Case Law Wikipedia

Since the courts haven’t any authority to legislate, the “authorized fiction” is that they “declare” (rather than “create”) the widespread law. The House of Lords took this “declaratory power” a stage further in DPP v Shaw, where, in creating the model new crime of “conspiracy to deprave public morals”, Viscount Simonds claimed the courtroom Law News had a “residual power to guard the moral welfare of the state”. As Parliament turned ever more established and influential, Parliamentary laws gradually overtook judicial law-making, such that today’s judges are able to innovate only in certain, very narrowly defined areas.