Some considerations on case law

Abstract

In order to deal adequately with the subject matter of this title it is necessary to preface the fundamental distinction between the two great system of law, i.e. the system of code law and the system of case law. The reason for this distinction is obvious. In countries where the law in the main, is not codified, as in England, but is, so to say judge-made, case law is, in point of fact, the law itself. As occasion arises, the particular case before the Court is tried on the authority of precedent. Any law student who is accustomed to the system of code law shudders on reading that in England there are about three quarters of a million decided cases to go by. Nor is his mind set at rest on reading that in the case of Bottomley v. Bannister (1932). 1 K. B. 458, precedents decided in 1409 and 1425 were cited to assist the judge in determining who was liable for the leakage of a gas burner installed in 1929.