In this article, the authors explain that, in an orderly legal system, clarification and interpretation of legal provisions by the courts is a step-by-step process. At every stage of the process, the courts are bound by previous decisions, and each new judgment will refine and clarify the rules set by the court’s predecessors. It is thus that the system of “following precedent” imposes order on a legal system. The chaos which ensues when that system is not followed is well illustrated by the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union in AB SKF.