The Role of a Law Lord: Conflict and Change

Abstract

Decision-making in the Lords involves group and community processes quite apart from those adverted to in the last chapter. This is because, as we saw earlier,2 a Law Lord is influenced not just by his own conception of his role but also by his fellow Law Lords and their predecessors, and to a lesser extent by other groups in the wider legal and non-legal community. ‘Pivotal’ to his role when deciding an appeal is the expectation, held within and without the legal community, that he should justify his decision by reasoned argument. Furthermore, within the legal community itself there are more or less shared understandings as to what constitutes a valid and acceptable argument for a Law Lord to employ, and as to what standards he may relevantly appeal when justifying his decision.3 Such understandings are in no small way the product of a common socialisation pattern, a traditional training with a received body of knowledge and learning.4 Indeed it has been argued that such traditional practices and ideas, nurtured by a legal caste, are the very essence of the common law.5 KeywordsRole ConflictHard CaseLegal RulePractice StatementLegal CommunityThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.