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Supreme Courts and Separate Judgements

Why do the law lords provide separate judgements as opposed to providing one single judgement? :confused:

They don't always agree with each other on the decision. While they sometimes agree on the decision, they may still disagree about the reasoning, or wish to add comments on a specific issue. In some regards courts are trying to write more unified judgments--as for example in Manchester City Council v Pinnock, which had one judgment.

Reply 2

mja

Original post by h2mmer

Why do the law lords provide separate judgements as opposed to providing one single judgement? :confused:

Note that this phenomenon is not unique to the Supreme Court. It's pretty common to get at least two judgments in the Court of Appeal, sometimes three.

Reply 3

nulli tertius

Original post by mja

Note that this phenomenon is not unique to the Supreme Court. It's pretty common to get at least two judgments in the Court of Appeal, sometimes three.

Only in the civil division. The criminal division only gives a single judgment.

Reply 4

nulli tertius

Original post by jjarvis

The proportion of cases with dissents/multiple judgments has been increasing.

The court has lacked the strong intellectual leadership enjoyed under Reid, Morris, Wilberforce, Diplock and Keith. Neither Hoffman nor Bingham were able to impose themselves on the court. Frankly, the current group of pygmies would struggle to agree on tea or coffee.