What is Case Law? What is its purpose?
In: Economics
Say there’s a law passed with grey area (or multiple ways it can be interpreted). The first person who runs afoul of them has their day in court, and the justice system rules on the case. That’s essentially saying “this is how we are going to interpret this grey area moving forward.” The ruling is now case law – turning the grey area into an area with a clear cut ‘this is how the legal system handles this case from now on.’
This is ELI5 so somewhat simplified with no discussion of appeals and whatnot, but explains the basic ‘case law’ concept.
When laws are passed they can not cover every possible situation. There may be unclear language or other laws many have an impact on how it is used. When there is a dispute about how to apply the law, courts look at the law itself and apply it to specific facts in a case Case law is the record of how courts have interpreted the law and provide guidance for cases that have similar facts.
You’ve tagged this as an economic question but I don’t believe that’s a concept in economics. Did you mean to ask about case law in the legal context?
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