Editing Precedent (section)

===Structural considerations===
In the United States, ''stare decisis'' can interact in counterintuitive ways with the federal and [[U.S. state|state]] court systems. On an issue of federal law, a state court is not bound by an interpretation of federal law at the district or circuit level, but is bound by an interpretation by the United States Supreme Court. On an interpretation of state law, whether [[Common law#Disambiguate statute|common law]] or [[statutory law]], the federal courts are bound by the interpretation of a state court of last resort, and are required normally to defer to the precedent of intermediate state courts as well.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.amacad.org/publication/supreme-court-21st-century|title=The Supreme Court in the 21st Century|website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences|date=March 2013 |language=en|access-date=7 June 2019}}</ref>

Courts may choose to obey precedent of international jurisdictions, but this is not an application of the doctrine of ''stare decisis'', because foreign decisions are not binding. Rather, a foreign decision that is obeyed on the basis of the soundness of its reasoning will be called ''[[persuasive authority]]''—indicating that its effect is limited to the persuasiveness of the reasons it provides.