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- Congress.gov - Constitution Annotated - Judicial Precedent and Constitutional Interpretation
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy - Precedent and Analogy in Legal Reasoning
- National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - Roles and the Moral Practice of Precedent
- The University of Chicago Law School - Chicago Unbound - Precedent and Discretion
- CORE - The Doctrine of Precedent as Applied to Administrative Decisions
- The Catholic University of America - Columbus School of Law - The Scope of Precedent (PDF)
- ScholarWorks at University of Baltimore School of Law - The Doctrine of Precedent in the United States of America (PDF)
- Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law libraries - The Role of Precedent in Judicial Decision
- State Library of New South Wales - Precedent and evidence
precedent
precedent, inlaw, a judgment or decision of acourt that is cited in a subsequent dispute as an example oranalogy to justify deciding a similar case or point of law in the same manner.Common law andequity, as found in English and American legal systems, rely strongly on the body of established precedents, although in the original development ofequity the court theoretically had freedom from precedent. At the end of the 19th century, the principle ofstare decisis (Latin: “let the decision stand”) became rigidly accepted in England. In theUnited States the principle of precedent is strong, though higher courts—particularly theSupreme Court of the United States—may review and overturn earlier precedents.