Case Law

Case Law Meaning

Case law is the name given to the judgements that have been handed down by courts as part of the process of settling legal disputes. The decisions that are reached in these instances go on to establish precedents, which are often referred to as common law. The most fundamental definition of common law is a collection of legal principles and interpretations of those principles that are drawn from previous judicial judgements. Case law is an important component of our nation's judicial system since it serves as a source of precedent for future judgements and contributes to the maintenance of coherence in the application of legal concepts. In addition to this, it makes it possible for the law to be flexible enough to develop over the course of time in order to accommodate shifting cultural norms and values as well as the ever-evolving requirements of the community. Because of this, the judgements that are handed down by our courts are of the utmost significance in determining the character of our judicial system as well as the path that it will follow in the years to come.

Doctrine of precedent

The decisions made by judges in particular cases play a crucial role in shaping the legal system as a whole. These decisions serve as examples for other judges to follow and are applied in later cases through the process of precedent. Precedent is the legal principle that previous court decisions should be followed by judges in subsequent cases that have similar facts. This helps to ensure consistency and predictability in legal outcomes. When a judge decides a case, they create a legal precedent that must be followed by lower courts in the same jurisdiction and may have persuasive authority in other jurisdictions. The use of precedent helps create a body of law that is predictable and consistent, and allows for incremental changes to be made to the law over time.

Example of case law

We have reached a situation where the most damaging interference to the registry system was overriding interests which make a buyer rights subject to any person in actual occupation. A number of cases have arisen; there are many references to the famous Boland case.

General Principle: In the case of unregistered land, the purchaser’s obligation depends upon what he had notice of—notice actual or constructive.

Williams & Glyn’s Bank Ltd v. Boland [1981] A.C. 487
Facts: Two appeals were combined. Each woman in a married couple's house made financial contributions towards the home's purchase price and mortgage payments, making each tenant in common in equity to the amount of their financial support. Both houses were transferred in their spouses' legal names. Each spouse gave a bank a valid mortgage on the properties. The bank filed legal action to take ownership of the properties when they defaulted. The spouses were still living there and maintaining control over it. The argument that a wife could not, legally, be in actual occupation of the shared matrimonial home in her own right, because of a fictitious unity between husband and wife, was condemned as being “heavily obsolete”.  Of more general interest was the approach taken to the construction of the paragraph.

Ratio: Where it was held that a wife who shared occupation of a matrimonial home with her husband was in actual occupation of it for the purposes of the Act. Lord Wilberforce expressly declined to construe the meaning of actual occupation so as to make it correlate with the concept of constructive notice. He emphasized this, going so far as to say that, “the law as to notice as it may affect purchasers of unregistered land, whether contained in decided cases, or in a statute…has no application even by analogy to registered land”. To emphasize the point, he went on to say that, “In the case of unregistered land, the purchaser’s obligation depends upon what he had notice of—notice actual or constructive. In the case of registered land, it is the fact of occupation that matters”.

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