Lori and Tim are negotiating a new business deal that requires an interpretation of a law made by their state twenty years ago. Tim knows that there are cases regarding this law that have been tried in a court within their city's boundaries. If Tim relies on these cases as the law, he is referring to ________.

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

Precedent refers to prior judicial decisions that interpret or apply the law and that later courts often follow. Courts use these past cases to resolve similar legal questions under the doctrine of stare decisis (let the decision stand).

1. Relevant knowledge points and concepts
- Precedent (case law): judicial opinions from prior cases that interpret statutes or legal principles; can be binding (within the same jurisdiction and hierarchical court structure) or persuasive (from other jurisdictions or lower courts).
- Statutory law: laws enacted by a legislature.
- Executive orders: directives issued by an executive (governor, president) to manage government operations.
- Administrative law: rules and regulations created by government agencies under authority granted by statutes.
- Constitutional law: rules derived from a constitution and its interpretation by courts.

2. Step-by-step reasoning
- Tim is relying on "cases regarding this law that have been tried in a court within their city's boundaries."
- These are prior judicial decisions interpreting the state law.
- When a person treats prior judicial decisions as the authoritative rule for deciding similar issues, that practice is relying on precedent or case law.

3. Intermediate logical steps (no numeric calculations)
- Identify source described: judicial cases = case law.
- Match to choices: only "Precedent" denotes reliance on prior court decisions.
- Eliminate alternatives (see next section).

4. Why the correct answer is correct
- Precedent is the legal term for prior court rulings used to interpret statutory or common-law questions. Tim’s reliance on court cases to determine what the law is precisely matches the definition of precedent.

5. Why other options are incorrect
- A. Statutory law: refers to text passed by the legislature, not prior court cases.
- B. Administrative law: refers to agency-made regulations and adjudications, not ordinary court decisions.
- C. Executive orders: come from executives (governor/president), not from courts.
- E. Constitutional law: derives from a constitution and its interpretation, but the prompt specifies prior cases about a state statute rather than constitutional provisions.

6. Conclusion
Because Tim is using prior court decisions to determine the law, the correct choice is D. Precedent, which matches the provided answer.

类似问题

Question at position 9 In legal terms, "Precedent" refers to:The person who brings the case to courtThe process of selecting new Supreme Court JusticesA previous court decision that serves as a rule or guide for similar cases in the futureA law that has been vetoed by the President

Which of these helps to provide predictability and consistency to judicial decisions?

Cases that serve as a basis for decisions by judges in other courts are known as:

Stare decisis is the doctrine of ________.

Stare Decisis means:

You own a bond that pays $64 in interest annually. The face value is $1,000 and the current market price is $1,021.61. The bond matures in 11 years. What is the yield to maturity?

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