 As the final appellate court in Singapore, the Court of Appeal is not bound by its previous decisions or those of predecessor courts such as the Privy Council.However, the Court continues to treat such decisions as "normally binding" and only departs from them "where adherence to such prior decisions would cause injustice in a particular case or constrain the development of the law in conformity with the circumstances of Singapore".Only the "ratio decidendi" (that is, the legal principle that determines the outcome) of a case is binding according to the doctrine of "stare decisis"; other legal principles expressed that are not crucial to the final decision ("obiter dicta") are only persuasive.