from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
STARE DECISIS. To abide or adhere to decided cases.
2. It is a general maxim that when a point has been settled by
decision, it forms a precedent which is not afterwards to be departed from.
The doctrine of stare decisis is not always to be relied upon, for the
courts find it necessary to overrule cases which have been hastily decided,
or contrary to principle. Many hundreds of such overruled cases may be found
in the American and English books of reports. Mr. Greenleaf has made a
collection of such cases, to which the reader is referred. Vide 1 Kent, Com.
477; Livingst. Syst. of Pen. Law, 104, 5.