Over the years there have been many questions raised and a lot has been written on the subject on what determines obiter dicta and ratio decidendi. Legal academics have been arguing ever since over this and there hasn’t been a single concrete conclusion, yet it also hasn’t given us the liberty and room to interpret this maxim as we please. It does however clarify our doubts and confusions and warns us of certain errors and traps we may fall into with regard to obiter dicta and ratio decidendi.When we look at Obiter dicta and Ratio decidendi as a part of stare decisis we expect it to be a straight forward principle which ought to be used by a judge in determining the case by referring to other case laws and hence too much emphasis is laid on precedent as is, we forget or we simply just don’t know, or tend to not look beyond precedent as is, and get into its broader spectrum of how it could be molded without changing its essence and we also tend to lose sight of how it doesn’t necessarily have to be a textbook definition of what a judge can decide on a principle given.
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