Legal doctrine

A legal doctrine is a framework, set of rules, procedural steps, or test, often established through precedent in the common law, through which judgments can be determined in a given legal case. For example, a doctrine comes about when a judge makes a ruling where a process is outlined and applied, and allows for it to be equally applied to like cases. When enough judges make use of the process, it may become established as the de facto method of deciding like situations.

Examples of legal doctrines include:

• Constitutionalism
• Constitutional economics
• Concept
• Rule according to higher law
• Legal fiction
• Legal precedent
• Cogitationis poenam nemo patitur
• Ex aequo et bono

• Media related to Legal doctrines and principles at Wikimedia Commons
• Pierre Schlag and Amy J. Griffin, "How to do Things with Legal Doctrine" (University of Chicago Press 2020)
• Emerson H. Tiller and Frank B. Cross, "What is Legal Doctrine?," Northwestern University Law Review, Vol. 100:1, 2006.