What is a minute?
In the context of litigation, a minute is a record of a judicial conference. Every year, the Supreme Court and Superior Courts will hold annual conferences to discuss matters relevant to judicial actions. It is at these meetings that the minutes are recorded. After the annual meeting, the minutes appear as a record of the meeting attended by the judges of the Supreme Court and Superior Courts.
The minutes are basically a collection of principles and explanations based on a number of select cases handled by the lower courts. These cases are all similar in that there is no statute that covers the matters in the cases, or the present statutes do not declare how to handle the cases very clearly. The minutes are basically divided into two kinds:
- Minutes that introduce principles that deal with a new field in law;
- Minutes that are explanations or clarifications of present law.
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