CHANAKYA NATIONAL LAW

UNIVERSITY
NYAYA NAGAR, MITHAPUR, PATNA – 800001

FEBRUARY, 2022

RESEARCH PROPOSAL SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF COURSE

JURISPRUDENCE -II
ON
PRECEDENT AS A SOURCE OF LAW

Proposal submitted by:

Supriya Gupta
Course: B.A., LL.B. (Hons.)
Semester – 6th
Roll no. – 2168
Session – 2019-2024
Proposal Submitted to:
Dr. Manoranjan Kumar
Faculty of Jurisprudence-II
INTRODUCTION:
It is now a fact that every fair legal system in every country has a judicial organ of its own
which decides the rights and obligations of the citizens. Generally, in the very start, the courts
are guided by the customs prevailing in the area and with change in the time, legislation
becomes one of the main sources of law and the judges follow the set legislation to decide the
cases and deliver their judgements. But the judges also go for some creative and innovative
actions and in the matters of interpretation or in covering any lacuna or loopholes in the
legislation existing, the judges rely on their sense and apply the laws to the evolved
circumstances and decide accordingly. There is an inductive method in which the judges
greatly rely on the past decisions. Before deciding any case, the judges look into the decided
case in the past of a similar kind/ nature by themselves or the superior courts and then they
apply those to the case at hand.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES:

The aim of the researcher is:
1. To study about the concept of precedent.
2. To study about the role of precedent as a source of law.
3. To know about the kinds of precedents.

HYPOTHESIS:
The researcher has formulated the hypothesis, the validity of which will be checked in the
course of making of the project that (1) different writers have different views regarding if
precedent is a source of law or not, (2) precedent can be disregarded as well in certain cases.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:
The researcher has adopted a purely doctrinal method of research. The researcher has made
extensive use of the internet sources.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
1. What is the role of precedent as a source of law?
2. How precedent evolves into law?

METHOD OF WRITING:
The method of writing followed in the course of this research is primarily analytical.
SOURCES OF STUDY:
1. Primary Sources: Case law, legal sources, bare acts, etc.
2. Secondary sources: Newspapers, journals, periodicals, etc.

TENTATIVE CHAPTERISATION:
1. INTRODUCTION
2. VIEWS OF DIFFERENT WRITERS/ JURISTS
i. FREDRICH CARL VON SAVIGNY
ii. JOHANN ERNST OTTO STOBBE
iii. ROBERT ERNEST KEETON
iv. ANTON FRIEDRICH JUSTUS THIBAUT
v. SIR WILLIAM BLACKSTONE
vi. BENJAMIN NATHAN CARDOZO
3. KINDS OF PRECEDENTS
4. NATURE, AUTHORITY & DIS-REGARD OF PRECEDENTS
5. RELEVANT DOCTRINES
6. CONCLUSION
7. BIBLIOGRAPHY