A basic principle of common law adjudication is that a judge is empowered to decide the case before the court and only the case before the court. A judge has no authority at common law to enact an authoritative general rule to govern parties and situations that were not before the court. Thus, the judge in Case 1 could not decide the outcome in Case 3, however broadly she may craft a rule to explain the decision in Case 1.

Burton, Steven J, An Introduction to Law and …, loc. 227