PRECEDENT • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Precedent

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/prˈɛsɪdənt/ Listen

Precedent

noun

An example that is used to justify similar occurrences at a later time. Synonym: case in point.

(civil law) a law established by following earlier judicial decisions. Synonyms: case law, common law.

A system of jurisprudence based on judicial precedents rather than statutory laws. Synonyms: case law, common law.

A subject mentioned earlier (preceding in time).

adjective

Preceding in time, order, or significance.

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Etymology of 'Precedent'

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"Precedent" Quotes from Famous Books

... and Crescent of Mohammed. The architecture shows a free interpretation of early Roman forms. It is, in fact, a purely romantic conception by Architect Maybeck, entirely free from traditional worship or obedience to scholastic precedent. Its greatest charm has been established through successful composition; the architectural elements have been arranged into a colossal theme of exceptional harmony, into which the interwoven planting and the mirror lake have been incorporated in a masterly way. ...

— The Architecture and Landscape Gardening of the Exposition • Louis Christian Mullgardt

... and US systems that combine "continental" or "civil" code and case-precedent; constitution ambiguous on judicial review of legislative acts; has not accepted compulsory ...

— The 2007 CIA World Factbook • United States

... might develop a hot war similar to the anti-Hitler coalition of the 1930's. If that precedent is followed, however, the defeat of the United States would be followed by a period of fragmentation similar to or even more intense than the fragmentation of the ...

— Civilization and Beyond - Learning From History • Scott Nearing

... would be reprehended while they are looked on. And this vice, one that is authority with the rest, loving, delivers over to them to be imitated; so that ofttimes the faults which be fell into the others seek for. This is the danger, when vice becomes a precedent. ...

— Discoveries and Some Poems • Ben Jonson

... Bladud himself, in honour of whose happiness a whole people were, at that very moment, straining alike their throats and purse-strings. The truth was, that the prince, forgetting the undoubted right of the minister for foreign affairs to fall in love on his behalf, had, contrary to every precedent of policy and diplomacy, already fallen in love on his own account, and privately contracted himself unto the fair daughter of ...

— The Pickwick Papers • Charles Dickens

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