L’overruling come sintomo dell’autonomia degli ordinamenti di common law dalla Imperial Constitution

The overruling as a symptom of the autonomy of common law legal systems from the Imperial Constitution

Abstract

The binding precedent tradition, which is a cornerstone of common law systems, is aimed at ensuring legal certainty and the foreseeability of the legal consequences of given conducts, but it does not rule out the overruling phenomenon, i.e. the change of judicial interpretation concerning a specific legal issue. This is especially relevant when the overruling is connected with a simultaneous evolution under the constitutional profile, which is a clue of a detachment from the British colonial identity. The goal of the analysis is to assess how the approach of former English colonies to the principle of stare decisis has changed in connection with their independence from the jurisdiction of English courts and the introduction of catalogues of constitutionally guaranteed rights.