judge-made law
- noun
- /ˈdʒʌdʒ-meɪd lɔ/
- Formal
:
jurisprudencia
- For example, the vast majority of contract law before Article 2 of the UCC was enacted after WWII was judge-made law.
Examples
-
Concrete attempts to introduce family codes by successive Algerian governments provoked widespread progressive opposition because these codifications tended to be relatively conservative, and thus family matters were governed by judge-made law.
Academic text (1995) -
"Judge-made law" trumps the law made by state or federal legislatures, becoming the judicial equivalent of an ex post facto law.
Academic text (1999) -
In Canada, there is judge-made law that is noted in the Manual of Patent Office Practice, which is the guideline document of the Canadian Intellectual Property Office, stating that the methods of doing business are not patentable.
Academic text (1999) -
Judge-made law is created through the decisions of courts rather than through legislation.
-
Many aspects of property rights are influenced by judge-made law established through court precedents.
-
The concept of judge-made law highlights how judicial rulings can shape legal interpretations over time.
Synonyms
18
5.6
Judges make rules from earlier court decisions
How Binding
- Formal
1
5.6
- Formal
- Specialized
185
6.3
- Formal
7
6.1
Surface Forms
Morphology
judge-made + law
The phrase is compositionally transparent: 'judge-made' reads as 'made by judges' and combined with 'law' yields 'law made by judges' (i.e., law established through judicial decisions). This follows a regular English modifier pattern (agent + past-participle + noun) that is cross-linguistically common, so a B1 learner who knows 'judge', 'made', and 'law' can reliably infer the meaning.
Etymology
Judge-made law shows the image of a judge making the law from their seat in court when there is no written law to follow. When a judge's decision becomes a rule other courts use, it is like the judge has made the law, so the phrase means 'law created by judges' rather than law written by lawmakers.