
collapse sectionVI. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
collapse sectionVI. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
collapse sectionVI. 
  
collapse sectionIII. 
  
collapse sectionIII. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
collapse sectionVI. 
  
  
  
  
collapse sectionIII. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
collapse sectionIII. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
collapse sectionIII. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
collapse sectionIII. 
  
collapse sectionIII. 
  
collapse sectionIII. 
  
collapse sectionIII. 
  
collapse sectionIII. 
  
collapse sectionIII. 
  
collapse sectionIII. 
  
collapse sectionIII. 
  
collapse sectionIII. 
  
collapse sectionV. 
  
collapse sectionV. 
  
collapse sectionIII. 
  
collapse sectionI. 
  
collapse sectionVI. 
  
collapse sectionIII. 
  
collapse sectionVI. 
  
collapse sectionI. 
  
collapse sectionIII. 
  
collapse sectionVII. 
  
collapse sectionI. 
  
collapse sectionI. 
  
collapse sectionIV. 
  
collapse sectionVI. 
  
collapse sectionV. 
  
collapse sectionVI. 
  
collapse sectionVI. 
  
collapse sectionIV. 
  
collapse sectionIII. 
  
collapse sectionV. 
  
collapse sectionVI. 
  
collapse sectionIII. 
  
collapse sectionVI. 
  
collapse sectionVI. 
  
collapse sectionVI. 
  
collapse sectionIII. 
  
collapse sectionVI. 
  
collapse sectionVI. 
  
collapse sectionVI. 
  
collapse sectionVI. 
  
collapse sectionII. 
  
collapse sectionII. 
  
collapse sectionII. 
  
collapse sectionVII. 
  
collapse sectionIV. 
  
collapse sectionIV. 
  
collapse sectionV. 
  
collapse sectionVI. 
  
collapse sectionVI. 
  
collapse sectionV. 
  

IV. CONCLUSION

The idea of precedent is not restricted to the citation
of authority within a single jurisdiction or nation-state.
Systems sharing the same jurisprudential origins—e.g.,
the Napoleonic Code or the English Common law—
may invoke each other's precedents; and there is au-
thority in the United States and the Netherlands for
the courts' adopting a “harmonizing construction” of
domestic law by using comparative techniques to as-
certain the solutions to a particular social problem of
foreign legal systems of various types. Moreover, deci-
sions of international courts and tribunals have persua-
sive authority in public international law and the Stat-
ute of the International Court of Justice (article 38)
accepts national judicial decisions as a subsidiary source
of law.

In sum, legal precedent in its conservative and crea-
tive aspects is encountered in all legal systems, though
in different forms. It has been said: “Tradition and
Conscience are the two wings given to the human soul
to reach the truth” (T. M. Taylor, Speaking to Gradu-
ates,
Edinburgh, 1965). Both are implicit in legal prec-
edent. The judicial function is not or should not be
that of an animated index to the law reports, nor is
justice by computer a tolerable thought, however
helpful computers may prove to be in tracking avail-
able authority. Julius Stone, who has written exten-
sively on all aspects of precedent, echoes in that con-
tent the injunction of the father of cybernetics, Nor-
bert Wiener, “Render unto man what is man's, and
unto the machine only that which is the machine's.”