"The only use of authorities, or decided cases, is the establishment of some principle which the Judge can follow out in deciding the case before him. There is, perhaps, nothing more important in our law than that great respect for the authority of decided cases which is shown by our tribunals. Were it not for that, our law would be in a most distressing state of uncertainty, and so strong has that been my view, that when a case has decided a principle, although I myself do not concur in it, and although it has been only a decision of a tribunal of co-ordinate jurisdiction, I have felt bound to follow it when it is of respectable age and has been used by lawyers as settling the law, leaving to the Appellate Court to say that case is wrongly decided if the Appellate Court should so think."
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Original Language: English
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Sources
Jessel, M.R., In re Hallett's Estate. Knatchbull v. Hallett (1879), L. R. 13 C. D. 712; 49 L. JCh. 419.
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Legal cases
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