A legal case is a dispute between two parties that is resolved by a court or other legal process. A legal case may be either civil or criminal. The decision of a court is usually published in one form or another for later reference. In countries like the United States which have a common law system, decisions by a higher court are binding on lower courts when the facts and issues are similar. Stare decisis, or the concept of precedent, means to follow cases that were decided earlier when judging the current case.