> In Roman judiciary those are usually part of the law as written. This is increasingly the case as far as UK criminal law is concerned, I think; also to an in

> In Roman judiciary those are usually part of the law as written. This is increasingly the case as far as UK criminal law is concerned, I think; also to an increasing extent in matters of marriage and children. But in family law, there isn't much room for talking about precedent, because for many decades Family Court proceedings have been strictly secret. It's now opening up, slowly. Contract and property law are rooted in custom, i.e. common law; it seems to me that it would be impossible to write down a contract law that didn't have an infinite number of cracks and corner-cases. Do judiciaries that don't have precedent have to re-litigate all those corner-cases from scratch every time?