Legal Dictionary of Pakistan

rationes decidendi

Cf. OBITER DICTUM; HOLDING. "The phrase 'the ratio decidendi of a case' is slightly ambiguous. It may mean either (1) the rule that the judge who decided the case intended to lay down and apply to the facts, or (2) the rule that a later court concedes him to have had the power to lay down." Glanville Williams, Learning the Law 75 (11th ed. 1982). "There are .. . two steps involved in the ascertainment of the ratio decidendi . . . . First, it is necessary to determine all the facts of the case as seen by the judge; secondly, it is necessary to discover which of those facts were treated as material by the judge." Rupert Cross &