Judges

"We have to administer the law whether we like it or no."

"The cause is before us; we are sworn to decide it according to our notions of the law; we do not bring it here; and, being here, a necessity is laid upon us to deliver judgment; that judgment we can receive at the dictation of no power: we may decide the case erroneously; but we cannot be guilty of any contempt in deciding it according to our consciences."

"If I am to pronounce a judgment at all in this or in any other case, it must and shall be the judgment of my own mind, applying the law of the land as I understand it according to the best of my abilities, and with regard to the oath which I have taken to administer justice truly and impartially."

"I commend the Judge that seems fine and ingenious, so it tend to right and equity. And I condemn them, that either out of pleasure to shew a subtil wit will destroy, or out of incuriousness or negligence will not labour to support the act of the party by the art or act of the law."

"We do not conceive the law, but we know the law."

"I must lay down the law as I understand it, and as I read it in books of authority."

"I am bound by my oath to abide by the law, and I cannot suffer anybody to derogate from it."

"I will consider it upon the Precedents; upon the circumstances of this case; and upon the Reason of the thing."

"We cannot alter the law, we are bound by our oaths to proceed according to the law as it is at present."

"We must not be guilty of taking the law into our own hands, and converting it from what it really is to what we think it ought to be."

"Give your judgments, but give no reasons."

"If no reason had been given, the authority might have had more weight: but, to be sure, the reason is a false one."

"Reasons of public benefit and convenience weigh greatly with me."

"As a rule, Judges give reasons, though in many of the old cases the Judges gave no reasons1; but where no reasons are given for a particular decision, it becomes extremely difficult for a Judge to follow it, because he does not know the principle on which the decision proceeded."

"A person who had been appointed to a Judgeship in some distant part of the Empire, applied to his lordship for advice how to act, as he was totally ignorant of the law. Give your judgments, said Lord Mansfield, but give no reasons. As you are a man of integrity, sound sense, and information, it is more than an even chance that your judgments will be right; but as you are ignorant of the law, it is ten to one that your reasons will be wrong."

"Wise and learned men do before they judge, labour to reach to the depth of all the reasons of the case in question, but in their judgments express not any: and in troth if Judges should set down the reasons and causes of their judgments within every record, that immense labour should withdraw them from the necessary services of the commonwealth, and their records should grow to be like Elephantinl libri of infinite length, and in mine opinion lose somewhat of their present authority and reverence; and this is also worthy for learned and grave men to imitate. But mine advice is, that when soever a man is enforced to yield a reason of his opinion or judgment, that then he set down all authorities, precedents, reasons, arguments and inferences whatsoever that may be probably applied to the case in question; for some will be persuaded or drawn by one, and some by another, according as the capacity or understanding of the hearer or reader is."

"Chancellor Michael De La Pole did not at first resort to the expedient of handing over the seal to a legal keeper to act as his judicial deputy; and as he is said to have performed well in the Court of Chancery, he must have been like some of the military Chancellors in our West India Islands, who by discretion, natural good sense, taking hints from the clerks in Court, and giving no reasons for their decrees (according to the advice of Lord Mansfield to a military man going to Jamaica to sit as Chancellor) have very creditably performed the duties of their office."

"Judices non tenentwr exprimere eausam sententue sute: Judges are not bound to explain the reason of their sentence."

"The subject being unusual, I fear that I shall not make myself intelligible, but I will do my endeavour, that the reasons of our judgment may be apprehended."

"It is not only a justice due to the Crown and the party, in every criminal cause where doubts arise, to weigh well the grounds and reasons of the judgment; but it is of great consequence to explain them with accuracy and precision in open Court, especially if the questions be of a general tendency, and upon topics never before fully considered and settled, that the criminal law of the land may be certain and known."

"One does not like to differ from a man without knowing the reasons which influenced him."

"Let us consider the reason of the case. For nothing is law that is not reason."

"I believe that an experienced lawyer may be, as it were, instinctively right without at the moment being able to give a good reason for his opinion."

"I never give a judicial opinion upon any point, until I think I am master of every material argument and authority relative to it. It is not only a justice due to the Crown and the party, in every criminal cause where doubts arise, to weigh well the grounds and reasons of the judgment; but it is of great consequence, to explain them with accuracy and precision, in open Court; especially if the questions be of a general tendency, and upon topics never before fully considered and settled; that the criminal law of the land may be certain and known."

"My brothers differ from me in opinion, and they all differ from one another in the reasons of their opinion; but notwithstanding their opinion, I think the plaintiff ought to recover, and that this action is well maintainable and ought to lie. I will consider their reasons."

"The Court will not keep back their opinion without having sufficient ground for doubting, and a necessity of taking time to satisfy their doubts: on the other hand, they will not give their opinions over-hastily and prematurely, merely to gratify the humours or passions of mankind."

"As I find that my brothers are of a different opinion from me, I submit to their authority."

"I am so unfortunate as to differ a second time from my brethren, but I am bound by my opinion, and it is my duty to deliver it."

"You shall have my judgment presently; but my brothers are to speak first."

"My judgment ought to be given for the plaintiff : but my brothers are all of another opinion, and so I submit to it. The defendant must have his judgment."

"For the sake of general convenience, I am not sorry that the rest of the Court are of a contrary opinion."

"Whatever doubts I had, I submit to the authority of the other Judges."

"Judges set the tone for a . Especially when it comes to sensitive matters like and , that tone must be dignified, solemn, and respectful, not demeaning or sophomoric."

"In the course which the case is now about to take my opinion becomes worthless. I am bound to assume that I am wrong in point of law. Your lordships' judgment settles the law finally, and in yielding a willing obedience I have, at least, the palliation for mistake in law that I have erred in company with the Lord President, the Lord Justice Clerk, and four other able and eminent Scotch Judges."

"This is the first instance of a final difference of opinion in this Court since I sat here. Every Order, Bule, Judgment, and Opinion has hitherto beenn unanimous. That unanimity never could have happened if we did not among ourselves communicate our sentiments with great freedom; if we did not form our judgments without any prepossession to first thoughts; if we were not always open to conviction, and ready to yield to each other's reasons. We have all equally endeavoured at that unanimity, upon this occasion: we have talked the matter over several times. I have communicated my thoughts at large in writing : and I have read the three arguments which have been now delivered. In short, we have equally tried to convince or be convinced: but, in vain. We continue to differ. And whoever is right, each is bound to abide by and deliver that opinion which he has formed upon the fullest examination."

"To be sure, it is a very important case, though very imperfectly reported in the printed cases, which make an impossibility, by making the senior Judge speak first."

"Whenever there is a real likelihood that the Judge would, from kindred or any other cause, have a bias in favour of one of the parties, it would be very wrong in him to act, and we are not to be understood to say that where there is a real bias of this sort this Court would not interfere."

"Pur dishonest Judgm't Judges povent estre punv. Mirror de Justices report que 44 fueront pendus pur cest cause: For dishonest judgment Judges may be punished. Mirror of Justices reports that 44 were hanged for this cause."

"If I was wrong, I should think it more honourable to acknowledge and rectify any error that I should have committed, than to justify and defend it."

"I think that it is a matter of public policy that, so far as is possible, judicial proceedings shall not only be free from actual bias or prejudice of the Judges, but that they shall be free from the suspicion of bias or prejudice."

"It is impossible for us English lawyers, dealing with the English language, to express our views except in the technical language of our law."

"I believe it is understood that though, when the Judges are unanimous, the Chief Justice delivers the opinion of the Court, yet the other justices are not presumed to adopt and concur with every doctrine that falls from him, in the course of that opinion."

"Judges are not bound to travel beyond the facts stated in cases, and, as a general rule, such a practice would be inconvenient."

"Judges are more to be trusted as interpreters of the law than as expounders of what is called public policy."

"In former years, and down to times within my recollection, Judges of what used to be the common law Courts of this realm delighted in applying, rigidly and strictly, a series of rules and maxims which their predecessors had delighted themselves in devising, although they did not always commend themselves to the apprehension of the million."

"I think we ought to adhere to those ancient forms which have been perfected by the wisdom of ages and confirmed in their utility by the experience of many centuries."

"If I must either attribute to some Judges a reverence more for the letter than the spirit, caution carried too far, an over-anxiousness to keep themselves within the most clearly - defined limits of their authority, or ascribe to others an arbitrary and unwarrantable assumption of legislative power, I elect the former."

"I am not now going, and I do not suppose that any Judge will ever do so, to lay down a rule which, so to say, will tie the hands of the Court."

"I am far from being such a Judge as shall lay any intolerable yoke upon any one's neck."

"In the judgments which Judges pronounce, this is inevitable, that, having their minds full, not only of the cases before them, but of the principles involved in the cases which have been referred to, it very often happens that a Judge, in stating as much as is necessary to decide the case before him, does not express all that may be said upon the subject. That leaves the judgment open sometimes to misconstruction, and enables ingenious advocates, by taking out certain passages, to draw conclusions which the Judge never meant to be drawn from the words he used."