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A wide or broad rule of law may apply to all types of different factual situations that are similar to the case at hand. In contrast, a narrow or limited rule of law may only apply to a certain set of circumstances. Some court decisions address a point of law using very broad, generalized principles that can apply to a variety of factual situations. For instance, suppose a case established a rule of law that the Uniform Commercial Code applies to the sale of all motor vehicles. If the precedent case dealt with a truck, a court that later had a similar case involving a car rather than a truck would still follow the same rule of law. Other decisions are very fact-specific and restricted only to the case in which the rule is stated. A narrow rule of law gives courts the ability to distinguish similar cases based on slightly different facts from the precedent. If a rule of law only applies to a very specific factual situation, then courts won't be necessarily bound to reach the same result in cases in which the facts vary somewhat. The court decision will often state that its ruling is limited to a certain set of facts if it is intended to be a narrow rule of law. Otherwise, if the case is not too fact-specific, it is likely to be a broader rule of law. A broad rule of law will encompass many cases and fact situations because it is not limited to a particular set of facts. A narrow rule of law may only ever apply to a single case and set of circumstances.
Note that the ratio decidendi may be expressed in wide or narrow terms. Determine whether the rule of law in your case is broad or narrow. Realize that a broad rule of law will tend to apply to many more cases than a narrow rule of law.