Judicial Discretion in the House of Lords

Descriere

One of only a few studies of the Law Lords, this book concentrates on the arguments the Lords use in justifying their decisions, and is concerned as much with the legal methodology as with the substance of their decisions. Although close attention is paid to the different approaches and styles of judicial argument, the book is not restricted to this traditional analytic approach. One chapter applies the statistical techniques Americans call 'jurimetrics' and have successfully used on the US Supreme Court. The main theme is that the Law Lords enjoy and fully utilise far more discretion in their judgements than is normally admitted, and that much depends on exactly which judges happen to hear a case. The second part of the book then shows the impact this extreme discretion has had on both public law and areas of civil law.