There are many disadvantages with precedent. It is good that our law provides certainty but critics think that the law is too hard to change, too inflexible. The House of Lords is able to overrule a precedent changing a previous decision, power given in the Practise Statement, but critics argue that judges in the House of Lords do not use their power to change existing precedents even when they agree old laws are wrong.
The last disadvantage is that law cases date back hundreds of years this may complicate things and make it difficult to find an appropriate case on which to use as precedent. There may be several decisions on the same part of law as it may have been going on for so long, this would make things very complicated. There are such a large number of cases to illustrate the law, this makes it too complicated.
⢠When judges are distinguishing two cases, he needs to be careful that he is using particular case for the right reasons and should not distinguish two cases on a very small point which is hard to justify.
The last disadvantage is that law cases date back hundreds of years this may complicate things and make it difficult to find an appropriate case on which to use as precedent. There may be several decisions on the same part of law as it may have been going on for so long, this would make things very complicated. There are such a large number of cases to illustrate the law, this makes it too complicated.
⢠When judges are distinguishing two cases, he needs to be careful that he is using particular case for the right reasons and should not distinguish two cases on a very small point which is hard to justify.