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Reversing, overruling, disapproving
and distinguishing
Reversing
A case when it is taken on appeal to a higher court, say from
the High Court to the Court of Appeal, and the higher court
allows the appeal, in which case the original judgment is of
no legal effect whatever.
Overruling
A case is overruled when, in a later case, a higher court decides
a similar matter on a different principle, thus nullifying the
ration decidendi in the earlier case. It is to be noted that
overruling does not in any way affect the decision in the earlier
case as between the parties to it. A person cannot ask that
his case be reopened because it has been overruled by a later
case; if any such procedure were allowed, people would never
be sure that a particular piece of litigation had ended.
Disapproving
If the ratio decidendi of a later case is not wide enough to
cover an earlier case, the earlier case cannot be overruled.
However, the court may say that in its opinion the earlier case
was wrongly decided, and if it does so then the earlier case
is said to be disapproved. Such an opinion is obiter dictum,
but it may help to lead to the overruling of the case if a suitable
opportunity arises later.
Distinguishing
Distinguishing occurs when in a later case the court finds some
material distinction which justifies its not following the ratio
decidendi of an earlier case. It is commonly used as a device
for not following an earlier case which is thought to have been
wrongly decided, but which cannot be overrule except by an appeal
to the House of Lords (with no certainty that the House of Lords
will in fact overrule it). Distinguishing may in many cases
be justified, but it does tend to make the law more complicated,
and sometimes cases are so finely distinguished that the dividing
line between one and another is almost invisible.
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