Stare Decisis and Common Sense in American Civil and Criminal Jurisprudence

Abstract

Based on various law sources, the American common law is connected by a particular role of prior judicial rulings as a basis of judicial practice. The principle of stare decisis, which exists within its framework, leads to considering decisions of courts of higher instances as binding (settled in a binding manner of a given case type in the convention of res iudicata). However, it does not mean that precedents may not be amended or broken. In such a situation following factors may appear: defective rulings, triggering incoherent or unjust consequences, contraction with other precedents, and change of circumstances, which have led to a precedent decision to be taken.