User blog:Arathorstories/Azeroth's Law: Precedent

Okay, time for another installment in this wanky thing. Today, we're going to do a very brief discussion of precedent, which has a pretty big role to play in law RP. While it's of no interest to people outside law (and its subsets, e.g. crime) RP, that's true of this blog in general.

What is it?
The doctrine of precedent is one of the fundamental building blocks of English-derived legal systems (which are called 'common law' systems), and a small to moderate factor in non-English derived systems (where it generally lacks the same binding quality as in common law systems).

Put simply, the doctrine of precedent is this: Similar cases should be treated alike. If two men come before a court for murder, under the exact same circumstance, both should be found guilty, even if the latter comes two centuries down the line. To go with this are a lot of other concepts - stare decisis, for example - which we don't really need to get into in any significant detail.

In the Laws of Stormwind model, we have a number of distinct courts. Precedent flows in an interesting way when you have more than one 'layer' of courts. For us, the order goes something like this: Precedent flows something like this: Any decision by the King is binding on the others. Anything by the High Court is binding on those below it, and so on. Courts cannot bind themselves and courts on their own level - e.g. the Darkshire court cannot bind the Goldshire court (which effectively means that it binds no one at all).
 * 1) Provincial courts, e.g. the Darkshire Provincial Court.
 * 2) Stormwind Magistrate's Courts - the ones you're most likely to meet and experience.
 * 3) The Court of Appeal.
 * 4) The High Court of Stormwind.
 * 5) The King's own court, but we're not going to use this since none of us are, y'know. The King.

How does it apply to me?
Assuming you're involved in some kind of law RP (or related fields, e.g. Noble RP), it applies like this:
 * A case comes before a judge.
 * The judge makes a decision. That decision is recorded.
 * In future cases, that decision is considered; or
 * In some cases, that decision may in fact create a new crime, category of crimes, or legal principle. This is normal and healthy.
 * Thus, you may encounter a precedent when you're in a court setting or dealing with questions of law of any kind. Whether you're a murderer or pursuing a civil suit over land ownership rights, precedent can and probably will apply.

Why is it worth having?
Put simply, the doctrine of precedent is worth having in Law RP because it encourages a few things. It encourages judges to document and post their decisions publically - in turn, this creates more interest in Law RP. It creates a source of conflict between otherwise homogenous groups (the Courts themselves), and allows for politicking as appeals work their way up the chain. It even gives lawyers something to do: reading case law and citing authorities in their arguments.

It also gives the courts a way to make 'law', which reduces the reliance on a non-responsive NPC legislature, and can help balance out laws that are heavy-handed, arbitrary, or unfair. At the moment, I'm acting as the main - and basically only - legislator OOC, and I've deliberately included laws I'd like to have affected by the common law one way or another.

Finally, and least importantly from an RP perspective (but the most important part IRL) is that this doctrine encourages predictability. You will know - or rather, be able to reasonably predict - what a verdict will be based on the precedents.

Precedent is a way of increasing RP opportunities and 'realism' at the same time, and requires minimal additional effort. While it's not a glamorous subject like prisons or murders or drug law, it's these basic building blocks that are needed to help build a rigorous and capable Law RP community.

''As always, feel free to comment or ask questions here or in-game, where I can be reached on Everen (Alliance) or Latalya (Horde). Mail is advised, and there may be a delay in response due to my imminent exams''.