Stare Decisis——一把打开阅读英文案例的神秘钥匙

Stare Decisis, 如“打开阿里巴巴与四十大盗藏宝山洞”的魔法咒语“芝麻开门”一样，它也是一把打开英文判例阅读的神秘钥匙。

学过英文的朋友们一定很奇怪，这两个字看起来并不像英文，你们一点儿没错，它们来自于拉丁语，法律英文中有很多词汇都来自于拉丁文，它们以斜体的形式出现，并在英文法律领域似乎享有了比英文看起来更专业的地位，这也许与法律界的从业者们像炫耀自己受过更高等教育的感觉有关，毕竟拉丁语和法律在以前都是贵族才有资格学习的东西。因此Stare Decisis的英文对应词，相信大家都很熟悉，即precedent, 中文即“先例”的意思。

Stare decisis is the doctrine that courts will adhere toprecedent in making their decision. Stare decisis means “to stand bythings decided” in Latin，坚持已经决定的事情。

When a court faces a legal argument, if a previous court has ruled on thesame or a closely related issue, then the court will make their decision inalignment with the previous court’s decision. The previous deciding-court musthave binding authority over the court; otherwise, the previous decision ismerely persuasive authority.