If a court is faced with a legal dispute and a previous court has ruled on the same or closely related issue, the court will make its decision in accordance with the decision of the previous court. The court which ruled on the previous instance must be binding on the court; Otherwise, the previous decision is only convincing. In Kimble v. Marvel Enterprises, the U.S. Supreme Court described the reasoning behind stare decisis as „promoting the balanced, predictable, and consistent development of legal principles, promoting the use of judicial decisions, and contributing to the real and perceived integrity of the judicial process.” The legal system of the United States developed primarily from the English common law system (with the exception of the State of Louisiana, which continued to follow the French civil system after its admission to statehood). Some concepts of Spanish law, such as the doctrine of prior appropriation and community ownership, still exist in some American states, particularly those that were part of the Mexican cession in 1848. The juridical history of the Catholic Church is the history of Catholic canon law, the oldest permanently functioning legal system in the West. [20] [21] Canon law has its origins much later than Roman law, but predates the development of modern European civil law traditions. The cultural exchange between secular (Roman/Barbarian) law and ecclesiastical (canonical) law gave rise to ius commune and strongly influenced civil and customary law. The two main traditions of modern European law are the codified legal systems of most of continental Europe and the English tradition based on case law. [36] After much of the West was consolidated under Charlemagne, law was centralized to strengthen the royal court system and, consequently, jurisprudence and abolish popular law.
However, after the final fragmentation of Charlemagne`s kingdom, Europe became feudal and law was generally not regulated above the county, municipality or dominion level, creating a highly decentralized legal culture that fostered the development of customary law based on localized jurisprudence. In the 11th century, after plundering the Byzantine Empire, the Crusaders returned with Byzantine legal texts, including the Justinian Codex, and scholars at the University of Bologna were the first to use them to interpret their own customary laws. [30] Medieval European jurists began to study Roman law and use its concepts[31] and paved the way for the partial resurrection of Roman law as modern civil law in much of the world. [32] However, there was great resistance, so civil law competed with customary law for much of the late Middle Ages. The African legal system is based on common law and civil law. [37] It was based on tribal customs and traditions before colonization adopted its original system. [38] People listened to their elders and used their elders as the people they could turn to in times of conflict. They did not keep written records because their laws were often passed orally. During colonization, African authorities developed a formal legal system called indigenous courts. [39] After colonialism, the main religions that remained remained Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism. Legal history or legal history is the study of how law developed and why it changed. Legal history is closely linked to the development of civilizations[1] and is part of the broader context of social history.
Some jurists and legal historians have seen the history of law as an account of the development of laws and the technical explanation of the development of those laws in order to better understand the origins of various legal concepts; Some consider legal history to be a branch of intellectual history. Twentieth-century historians viewed the history of law in a more contextual way, more in tune with the thinking of social historians. [2] They saw legal institutions as complex systems of rules, actors and symbols, and saw how these elements interact with society to change, adapt, resist or promote aspects of civil society. These legal historians tended to analyze case histories from the parameters of social science inquiry using statistical methods and to analyze class differences between litigants, petitioners, and others in different legal processes. By analyzing the outcome of cases, transaction costs and the number of cases closed, they began an analysis of legal institutions, practices, procedures and pleadings that gives a more complex picture of the law and society than can be done by studying case law, jurisprudence and the Civil Code. [3] After the Norman conquest of England, which introduced Norman legal concepts into medieval England, the powerful judges of the English king developed a precedent that became common law. [33] In particular, Henry II. He developed a system of royal courts administered by a small number of judges who lived in Westminster and travelled throughout the kingdom. Henry II also introduced the Clarendon Assizes in 1166, which allowed jury trials and reduced the number of trials by combat.[34] .