In the U.S., that would be considered "case law" and is a corner stone of common law systems. There's statutory law, which is the law as written, then there is case law, which is the "found law" established by courts adjudicating and being bound by the precedents established in the process of doing so via stare decisis.
...That all goes out the window once your judiciary becomes an extension of the political apparatus of course. Once that happens, your courts will just start creatively reinterpreting what things mean to most effectively and comfortably bring about what they deem to be the way to go.
Hence why Roe v. Wade, while being a great thing, was ultimately bad jurisprudence.
...That all goes out the window once your judiciary becomes an extension of the political apparatus of course. Once that happens, your courts will just start creatively reinterpreting what things mean to most effectively and comfortably bring about what they deem to be the way to go.
Hence why Roe v. Wade, while being a great thing, was ultimately bad jurisprudence.