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Jurisprudence Commons

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Law and Philosophy

Michigan Law Review

Constitutionalism

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Full-Text Articles in Jurisprudence

The Scope Of Precedent, Randy J. Kozel Nov 2014

The Scope Of Precedent, Randy J. Kozel

Michigan Law Review

The scope of Supreme Court precedent is capacious. Justices of the Court commonly defer to sweeping rationales and elaborate doctrinal frameworks articulated by their predecessors. This practice infuses judicial precedent with the prescriptive power of enacted constitutional and statutory text. The lower federal courts follow suit, regularly abiding by the Supreme Court’s broad pronouncements. These phenomena cannot be explained by—and, indeed, oftentimes subvert—the classic distinction between binding holdings and dispensable dicta. This Article connects the scope of precedent with recurring and foundational debates about the proper ends of judicial interpretation. A precedent’s forward- looking effect should not depend on the …


Hurst: Law And Social Process In United States History, Robert S. Hunt Jun 1962

Hurst: Law And Social Process In United States History, Robert S. Hunt

Michigan Law Review

A Review of Law and Social Process in United States History. By James Willard Hurst.