Good Judgment, based upon the author's experience as a lawyer, law professor, and judge, explores the role of the judge and the art of judging. Engaging with the American, English, and Commonwealth literature on the role of the judge in the common law tradition, Good Judgment addresses the following questions: What exactly do judges do? What is properly within their role and what falls outside? How do judges approach their decision-making task?

In an attempt to explain and reconcile two fundamental features of judging, namely judicial choice and judicial discipline, this book explores the nature and extent of judicial choice in the common law legal tradition and the structural features of that tradition that control and constrain that element of choice. As Sharpe explains, the law does not always provide clear answers, and judges are often left with difficult choices to make, but the power of judicial choice is disciplined and constrained and judges are not free to decide cases according to their own personal sense of justice.

Although Good Judgment is accessibly written to appeal to the non-specialist reader with an interest in the judicial process, it also tackles fundamental issues about the nature of law and the role of the judge and will be of particular interest to lawyers, judges, law students, and legal academics.

About the Author
Robert J. Sharpe is judge of the Court of Appeal for Ontario. He taught at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto from 1976 to 1988 and served under Chief Justice Brian Dickson as Executive Legal Officer at the Supreme Court of Canada from 1988 to 1990.

Reviews

"Good Judgment: Making Judicial Decisions, by the Canadian jurist and legal academic Robert J. Sharpe, represents a refreshing and deeply thoughtful departure from binary arguments about how and why judges make decisions."

-- U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel * Law 360, August 31, 2018 *


Awards
Short-listed for Walter Owen Book Prize awarded by The Canadian Foundation for Legal Research 2019 (Canada).



Book Information
ISBN 9781487522438
Author Robert J. Sharpe
Format Paperback
Page Count 352
Imprint University of Toronto Press
Publisher University of Toronto Press
Weight(grams) 520g
Dimensions(mm) 226mm * 150mm * 25mm