Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Mandatory authority consists of constitutions, legislations, and judicial decisions. Constitutions derive their authority from the people, so constitutions bind only those who have agreed to be bound.
Mandatory Authority. Courts are required to follow the decisions of higher courts in the same jurisdiction. Accordingly, cases which are both (1) from a higher court, and (2) in the same jurisdiction are considered mandatory authority.
• Binding authority, also referred to as mandatory authority, refer s to cases, statutes, or regulations that a court must follow because they bind the court. • Persuasive authority refers to cases, statutes, or regulations that the court may follow but does not have to follow. Binding versus Persuasive Authority: What’s the Difference?
Primary sources can be either persuasive or mandatory. Mandatory authority refers to cases, statutes, or regulations that the court must follow because it is binding on the court. Thus, lower courts are required to follow decisions from higher courts in the same jurisdiction.
Are you in federal or state court? Are you in a trial court, an intermediate appellate court, or a court of last resort? Once you know the answers to these questions, you are well on your way to determining whether a decision, statute, or regulation is mandatory or persuasive.
Mandatory authority refers to legal rules or decisions that must be followed by courts and judges in a particular jurisdiction. This means that if a higher court has made a ruling, lower courts in the same area are required to follow that ruling when deciding similar cases.
Primary law has “mandatory authority” (or “binding authority”) when they are from the same governing jurisdiction or a higher court. Other primary sources from outside a given jurisdiction only have what’s called “persuasive authority,” which is non-binding.
Mandatory authority refers to cases, statutes, or regulations that a court must follow because they bind the court. Persuasive authority refers to cases, statutes, regulations, or secondary sources that the court may follow but does not have to follow.
What is Mandatory and Persuasive Authority? Mandatory authority consists of primary sources of law and it is binding and must be followed. Some examples are constitutions, statutes, legislation, and administrative rules. But mandatory authority is not followed in a case of first impression.
For a detailed discussion of the differences between mandatory and persuasive authority, see the Writing Center’s handout, “Can I Cite to Examples and Explanations: How to Use Mandatory and Persuasive Authority.”