A court decision is a legal determination that is reached by a court based on facts and law. In this article, the term “decision” is used interchangeably with the terms “ruling”, “opinion,” and “holding.” The decision usually includes a summary of facts, discussion of relevant laws, the court’s reasoning on how the law applies to the case at hand, and an order that tells the parties to a case or cases something that they should do.
Judicial decisions are one of the most important sources of legal authority, along with legislative and regulatory enactments. However, statutes and regulations must be read in conjunction with case law which interprets the correct application of the legislation.
A key aspect of a decision is its relevance. Judges will tend to build their decisions on previous judicial decisions that are both relevant and supported by the facts of a case at hand. This is because judges do not have the time to systematically evaluate each and every judicial precedent. They need to choose the ones that will serve their purposes, minimize their effort while maximizing the quality of their justifications. This is why it is so important to have a comprehensive and current database of cases and their rationales.
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