Keywords:
Introduction to the concepts - fixed or changing law, understanding precedents: of facts, decisions, ratios and dicta The following of precedent - doctrine, general principle and some complications, Privy Council, 'persuasive' decisions, previous decisions of the same court, majority decisions and equally divided courts, practical distinctions between ratio and obiter The making of precedent - leeways of choice, deduction: certainty and appearance of certainty, distinguishing precedents and extending them by analogy, explaining precedents, the pursuit of coherence and the derivation of law from mutuality, 'policy arguments', policy and values