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By Tom Head. Definition: Stare decisis (Latin: stand by the decision) is a legal phrase referring to the obligation of courts to honor past precedents. There are essentially two types of stare decisis. One is the obligation that trial courts have to honor the precedents of higher courts. A local trial court in Mississippi cannot legally convict a person for flag desecration, for example, because a higher court--the U.S.
Precedent should be used in most cases, but there are occasions when a court decides to overrule a prior decision. These cases normally involve a change in societal views. Stare decisis and precedent work together, but the difference between stare decisis and precedent is this: Stare decisis is the doctrine that obligates courts to look to precedent when making their decisions.