Explain the meaning of ratio decidendi in the doctrine of precedent. Illustrate your answer by reference to a relevant civil law or criminal law case.

The doctrine of precedent stipulates that, unless they clash with statute, decisions of the highest court with respect to a specific legal matter, are bound upon lower courts, as well as the courts in which those decisions originated (with the exception of the Supreme Court which is not bound by its own decisions). The ratio decidendi includes the judgement of the judges in the majority of any given decision. Importantly, it includes the reasoning behind the decisions of the court in any given matter. This is relevant to the doctrine of precedent, as it outlines the considerations that the court will have to take into account, in order to make a decision with respect to an issue similar to one the court has ruled in before. How close the case invoked is with the case at hand will often determine its outcome, and it is the ratio decidenti that is looked at to make this determination. Whether the considerations of the judges in the case presented are similar to those that will be made to the case at hand. For example, in the law of contract, the case of Taylor v Caldwell (1863), Lord Blackburn established the basis of frustration. That when two parties enter into a contract, an implied term is created for the continuing existence of some facts, and that once these facts seize to exist, these contracts are frustrated. Using this reasoning, the courts were then able to gauge whether a contract had been frustrated with respect to the breach of these particular implied terms.