Judgments

Sharon Turner & John Knowles

Why are judgments important?

I. Central feature of common law jurisdictions

II. Central focus of legal study – understanding the law and the legal system

III. Assessment exercise for Introduction to Law

5 key things you need to know about Judgments

Understand how judgments are recorded and the role of ‘Law Reports’

Understand the ‘citation’ system for reported judgments & how find them in library & online

Know how to ‘read’ judgments

Understand the doctrine of ‘precedent’

Understand the judicial process of ‘statutory interpretation’

The ‘Law Reports’

Each time a case is decided a ‘judgment’ is givenNot all judgments are formally recorded or ‘reported’Reported judgments become part of corpus of caselaw – precedent‘Law Reports’ contain the published judgments given in cases‘Unreported’ cases should not be ignored!

Citation of Law Reports (NI)

Northern Ireland Law Reports Case (and judgment) ‘cited’ as….e.g., Robinson v Secretary of State for

Northern Ireland [2002] NI 390

Northern Ireland Judgments Bulletin Cited as… e.g., Re Sherlock and Morris’ Application

[1996] NIJB 80

Citation of Law Reports (GB)

I. Appeal Cases – e.g., A v Home Secretary [2005] 2 AC 68 (QB)

II. Weekly Law Reports – e.g., R v Secretary of State for the Home Department, ex p Brind [1991] 2 WLR 588 (HL)

III. All England Law Reports – e.g., R v Chief Immigration Officer, Heathrow Airport, ex p Salamat Bibi [1976] 3 All ER 843 (HC)

‘Neutral’ Citations

Since 2001 judgments of CA, HL and more recently, HC – have been given ‘neutral’

EG: [2005] NIQB 1; [2005] NIFam 7; [2005] NICA

23

[2005] EWHC 235 (Admin Ct); [2005] EWCA (Civ) 34; [2005] UKHL 34

Finding Judgments Online

Free access web-pages, .e.g, http://www.courtsni.gov.uk; http://www.echr.coe.int/echr; http://www.bailii.org/

Subscriber online search engines1. LexisNexis 2. WESTLAW

Reading “domestic” cases

i. The name of the caseii. The court in which it was heardiii. The name(s) of the judge(s) presidingiv. The hearing datesv. The headnotevi. Notes of cross-references to Halsburyvii. A list of cases referred to

Reading “domestic” cases

viii.Details of the appealix. The names of counsel appearing

in the casex. The judgments (majority;

minority; etc)xi. Letters in the margin (numbered

paragraphs)

Judgments – the EU dimension

I. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/en/index.htm

II. European Court Reports – e.g., Case 26/62, Van Gend & Loos [1963] ECR 1

III. Common Market Law Reports – e.g., R v Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, ex p First City Trading Limited [1997] 1 CMLR 250

Reading EU judgments

i. Date of judgment, nature and name of case

ii. Summary/headnote (including key questions)

iii. Composition of the Courtiv. Judgment – issues of fact and lawv. Judgment – grounds for decisionvi. Opinion of Advocate-General

Some points to note

i. “Single” judgment; therefore there are no dissenting opinions and the judges agree the text in advance

ii. Advocate-General’s opinion? – reports normally place this at the front as it is delivered in advance of the judgment of the Court

iii. Not binding on the court, although the court may adopt the opinion in whole or in part. However, even where not adopted, the opinion can still play an important role in the overall development of EU law