Judgment is simple, right? This book begs to differ. Written for all students of the law—from undergraduate to supreme court justice—it opens the reader to a broad landscape of ideas surrounding common law judgment. Short and accessible, it touches upon the many pathways that lead out from the phenomenon of judgment in common law jurisdictions. This book is unique in its brevity and scope. It engages not only with the core operation of judgment as legal decision, but considers questions of authority and reason, and broader issues of interpretation, rhetoric, and judicial improvisation. The aim of this book is not to present a summary of research or a comprehensive ‘theory’ of judgment, nor is it bounded by the divisions of different legal subjects. Instead, it is a handbook or companion for students of the law to read and return to in their studious journeys across all common law topic areas, providing readers with a robust and open-ended set of tools, combined with selected further readings, to facilitate their own discovery, exploration, and critical analysis of the rich tapestry of common law judgment.
Judgment as…
1 Legal Decision
1.1 Resolution
1.2 Precedent
1.3 Common Law
1.4 Further Reading
2 Authority
2.1 Legitimacy
2.2 Office
2.3 Sovereignty
2.4 Further Reading
3 Reason
3.1 Method
3.2 Limits
3.3 Irrationality
3.4 Further Reading
4 Truth
4.1 Fact/Law
4.2 Knowledge
4.3 Discipline
4.4 Further Reading
5 Technology
5.1 Governance
5.2 Language
5.3 Automation
5.4 Further Reading
6 Performance
6.1 Tradition
6.2 Theatre
6.3 Capture
6.4 Further Reading
7 Interpretation
7.1 Meaning
7.2 Text
7.3 Violence
7.4 Further Reading
8 Rhetoric
8.1 Audience
8.2 Form
8.3 Contingency
8.4 Further Reading
9 Creativity
9.1 Narrative
9.2 Improvisation
9.3 Expression
9.4 Further Reading
Biography
Thomas Giddens is senior lecturer in law at the University of Dundee, Scotland. He founded the Graphic Justice Research Alliance and is the author of On Comics and Legal Aesthetics: Multimodality and the Haunted Mask of Knowing, editor of Graphic Justice: Intersections of Comics and Law, and coeditor of Law and Justice in Japanese Popular Culture: From Crime Fighting Robots to Duelling Pocket Monsters. His research focuses on critical, comics, and cultural legal studies, with particular interests in aesthetics, epistemology, and visuality.
