The Stoic Dialogue
Two men, one question.
A stone table on a mountain. The subject is case law technique — the ratio decidendi.
Given 16 August 2026
The setting
Nothing here but the argument.
No library, no bench, no gown. Stone, thin air, and whatever you can actually defend.
He asks
The elder speaks.
"The ratio decidendi of a case is not what the deciding court laid down; it is what later courts choose to extract." Discuss, with reference to Donoghue v Stevenson. If the claim is true, is the doctrine of precedent a myth?
You answer
The student replies.
Every answer is an opening. He will take the premise you were least careful about.
Resolution
What survives.
The hour ends when a position holds, or when you can say precisely why it does not.