{"id":1817,"date":"2026-04-14T08:30:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T12:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/legal-ethics-journal\/?page_id=1817"},"modified":"2026-04-14T08:30:42","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T12:30:42","slug":"ethics-and-stare-decisis-the-functions-and-overlap-in-ethical-obligations-and-adherence-to-precedent","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/legal-ethics-journal\/in-print\/volume-38-issue-4-fall-2025\/ethics-and-stare-decisis-the-functions-and-overlap-in-ethical-obligations-and-adherence-to-precedent\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethics and Stare Decisis: The Functions and Overlap in Ethical Obligations and Adherence to Precedent"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The doctrine of stare decisis is fundamental to the operation of the judicial system and promotes a wide range of policy goals. Most people are likely unaware of its ubiquity in judicial opinions and only encounter the doctrine when it fails\u2014that is, when precedent is overturned. Recently, however, stare decisis has been a topic of much discussion after the Supreme Court overturned its past precedent in several high-profile cases.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Without taking a position on whether those cases were rightly or wrongly decided, this Note explores how the Canons in the Judicial Code of Conduct interact with stare decisis. Part I defines stare decisis, providing a doctrinal overview, its policy goals, and its limits. Part II covers the relevant judicial ethical canons and rules, explaining their history, policy objectives, and operation. Finally, Part III explores the overlap between the two, how both operate together, and whether those similar operations achieve similar substantive ends.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/legal-ethics-journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2026\/04\/GT-GJLE250063.pdf\">Keep Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The doctrine of stare decisis is fundamental to the operation of the judicial system and promotes a wide range of policy goals. Most people are likely unaware of its ubiquity [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14207,"featured_media":0,"parent":1755,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"abstract.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":"","_tec_slr_enabled":"","_tec_slr_layout":""},"class_list":["post-1817","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"ticketed":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/legal-ethics-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/legal-ethics-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/legal-ethics-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/legal-ethics-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14207"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/legal-ethics-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1817"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/legal-ethics-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1819,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/legal-ethics-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1817\/revisions\/1819"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/legal-ethics-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.law.georgetown.edu\/legal-ethics-journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}