stare decisis

I really had the urge to take a few minutes to write. It has been one of those weeks. Taking a few minutes to write really helps me to think about what is going on around me. However, tonight, I sat down and stared at the screen - unable to come up with anything. Then, I looked down and one of my assignments from Fundamentals of Business Law was right in front of me. The phrase stare decisis jumped out from the page. Okay, I'll be honest, the only reason it jumped out from the page is because it is in italics. However, here is a quick intro into precedents and the doctrine of stare decisis.

A precedent is a decision that provides an example or authority for deciding subsequent, similar cases. This practice forms the doctrine of stare decisis. In a cases, a court determines that a principle applies to a certain set of facts. All future decisions by that court and courts of lower rank adhere to and apply that principle to cases having similar fact patterns. This doctrine provides stability and predictability to the legal process.

I don't know about you, but I have certain principles that I try to live by. These have evolved over time, but I try to apply them to situations - I try to learn from situations. Unlike law, however, the process rarely ends up being stable and predictable. Indeed, it almost seems like the more I try to predict what will happen or force a sense of stability, the crazier things get. Hmm, I'm not sure if this is a legitimate comparison, but it certainly is something I'll think about.