So often in life we are looking for ways to make decisions with which we will be content. The appropriate options will be determined by the circumstances of the decision, and so it would be impossible, in the abstract, to set out an exhaustive list of ways to decide. But some of those ways are obvious. We might act on our instinct, or deliberate on the reasons supporting different possible decisions, or treat some rule, formal or otherwise, as a reason which pre-empts all others. We might try to devise a strategy, as Solomon did, to make others reveal information that would make deciding easier. Or we might even, though only exceptionally, decide not to decide and entrust an outcome to chance. This book is concerned with one specific decision-making option: deciding on the basis of what was done when the same matter had to be resolved in the past. When we decide in this way, we decide according to precedent.

Precedent

A precedent is a past event – in law the event is nearly always a decision – which serves as a guide for present action. Not all past events are precedents. Much of what we did in the past quickly fades into insignificance (or is best forgotten) and does not guide future action at all. Understanding precedent therefore requires an explanation of how past events and present actions come to be seen as connected.