It's not only the US with this "every court ruling becomes quasi-law" approach. (I have a hard time not to call it madness to be honest). It's inherited form th

It's not only the US with this "every court ruling becomes quasi-law" approach. (I have a hard time not to call it madness to be honest). It's inherited form the Anglo-Saxon law tradition so this system can be found across the whole British commonwealth as well. Most EU countries on the other hands side come from a law tradition inherited form the Roman Empire. The Romans didn't had case law but a very structured and principled law system. (It likely wouldn't had worked otherwise for them given all the different traditions in the provinces; you wouldn't have gotten any comparable court rulings in different parts of the empire without a strict systematic and strong governing principles). But EU law as a whole (compared to the law in the countries) isn't that "pure" as the Brits brought of course their views to the table and some more case-law like parts sneaked into EU law by now. Just look at who the European Court of Justice works for example.