The COMMON law system is the system of law that courts follow in the U.S. It was borrowed from the British system and still exists in most countries that were once part of or still are part of the British Empire. In the COMMON law system, judges follow old decisions of previous courts if the facts and circumstances are the same. These old cases are called PRECEDENT, a phrase you've probably heard before. However, one you probably haven't heard is the fancy Latin phrase STARE DECISIS, which means literally "stand" and decide," or roughly "Let the decision stand," another way of saying that old cases and the judge's decisions, or holdings, in them, should be followed by future courts.