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ACCA Applied Skills · Corporate and Business Law (Global) · Business, political and legal systems

A court of final appeal in a common law country, which is not bound by its own earlier decisions, decides in Case B that the legal rule laid down in its own decision in Case A, decided twenty years earlier in a different dispute, is wrong and should no longer be law. Which statement correctly describes the effect?

Case A is overruled, but the original parties' result is not reopened. Overruling happens when a court in a later, different case declares the earlier rule wrong, changing the law going forward. It is not distinguishing, which would leave the earlier rule standing.

  1. ACase A is overruled, and the parties' result in Case A is reopened
  2. BCase A is overruled, but the parties' result in Case A is not reopenedCorrect
  3. CCase A is distinguished, so it remains good law in all other cases

Explanation

Overruling occurs when a court in a later, different case declares an earlier decision's rule wrong. It changes the law for future cases but does not alter the outcome for the original parties, which is final. Distinguishing would leave the earlier rule intact, which is not what the court did here.

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