stare decisis

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin stāre dēcīsīs, from stāre (“to stand; to stay, to remain”) + dēcīsīs, ablative plural of dēcīsus, from dēcidere (“to sever, to decide”). Literally, “to stand by decided matters”.

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation, General American) enPR: stâr′ē dĭ-sī′sĭs, IPA^(key): /ˈstɛə̯ɹ.i dɪˈsaɪ̯.sɪs/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Hyphenation: star‧e de‧ci‧sis

Noun

stare decisis (uncountable)

(law) The principle of following judicial precedent.
- 2006, Saul Brenner, Harold J. Spaeth, Stare Indecisis: The Alteration of Precedent on the Supreme Court, 1946–1992, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 3:
  Similarly, Walter F. Murphy, a student of judicial politics, noted that stare decisis provides the “harried judges who face difficult choices with a welcome decision-making crutch.”
- 2022 May 23, Ed Pilkington, “Supreme court guts lifeline for prisoners who claim wrongful convictions”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian‎^[1], London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 August 2024:
  Thomas’s opinion also overturns previous supreme court rulings, in an abrogation of the court’s own adherence to the principle of stare decisis — that is, being faithful to precedent.
- 2022 July 24, David Litt, “A Court Without Precedent”, in Jeffrey Goldberg, editor, The Atlantic‎^[2], Washington, D.C.: The Atlantic Monthly Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 28 July 2022:
  Understanding why Dobbs [v. Jackson Women's Health Organization] is so dangerous, both to American society and to the American republic, starts with a principle known as stare decisis, which has guided the Court since at least the mid-19th century.
- 2025 October 16, Ross Douthat, quoting Amy Coney Barrett, “Amy Coney Barrett Is Looking Beyond the Trump Era”, in The New York Times‎^[3], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 17 October 2025:
  The doctrine of stare decisis is the second stage of the analysis, because if a decision is wrong, then you have to decide whether you should keep it, for many of the reasons you say — stability, reliance interests, etc.

Translations

principle of following judicial precedent

Chinese:
Mandarin: 遵循先例 (zūnxún xiānlì)
Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
Finnish: ennakkotapausoppi
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Polish: stare decisis n
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