The degree of adherence to strict stare decisis by the English courts cannot be measured only by their unwillingness to overrule their own prior cases. It is reflected more pervasively in their reluctance to distinguish prior cases factually, or to find conflict among precedent cases, or to perceive and exploit ambiguity in the reasoning offered by a court in a prior case. A court could call itself bound by its prior decisions but then rarely locate any decision found to be applicable an controlling. The English courts have not done this. The method generally followed has been affirmatively to seek out precedent and apply it, and if no case are found squarely point, to apply the nearest ones available. The law of today is narrowly conf med Louie